Alienation in Ian Mc Evan’s: “Child in Time,” and “The Cement Garden”: A Review based on Melvin Seaman’s Theory

Alienation is a significant phenomenon that forms the subject of many psychological, sociological, literary, philosophical, and even physiological studies. Alienation is among the most critical justifications bringing about the internal and external pains and sufferings in life. Emerging as a result of war, persecution, famine, and ruin, alienation terminates unfortunately in suffering, isolation, and sometimes critical disasters. In literature, the alienated protagonist is usually a frequent figure in much of the ancient and contemporary fiction. The main issue of alienation refers to a destructive consequence of getting, or feeling of getting separated from people that one is living with them. It refers to become useless, or to feel becoming useless in the field of social relations and interactions. It is the outcome of becoming alienated, so that one thinks that no longer anyone needs him / her, and / or his / her services. Aiming to review the theme of alienation, and focusing on Melvin Seaman’s concepts of alienation in general, the present paper, in particular, will review the manifestation of the term alienation in “The Child in Time,” and “The Comfort of Strangers,” that are both the well-known novels written by Ian Russell McEwan, one of the greatest British novelists and screenwriters of the twentieth century. By describing the disastrous aftermath of the alienation, this article tries to alarm the man regarding the catastrophic and destructive consequences of the alienation in the life of the existing societies.