Kai's English Journal

The chapter begins with Joe, Clarissa and Jocelyn, Professor Kale, waiting in the police station on Bow Street, in the aftermath of the shooting.

This is the second time Joe’s had to wait in a police station that day.
Bow Street- location of the Bow Street riot, or Battle of Bow Street, in 1919. This riot was ignited because three American soldiers and sailors were arrested for playing dice outside, which was illegal. In this riot a Corporal named Zimmermann was beaten by the police with truncheon because they suspected that he had a gun hidden underneath his coat, which he was supposedly pulling out while addressing the crowd, promising to stop the trouble himself. – This relates to the shooting in the previous chapter, where the assailants ‘wore black coats that gave them a priestly look’ and one ‘drew from his coat a black stick’. – As Corporal Zimmerman was suspected to be doing.
Clarissa, after giving her statement, tells Joe to ‘just tell them what you saw’ and advised him not to ‘go on about your usual stuff.’- suggests Joe’s isolation.

Joe gives his statement to Detective Constable Wallace, declaring he knows that the shooting was a mistaken identity, that the shot was meant for him, and that the unnamed man who saved Tapp’s, the man shot, life, was Parry.

Joe is then asked to stay behind for further help.
Afterwards, when Joe is questioned again, Wallace states that he suspects that the shooting was due to Tapp’s position as undersecretary of state at the department of trade and industry, stating. ‘There was an attempt on Mr Tapp’s life eighteen months ago’.

Joe states his feelings of ‘isolation and vulnerability.’
The only help the police provide Joe is a suggestion to take Prozac, antidepressants.

Joe arrives at his apartment building, fighting paranoia; ‘He wasn’t in his usual place’.
Joe references Bruckner, hearing it coming from the apartment downstairs.
Anton Bruckner- an Austrian composer in the 19th century, known for his symphonies, masses ad motets. The first are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German romanticism. Link to Keats. Rich in harmonic language- this is ironic; Bruckner’s compositions were rich in harmonic language whereas Joe and Clarissa’s harmonic equilibrium is ‘all over’.
The Bruckner Problem- this term refers to the difficulties and complications resulting from the contrasting versions and editions that exist for most of his symphonies. This could symbolise the contrast in Joe and Clarissa’s opinion over the Parry situation.

Joe arrives home to find that Clarissa is asleep, leaving a note saying. ‘Dead tired. Talk to you in the morning. Love, Clarissa.’ Joe tries to seek meaning out of Clarissa’s use of an uppercase ‘L’ in her letter.
Joe decides to look through an address book in the hopes of finding someone with illegal ties, an act of desperation.
Joe repeats the word ‘Doomsday’ with an uppercase ‘D’, this may be an attempt to emphasise the word, suggesting Joe feels helpless, like his word is crumbling.

After finding Johnny B. Well, Joe requests Johnny help him acquire a gun. This is an example of Roland Barthes’ action code.

Throughout the chapter Joe’s desperation and loneliness in this situation is a central point.

‘I felt my isolation and vulnerability’ – pg 177

‘I was on my own.’ – pg 175

McEwan uses the references, Bow Street and Bruckner, to emphasise Joe’s feelings of isolation. – Bow street to show the lack of effective help from the police. And Bruckner to emphasise the clash of opinion with Clarissa, which both contribute to Joe’s desperation.

However, Joe’s narrative has previously been questionable; therefore his narrative in this chapter can also be questioned. Joe may be putting extra emphasis on certain aspects, while understating others. Joe’s attempt to draw extra meaning from Clarissa’s letter shows Joe’s desperation, or possibly paranoia, it shows a similarity to Parry.

McEwan uses a mixture of sentence structures, short, sharp sentences, ‘I was on my own.’ And complex sentences, ‘The waters would close over her head, her friends would feel sorrow and then recover, a little wiser, and the unrecorded workdays, parties and dinners would tumble onwards.’ In this quote Joe is explaining his feeling of isolation by referring to a friend of his who was wrongly diagnosed with a terminal illness.

The number two is referenced, coincidently, twice in the chapter; this may be symbolic of the phrase ‘two against the world.’ Or perhaps referring to binaries, which are opposition of two concepts, i.e. war and peace. In this case it is used to emphasise Joe’s isolation.