Claudia Kevans - Texts and Human Experiences Assignment - Part B

Two analyses - each 400 - 500 words long

TEXT 1: ‘Hotel Room, 12th Floor’ - Norman MacCaig

Q. How does Norman MacCaig effectively convey the experience of loneliness and the human desire for
connection?
In his poem Hotel Room, 12th Floor, Norman MacCaig explores how undesirable experiences serve to
shape our future desires in life. Specifically exemplified through a lone individual’s intrinsic experience
of loneliness, MacCaig invites readers to understand the natural human response of desire for connection
as a means of resolving their sense of isolation.

Through demonstrating one individual’s experience of isolation, MacCaig connects with the audience to
expose humanity’s innate fear of being alone. Debunking the assumption that it is impossible to be lonely
when amidst a large yet socially fragmented populace of the American city of New York, MacCaig’s
speaker reveals the emotions elicited from such a reality. The utilisation of first person perspective,
initiated in the first line “I watched from here” where the pronoun ‘I’ indicates a lone individual, allows
the reader to relate themselves to the story therefore amplifying the melancholic mood which, when
contrasted with the alliteration ‘hear the wildest of war whoops’, underscores the paradoxical human
experience of isolation in a crowded city. This is in part produced by the extended metaphor of
‘midnight’, ‘But now midnight has come in from foreign places. Its uncivilised darkness is shot at by a
million lit windows, all ups and crosses. But midnight is not so easily defeated”. Connotations of
loneliness are elucidated as ‘midnight’ is a period of time typically spent alone. This, paired with
connotations of battle ‘shot at… not so easily defeated’ indicate that the human experience of loneliness
is often filled with fear.

However, it is through the narrator’s failure to prevent such loneliness that McCaig reveals such
experiences inspire the human desire for connection. Critiquing the technological advancement of present
society, MacCaig depicts the narrator lying “in bed, between a radio and a television set’. The ‘radio’ and
‘television set’ symbolise humanity’s desperate attempts to combat loneliness through perpetual
connection, however, the prone position of the narrator ‘I lie in bed’ signifies the passive experience of
being connected through technology without achieving authentic connections. Through this, MacCaig
invites the reader to contemplate their own forced isolation during the global pandemic, an experience
that has reframed our understanding of social connections. This is further explored through the
metaphorical war frontier in the closing stanza, ‘The frontier is never somewhere else. And no stockades
can keep the midnight out”. MacCaig’s tone when using the metaphors of ‘stockades’ as technology and
‘midnight’ to represent loneliness in ‘No stockades can keep the midnight out’ reveals his pessimistic
outlook regarding loneliness as an inevitable experience which humanity pointlessly attempts to drive
away.

Therefore in Hotel Room, 12th floor MacCaig cautions his readers to not fear loneliness but instead
welcome it as a challenging human experience to strengthen one’s character. He demonstrates that it is
through this challenge that the human desire for connection is born and thus when such connection is
finally achieved, humanity will discover greater gratification.
TEXT 12: ‘Atonement’ - Ian McEwen
Q. How does Ian McEwen effectively explore the human struggle to derive meaning from experience?
In the extract from his metafictional novel Atonement, Ian McEwen critiques humanity’s paradoxical
need to understand the meaning of human experience yet reject solutions they consider undesirable. He
examines how this creates a common human struggle as demonstrated through his protagonist’s own
denial of her childhood. Her subsequent failure to derive meaning serves to highlight the difficulty of
such situations and further cautions the audience away from immature solutions.

By relating Briony’s struggle to discern meaning from her childhood experiences with the audience,
McEwan highlights the normalcy of such struggles. Contrasting modern day youth’s reliance on
technology, McEwen establishes Briony’s outburst in a forest “Flaying the nettles was becoming a self-
purification, and it was childhood she set about now, having no further need for it.” The metaphor of
‘nettles’ representing ‘childhood’ accentuated by the dismissive verb ‘flaying’ underlines the lack of
meaning she assigns to her past experiences, requiring self-purification. The violent sibilance, ‘severed
the sickly’, in “She severed the sickly dependency of infancy.” reveals the discontent struggle can inspire.
McEwan utilizes the universally relatable use of imagination with connotations of traditional success,
‘win Gold’, in Briony’s fantasy of, “No one in the world could do this better than Briony… certain to win
gold” to demonstrate the misconceived human notion of what is required of a meaningful experience.
Thus highlighting the paradox as unachievable ideals prevent progress in accepting the mundane
meanings of experiences.

McEwan exposes the unrealistic ideals through Briony’s realisation of reality, which results in
inconsistent behaviour. As Briony is thrust back into her reality of the early 1900s, her reluctance to
confront the struggle to find meaning in her experiences is underscored in her defensive tone, “She
supposed that her brother knew the meaning of distance and professional respect. All the same, a little
sadness was settling on her…” Her attempt to prolong her fantasy is disrupted by the personified sadness
‘a little sadness was settling on her’ as her brother’s disregard cements her belief of her insignificant
existence. This elicits the audience’s sympathy enhancing the disorientation in “Was that really all there
was in life, indoors or out? Wasn’t there somewhere else for people to go?” The rhetorical questions
demonstrate her palpable desperation to find answers, resonating with a 21st century audience gripped by
the uncertainty of a global pandemic and the rise of far right extremism. McEwan reveals that such
confusion leads to inconsistent behaviour as the cumulative listing, “She would simply wait on the
bridge… until events, real events… dispelled her insignificance”, unveiling Briony’s abandonment of her
efforts to discern meaning, in favour of ‘simply waiting’ for her ‘insignificance’ to be ‘dispelled’.

Ultimately through displaying Briony’s failures in Atonement McEwan warns his audience to remain
active when searching for meaning in experiences as it is an inevitable challenge faced by humanity. A
challenge which cannot be overcome when immature means are used to combat it.