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  • Essay / Ian Mcewan's Saturday: critique of post-September 11 society

    The events of September 11 were a shock not only for the United States but also for the entire world. Suddenly, the country, often seen as impenetrable and unbeatable, had to deal with the repercussions of a terrorist attack, shattering its masculine image (Carpenter 150). New, stricter guidelines have been introduced at airports around the world and the war on terrorism has officially become a major focal point of US policy. In Ian McEwan's 2005 novel Saturday, the nature of post-9/11 society plays a central role. Set in London on February 15, 2003, the day of mass protests against the Iraq War, the story follows neurosurgeon Henry Perowne as he experiences that momentous Saturday. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on 'Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned'?Get the original essay Perowne's day begins in an unusual way: he wakes up euphoric in the wee hours of the morning, walks to the windows and observes what he assumes is a plane taken over by terrorists heading towards the post tower. He later discovered that it was simply a Russian cargo plane making an emergency landing at Heathrow Airport. Apart from this incident, Perowne's day starts off positively: "Perowne goes back to bed, makes love to his wife, gets up and chats with his son in the kitchen, then gets on with the day's tasks. It involves a game of squash with a colleague, buying seafood from his favorite fishmonger, a visit to his mother in a retirement home, a brief appearance at his orchestra's rehearsal. son and preparing dinner for the big family reunion with the poets John Grammaticus [Perowne's father-in-law] and Daisy [Perowne's daughter] coming from France." (Eckstein 3). However, an altercation with criminal Baxter and his henchmen on his way to the squash match sets off a chain of events that turn the day sour. Perowne manages to destabilize Baxter after receiving a single punch, by admitting that he has Huntington's disease, "confronting him with his diagnosis, revealing his own profession as a neurosurgeon, and proposing false ideas for cures." possible”. (Eckstein 3) While the rest of his day seems to go smoothly, it is during dinner that the climax of the novel occurs: Baxter, joined by one of his accomplices, breaks into the house in Perowne, causes physical violence. harm Grammaticus and Rosalind – Perowne's wife – and intends to rape Daisy. Once he forces her to undress, he discovers that she is pregnant, which causes her to abandon this intention and makes him concentrate on the volume of his recently published poetry. After she recites Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach", pretending it was her own work, Baxter's mood changes and he agrees to go upstairs to research the treatment of his disease. Although the research is a figment of Perowne's imagination, it is enough to give him and his son Theo a chance to defeat Baxter. After throwing him from the stairs, Perowne operates on Baxter at the hospital to repair the brain damage caused by the fall. The day ends with Perowne making love to his wife once again. Besides the obvious allusion to 9/11 in the opening scene (Ross) and the protest in London, there are many other references to the post-9/11 world, often accompanied by critical notions (Hillard 186). Saturday offers a critique of British society after September 11, which we find in the..