Bucher 1
Michael Bucher
Lit 240
Mr. Kuelker
July 7, 2013
“Saturday “ : Good and Bad
This paper represents the yen and yang criticisms of Ian McEwen’s novel “Saturday” and discusses its strengths and weaknesses. Critics rave about this novel and others don’t share the same enthusiasm. McEwan’s novel is “astonishing” and deserves “gratitude from its readers” according to The Literary Analyst. Agreeably when the plot is told from a third party it is a fantastic story of the complexity of one man’s life and the madness that happens to him in one 24 hour period. The novel loses its appeal with the blistered use of detail. McEwan attempts to dazzle his readers with his descriptive ability. He uses redundant unnecessary detail.
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The story feels lethargic due to the overuse of details and background. “Bit by bit the character-portrait is built up” (The Literary Analyst) The plot moves along too slow unable to keep the reader focused on what is happening. The over use of unnecessary detail and slow moving pace “can only be described as dull…Saturday is a chore to read, bogging down “ (Donahue, USa Today )
Scenes are written too jam-packed with description. When Perowne comes home and is preparing dinner the reader is again bombarded. McEwan goes off on a detour “his control of his material is too pronounced” (Heller, The New York Times Book Review). One example is the when he is describing the wine in the fridge and the preparation of the food for dinner.
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McEwan finds the need to take up four pages setting up this scene that plays no part in the plot of the story. Once again McEwan is drowning the reader with excessive details. This happens time and time again in Saturday “ readers may be disappointed that there isn’t more action to it” (The Literary Analyst ) This story “feels a little too artful, just a smidgen over- contrived “ (Dirda, The Washington Post) This makes the novel feel unnatural and odd to the reader. “Some scenes go on too long” (The Literary Analyst).
The character conflict is predictable and lacks surprise. When we meet Baxter for the
The author did a brilliant job of putting together all the facts of every aspect of what happened but at times I felt bogged down with all the information. Therefore, the prose was not badly written it felt overwritten also containing an overabundance of
The writer’s purpose in this excerpt is to entertain the readers. She makes the readers feel interested and want to continuously read more story. She uses many literary and rhetorical devices. First, she uses commas to give specific details. For example, “Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon.” She also uses onomatopoeias to imitate natural sounds such as “BOOM” and “SMASH!” Imagery is another significant device because she makes the reader imagine what character or any element looks like. For instance, “A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.” The author influences the reader by the writer’s words and narrative with dialogs.
In recent decades, Cormac McCarthy has staked his claim as one of the all-time titans of American literature through publishing masterpieces like Blood Meridian, Suttree, and The Road. In his works his advanced level of technical mastery becomes apparent through his expertly harmonized coordination of literary elements toward certain narrative ends, such as the generation of suspense. In this light, McCarthy’s literary style is a practical one, in that he organizes literary elements in his works toward actualizing particular goals. In The Road, for instance, McCarthy directs his style throughout the text so as to maximize the feeling of suspense that readers experience throughout the book. This kind of stylistic maneuvering is expressed on pages 105-110 and pages 118-123 of the the text. But, it must be noted here that the generation of suspense in these passages does not result from similar stylistic approaches. McCarthy uses style in differently in Passage A and Passage B but ultimately toward the same end, namely generating suspense for readers of The Road. Passage A relies on dialogue to develop its suspense, whereas the style of Passage B relies on narrative action for its suspense.
Throughout the story, O’Connor uses several effective writing strategies to create an exceptional story. Firstly, as the point of view, she uses third person limited omniscient. This point of view is appropriate for the story because instead of being directly inside the protagonist’s head and seeing through their eyes, we see them from an outside perspective which allows for more mystery and for us to infer what they are thinking. Secondly, the author uses foreshadowing to create suspense and draw us in. An example of foreshadowing is at the very start of the story when the grandmother is reading the newspaper and finds out that the Misfit is heading for Florida, where the family is going. “I
When the reader is first introduced to this character it is through the listing of three declarative clauses in one of Stephen’s long, complex sentences. It is here that his fragmented memory is emphasised by the fragmented syntax where only glimpses of Mrs
With the use of short sentences such as ‘you go alone’ Wells, H.G. (p43-50) and ‘he corrected me in one particular’ (p44) Wells builds up tension that keeps the reader engaged and enthralled with unease at the beginning of the story. As with the narrator no names are given to three elderly occupants of the castle, this increases the reader’s suspicions by making it less personal
By using descriptive words and phrases to help us imagine the characters and setting the readers are drawn further into the suspense. Beginning with the descriptions of the carnival, usually a joyous time, it is not so joyous but mostly dark with the vision of “[dusk] one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival
The style of this story was not the greatest in the beginning, but got better the further into the story I got. As a reader, I found it very hard to concentrate on the first few pages because it had a very slow start to it. Once Bartleby was introduced, however, it was much easier to concentrate. The author created a great sense of mystery around Bartleby, and that is what pulled me into the story. I wanted to figure out who Bartleby was, where he came from, and why he behaved the
One of the most important parts of writing is making sure that what you have written has been articulated correctly and is easy to follow by the reader. In this book, that fact wasn’t put into too much consideration. The pacing of writing is far too fast, and important new characters or situations will pop up suddenly and leave quickly, scarcely giving you time to process what happened or who that person was. Then, when you’ve completely forgotten a part that had basically been irrelevant in the beginning of the book,
The writer composes the story from the perspective of an analyst. She alludes to occasions later on, facts, and information that no character could have known in the setting of the story. Incorporated into the content are genuine quotes said or composed by the general population she expounds on, including the primary character. She utilizes an extremely objective voice, giving successive analysis of distinctive individuals' outlook and continually alluding to insights to demonstrate her point. Since the book does not focus on the point of view of any single character, it peruses more like a news article than a story, which frequently exhausting its groups of readers. Accordingly, Hillenbrand's written work style once in a while obstructs the correspondence of her thoughts because she regularly includes actualities, quotes and investigation in the book; it usually bores audience on the grounds that it peruses more like a news article instead of a
The author wrote this story as a literary genius. There is an extreme level of suspense that leaves you wanting
Ian McEwan’s Saturday takes place in post 9/11 London, and Henry Perowne, an overworked and under slept neurosurgeon, plays the protagonist as well as the narrator. McEwan portrays Henry as an anxiety-riddled and combative personality, and in making Henry the narrator, McEwan provides the reader with an introspective glimpse into the thoughts and consciousness of Henry. Throughout Saturday, Henry Perowne projects his feelings of anxiety, paranoia, and combativeness upon the situations he’s faced with and the people he interacts with. McEwan’s portrayal of Henry, and his thoughts, creates a character who does not recognize his privileged status in modern Western society, and Henry proves to be incapable of empathizing with those who are not
However, the story was entertaining from start to finish. McCorkle did a great job in building up the anticipation of the story. As one character got to an emotional high point, another character would intervene. For example, “…she focuses on that, the sound, the smell; she can hear the paper burn” (pg 268). Then McCorkle continues on with Paula’s story again.
I believe that this novel was meant to be read by people who are old enough to understand different struggles people sometimes need to endure to achieve goal. If someone were not to understand this concept then the novel would be “empty,” for them.
In this analytic essay, I will be exploring the use of literary language in the novel Saturday by Ian McEwan and how with the use of narration and imagery can under shadow a simple piece of literature.