How Does Mcewan Present Robert's Relationship With His Family?

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The extract from Ian McEwan’s novel The Comfort of Strangers tells the story of Robert and his distant relationship with his family. Robert, the narrator, revisits the time that his parents left him and his sisters home alone in his efforts to see if his sisters did in fact hate him. During their parent’s absence Robert followed his sisters into their parent’s room and watched them play dress up with their mother’s things. The extract follows a sequence of event: the first is dress up in the early after, then, clean up in the late afternoon, followed by dinner. In this extract, Ian McEwan shows Robert’s distant relationship with his sisters, father, and mother by demonstrating the unreliability of appearances and through the use of details. …show more content…

The author’s choice of the word “hate” is prominent as it speaks about Robert’s relationship with his sisters years after this took place, but it also raises the question of whether his sisters still hate him. While Robert is sitting on his parents’ bed, he observes his sisters in great detail as “They put creams and powders on their faces, they used lipstick…” (McEwan, 4-5). The use of a list shows how the image of his sisters slowly disappeared with each layer of makeup. In addition to the list, the author also frequently repeats “they”, which increases the distance between Robert and his sisters. Indeed, throughout the extract, McEwan and Robert always refer to Eva and Maria as “my sisters” or “they”, grouping them as one individual person allowing them to become interchangeable. Eventually, Robert’s sisters tell him to close his eyes while they change; when he opens his eyes, he is “shocked because these were not his sisters, these were American film stars,” (McEwan, 12). McEwan’s choice to describe Robert’s sisters as American film stars furthers the distance between Robert and his sisters. The stereotype of

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