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Essay about Time is a major theme in Ian McEwan's The Child In Time.

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Time is a major theme in Ian McEwan's The Child In Time.

"Time is always susceptible to human interpretation. And though time is partly a human fabrication, it is also that from which no parent or child is immune."

Time is a major theme in Ian McEwan's 'The Child In Time'. He treats the subject irreverently, 'debunking chronology by the nonlinearity of his narrative.' - Michael Byrne. McEwan uses the setting of Stephen's dull committee as the backdrop for his daydreaming. Even Stephen's thoughts are not choronological, and his daydreams constantly flit between different times, although this could be to emphasise the overall flexibility of time.

At first sight, it seems that the loss of Kate will be the central event, but …show more content…

'But time monomaniacally forbids second chances.' No-one can ever manipulate time, it is not an 'independent entity.'- Rebecca
Goldstein. It is not something to use, but something to work around, a part of life.

Stephen also describes part of his depression as 'empty time' probably because there is noting to fill it but his daydreams.

On his way to Julie's cottage, just before his encounter at The Bell, he crosses a wheat field. His own 'weak and particular understanding' of time is once again distorted. The landscape is constantly the same, with Stephen making the same movements, so 'all sense of progress, and therefore all sense of time disappeared.' Stephen once again interprets time as being something different. The image conveyed suggests time is measured by progress, not the other way around. It suggests that if everything stayed the same, or was on a constant loop, would time exist?

As he continues to walk, his mind goes blank. He cannot concentrate consciously, however everything else appears crystal clear. He is trapped in a time of 'mental white noise.'

As Stephen makes his way towards The Bell, he begins to realise this will be a momentous event in his life. It is something deeper than he can reach; it is not a memory, and it not something he has imagined.

'But it was not just a place he was being offered, it

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