Cement garden
How far does Ian McEwan present the ideas of a matriarch in society through The Cement Garden?
Ian McEwan’s novel, The Cement Garden (1978), opens with a sense of guilt and a feeling of unhappy self-containment, which introduces the prevailing atmosphere. McEwan distorts the ‘normality’ of a story, that could centre around a male adolescent, by magnifying elements of the matriarchal society and highlighting the importance of a maternal figure within a family that contains impressionable children. However, McEwan still adheres to the idea that a patriarchal society is necessary, potentially due to the fact that McEwan lacked a solid male presence in his own childhood.
Throughout the novel, McEwan continuously demonstrates the idea that the female protagonist, Julie, exerts more maturity than the narrator, Jack, in order to portray the idea that the matriarchal figure is of higher importance within society; “it really means Julie will have to be in charge”. The fact that it seems unavoidable that Julie will attain the role as the figure head of the family enhances the idea that her maturity puts her priority to manage the family. Contextually, McEwans focus on reiterating this importance can be seen to have been influenced by his upbringing. As a child whose father was in the army, McEwans mother, therefore, was his apparent father figure. We can see this mirrored with his character Julie as when her father dies of a heart attack and her mother is absent, Julie fills in the gap of her siblings’ parents and takes over the parental roles.
The feminist critic Barry, P, stated in 2nd edition of Beginning Theory that criticism in the 1970s went into ‘exposing what might be called mechanisms of patriarchy, that is, the cultural ‘mind-set’ in men and women which perpetuated sexual inequality’, McEwan can be seen to have strayed from this 1970s idea about patriarchal societies and gender inequality as he expresses the importance of matriarchy through the way he has
Ian McEwan’s novel, The Cement Garden (1978), opens with a sense of guilt and a feeling of unhappy self-containment, which introduces the prevailing atmosphere. McEwan distorts the ‘normality’ of a story, that could centre around a male adolescent, by magnifying elements of the matriarchal society and highlighting the importance of a maternal figure within a family that contains impressionable children. However, McEwan still adheres to the idea that a patriarchal society is necessary, potentially due to the fact that McEwan lacked a solid male presence in his own childhood.
Throughout the novel, McEwan continuously demonstrates the idea that the female protagonist, Julie, exerts more maturity than the narrator, Jack, in order to portray the idea that the matriarchal figure is of higher importance within society; “it really means Julie will have to be in charge”. The fact that it seems unavoidable that Julie will attain the role as the figure head of the family enhances the idea that her maturity puts her priority to manage the family. Contextually, McEwans focus on reiterating this importance can be seen to have been influenced by his upbringing. As a child whose father was in the army, McEwans mother, therefore, was his apparent father figure. We can see this mirrored with his character Julie as when her father dies of a heart attack and her mother is absent, Julie fills in the gap of her siblings’ parents and takes over the parental roles.
The feminist critic Barry, P, stated in 2nd edition of Beginning Theory that criticism in the 1970s went into ‘exposing what might be called mechanisms of patriarchy, that is, the cultural ‘mind-set’ in men and women which perpetuated sexual inequality’, McEwan can be seen to have strayed from this 1970s idea about patriarchal societies and gender inequality as he expresses the importance of matriarchy through the way he has