A Reading of Ian McEwan’s Saturday: Approaching the Ethical Self by Extending Empathy and Care to the Other in the Post-9/11 Age of Anxiety

Abstract

Ian McEwan’s representative novel Saturday, set on 15 February 2003, the day of the largest protest march against the imminent war on Iraq in London, presents one day in the life of Henry Perowne, a 48-year-old neurosurgeon, holding up to a troubled time in the post-9/11 age of anxiety. From Henry’s consciousness the rich narrative weaves the story of his contented and paradoxically happy life together with his anxiety about the terrorism implied in his over-interpretation of the burning airplane in the early morning, his encounter with Baxter in a minor car accident and later Baxter’s intruding into his house to endanger his family. Henry Perowne, the privileged neurosurgeon, complacent, and arrogant in his framing life with selected empathy and care for his loved ones, finally awakens to approach his ethical self with responsibility for the Other through extending his empathy and care to the Other represented by Baxter. What Ian McEwan explores in Saturday is an ethical attempt for privileged Westerners to reflect about the deep causes of international terrorism and to sort out the conflicts between self and the Other in an ethical way through extending empathy to more diverse others with the prospect of experiencing profound happiness in the post-9/11 age of anxiety.