The ambiguity of the inner child image in Ian McEwan’s novel The Child in Time

About the author:

Elena S. Sedova , Cand. Sci. (Philol.), Associate Professor, Department of Literature and Teaching Methods, South Ural State Humanitarian Pedagogical University, Chelyabinsk, Russia, helens82@mail.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7490-2205

Abstract:

The article is devoted to the analysis of the polysemantic image of child in time, which becomes a symbol in McEwan’s novel. It seems important to reveal the psychological core of this image (characters’ return to their childhood, sometimes traumatized; the search for the inner child, acceptance of him), its philosophical comprehension in curls through time as well as the universal human meaning of the child in time. The article includes a comparative analysis of the problem of the relationship between an adult and his child inside/within, using the texts by A. de Saint-Exupery «The Little Prince» and I. McEwan «The Daydreamer», which gives an expanded idea of the topics covered by the authors in their works. We analyze the system of characters in the novel, symbols (bicycles, the pub «The Bell», rain, a child, etc.), which is closely related to the philosophical (the theme of Time, life and death, birth) and psychological (search for a child inside/within) meaning of the novel. Finally, we come to the conclusion that the child in time is the stolen child of the Lewis’ Kate; the writer Stephen Lewis, who is a kind of alter ego of the author; Charles Darke, who falls into childhood and cannot reconcile the adult and the child in himself; the episodic character of the beggar girl. Behind all these characters we can see the tragic figure of the author, who writes partly about himself and his inner child, which is a message to future generations.

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