Conflict, Confusion And Sublimation

As one of the most influential contemporary writers, Ian McEwan has drawn much attention from critics and readers in his exploration of human destiny and social reality in his writings. And he is more concerned about the impacts of social happenings on human beings since the turn of the new millennium. Saturday is set on the day of February 15, 2003, after the 9/11 terrorist attack, and the Iraq War is impending. The threats of terrorism and war lead to conflicts between instinctual desires and social reality, which finally results in self-confusion and anxiety in modern men’s life. The paper aims to examine the psychological changes of the protagonist Henry Perowne from conflict and confusion to sublimation on the basis of Sigmund Freud’s personality structure theory. Besides, it will explore the writer Ian McEwan’s social ideal through depicting a man confronted with social reality.First of all, the thesis analyzes Perowne’s repressed id. The id’s repression comes from Perowne’s unsatisfied narcissism and the repressed instincts. His medical achievements bring him a sense of superiority, forming narcissism. However, his narcissism leads to a lot of interpersonal conflicts in his life. At the same time, Perowne loses sense of safety under the pressure of social unrest, which finally leads to the loss of ability to judge between right and wrong. The id tries to find outlets for inner repression, but it fails under the pressure of reality and the superego.Next, the thesis deals with Perowne’s confused ego, ego’s anxiety and defense mechanisms in terms of family and social living. In the post-9/11 times, the threats ofterrorism and wars cast a long shadow over modern people’s life. Perowne is confused about conflicts between family members that result from their different opinions on social realities. As a successful neurosurgeon, Henry Perowne advocates scientism and rejects the opinion represented by his daughter and father-in-law that literature has the power to save one’s soul. He opposes the Iraq War but relies on the war to eliminate terrorism. Perowne lives a hard life under the pressure of the id, the superego and the reality, which embodies the modern people’s hardship in life.Finally, the thesis focuses on the great impact of a terrorist attack and the solution of this event on Henry Perowne. Perowne realizes sympathy, forgiveness and love are the effective methods to save lives. He finally chooses to do operation on the intruder under the guidance of high moral pursuit of his superego. Besides, he tries his best to reconcile his families to build a harmonious family relationship.In short, McEwan aims to present the hard living of the modern people through depicting a man disturbed by psychological contradiction and conflict. The fear and scientism of the post-9/11 times lead to modern people’s unbalanced personality, which result in people’s confusion and interpersonal alienation. However, Perowne finds ways to solve these problems, so his ego is sublimated. McEwan realizes only love and understanding can help humans eliminate terrorism and war to build harmonious interpersonal relations, a harmonious family and even a harmonious world. These are the fully embodiments of the writer Ian McEwan’s social ideal.