In Search Of True Self

Ian McEwan is one of the most important writers in the contemporary English literary circle, whose works are famous for their concise prose style and depiction of the psychological world. His works can be divided into two periods: his early works emphasize particularly the depiction of the darkness of people's psychology; his later works come into a much wider social space, combining the depiction of psychology with social reality. The Child in Time stands at such a turning point, in which the writer depicts people's psychological truth under the surface of life and makes the individual fate reflect social reality. This book was awarded the Whitbread Novel Award of that year.At present, abroad and at home, comments about the novel mainly concentrate on its theme, such as true maturity, the rift of self, the relationship of the adults and the children, the child within us, the power of love, the loss of life, taking care of the children, relationship of time and the theme, etc. Actually, this novel is deeply rooted in the philosophical thoughts of Henri Bergson and Martin Heidegger. According to Bergson, time can be divided into two kinds: quantitative time and qualitative time, and the latter is the real time. Accordingly, there are two kinds of self: spatial self and psychological self and the latter is the true self. Heidegger distinguishes un-authenticity from authenticity. But, until now, no one has ever explored this novel from this aspect. This thesis intends to analyze the work by using the time and self theory of Bergson as well as Heidegger's human being's existence theory. The whole thesis consists of six parts, with four chapters coming between the introduction and the conclusion.The first chapter elucidates the division and existence of two kinds of time and two kinds of self in the novel, offering a foundation for the whole thesis. One kind of time is the time symbolized by clock time, which is measurable, and it is also called spatial time; while, there is another kind of time, indescribable and immeasurable, which only exists in the consciousness and doesn't occupy space, and it is also called psychological time, the true time. Spatially, the story in the novel occurs within three seasons, starting with a long and hot summer and ending with a snowy winter; but, the psychological time covers the past, the present and the future. Accordingly, there are two kinds of selves: the spatial self in spatial time and the true self in true time.Chapter two reveals the loss of true selves by the characters in the novel. Stephen reflects the loss of true self due to the stopping of psychological time. Two and a half years (spatial time) have passed since his daughter, Kate, was lost, but Stephen only feels blank time; time becomes senseless and aimless to him (psychological time). The loss of true self leads to the stopping of psychological time; the stopping of the psychological time means the loss of true self. Charles shows the attitude of losing true self when living in the world, which tends to be adopted by most people. When he was young his father treated him as a small adult, and he was denied a childhood; the child is father of the man, but, grown up, Charles seeks for the so-called maturity, success, fame and wealth wholeheartedly, lives according to the outer criteria of "others" and represses his child within. At first he lives for his father, then he lives for others but he never lives for himself. Although he gets worldly success, he pays the price of losing his true self.Chapter three focuses on searching for the true self. The nature of human beings is hard to resist, and that's why sometimes the shell of spatial self is broken and the true self comes to the surface. On account of their loss of their true selves, the characters in the novel necessarily want to find their true selves and they unexceptionally plunge themselves into the search for their true selves. However, the search goes astray for a time: for one thing, they try to reverse time; for another, during the process of searching for their true selves, they give up their spatial selves. Stephen wants his lost daughter back; Charles retreats to his childhood. Nevertheless, spatial time can not be reversed and it is impossible to change what has happened. Spatial self and true self are a contradictory unity and giving up of one leads to the absence of the other. Therefore, what Stephen has got is only the phantom growth of his daughter, and Charles goes ultimately to his doom.The last chapter dwells on the gaining of true self. Human beings are the products of society and they can not exist out of society. Different from Charles, Stephen finally wakes up from his mistakes, combines his spatial self and true self, and gains his true self. The gaining of true self is symbolically realized through the birth of the new child. With the birth of the new child, psychological time, once stopped, flows again, which means the gaining of his true self. The society under the writer's pen is a dark one, and it's the darkness of society that leads to the loss of true self. Only by starting from ourselves to reform society can we improve the living condition of the self.To sum up, through the depiction of psychological truth, the novel reflects the living plights of people in the contemporary western world. The work offers us a cold, harsh and hostile society and it is such a society that deprives people of their true selves and makes them struggle in the abyss of misery. However, the writer does not stay at the level of exposing darkness and expressing dissatisfaction and anger but wants to find a way out. Although society has all kinds of abuses, people should not escape from society but start from themselves to reform society. Undoubtedly, this understanding is both referential and instructive to people living in the present society.