Classic English Literature
Ian McEwen’s Cement Garden
“I am only including the little story of his death to explain how my sisters and I came to have such a large quantity of cement at our disposal. (McEwan 1).”
The four siblings in this story namely, Jack, Julie, Sue, and Tom bury their mother’s corpse in a casket and cement it in their cellar. Derek, Julie’s boyfriend does not get along with well with Julie’s family, and with Jack in particular. Derek, somehow gets to know the secret of their mother’s death and her corpse lying the cellar and even finds out about the incestuous relationship between Jack and Julie as he sees them in having sex with each other. Instead of regret, Derek is faced with the resentment and unconcern from Julie as she says “Actually, it’s none of your business” (McEwan 135). Immediately after this, Derek leaves to the cellar and start breaking open the cement concrete where Julie’s mother is buried and eventually informs cops about this.
The novel as a whole depicts the conflict that exists between nature and nurture. The lights from the police cars symbolizes the order which is identifiable with the father’s name and it is also the personification of manhood and supremacy that eventually results in the production of female misery. The solid and serious patriarchal dominance of their father towards the male children in particular is the root cause behind this miserable state of mind. The cement casket symbolizes male dominance as the children’s father orders cement in order to mark his own territory and gain his territory for dominance, completely away from the outside world.
Works Cited
McEwan, Ian. The Cement Garden. Jonathan Crepe, 1978.
