Remembering Trauma and Surrogate Victim in Ian McEwan's Novel Saturday

Abstract

Ian McEwan’s novel Saturday has its root anchored in the anxieties, horror and terrible sufferings of British people especially due to the threat of possible attack from Al-Qaida group in Britain. This research explores the traumatized conditions of innocent British who have not any direct affiliations with war. Material and other prosperities of British have overshadowed by threat of life. Individual to community are suffering. Henry Perowne, a neurosurgeon is ‘desirable’ to elaborate the terrible past and become more intoxicated and overwhelmed. Some characters are totally relived in terrible past. Characters like Theo, Daisy and Rosalind identify themselves with traumatic victim and undergo through ‘surrogate victim’. Characters, through verbalization and narration attempt to get rid from traumatic past.