Postmodern Children and The Cement Garden of Ian McEwan

Abstract

Postmodern childhood narratives often explore disturbing themes, break social conventions and taboos. In order to comment on this kind of representation, this study will introduce Ian McEwan’s controversial novel The Cement Garden (1978), the story of four children who, in the middle of a particularly hot summer, find themselves orphaned. The novel narrated by fourteen-year-old Jack explores such themes as sexuality, incest, death, the struggles of coming of age, isolation, gender roles and parent-child relationships.