





































Education, Language and Sociology Research 

ISSN 2690-3644 (Print) ISSN 2690-3652 (Online) 

Vol. 5, No. 1, 2024 

www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/elsr 

114 
 

Original Paper 

On Violence Writing in Ian McEwan’s Saturday 

Jingyi He1 

1 School of English Studies, Xi’an International Studies University, Xi’an, China 

 

Received: January 22, 2024    Accepted: February 19, 2024    Online Published: March 3, 2024 

doi:10.22158/elsr.v5n1p114     URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/elsr.v5n1p114 

 

Abstract 

Ian McEwan is one of the most preeminent contemporary British writers. His masterpiece Saturday is 

longlisted for the 2005 Booker Prize. Revolving around the protagonist Perowne’s one-day life, the novel 

portrays a realistic picture of British society after the “9·11” terrorist attack. So far, scholars have 

interpreted Saturday from the perspective of space, trauma, intertextuality, culture, and ethics, while few 

studies have touched upon the violence writing in this novel. Therefore, this paper will explore the 

manifestations and roots of direct, structural and cultural violence in Saturday based on Johan Galtung’s 

violence triangle theory. The study of violence writing in the novel can reveal not only hidden violence 

problems in British society but also McEwan’s appeal for a harmonious society. Meanwhile, the solution 

to violence issues McEwan provides in the novel is also instructive for modern people to cope with 

violence dilemmas. 

Keywords 

Ian McEwan, Saturday, Johan Galtung, violence 

 

1. Ian McEwan and Saturday 

Ian McEwan (1948-) is a brilliant British writer and is acclaimed as “the 50 greatest British writers since 

1945” by Times in 2008. Violence, love, goodness, and evil are always his subject matter. Saturday, his 

ninth novel, is no exception. In the novel, McEwan turns his attention to violence issues once again. 

Saturday discloses the hidden violence problems in British society after the “9·11” terrorist attack 

through the presentation of the protagonist’s one-day life. The novel’s background is set in London on 

February 15th, 2003. The protagonists are Henry Perowne, his daughter Daisy, his father-in-law John 

and the street thug Baxter. The storyline centers around Perowne’s one-day experience in London. The 

main plot is Perowne’s two confrontations with Baxter. More specifically, the two confrontations are the 

car accident between Perowne and Baxter in the daytime and Baxter’s revenge on Perowne after the 

confrontations that night. As an urban flaneur, Perowne’s life experience within 24 hours reflects the true 

social condition of England after the “9·11” terrorist attack.  



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Since its publication in 2005, Saturday has attracted a lot of attention at home and abroad. Scholars have 

studied the work from various perspectives. Generally speaking, scholars tend to interpret the novel from 

the perspective of space, trauma, intertextuality, culture, and ethics. 

First of all, space is the most discussed angle among scholars. In “Narrative Space in Ian McEwan’s 

Saturday”, Alenka Koron employs Marie-Laura Ryan’s categorization of space to interpret the novel and 

concludes that “McEwan promotes the conception of space that became prominent within the spatial turn 

in postmodern humanities” (p. 359). Laura Colombino notes in “The Body, the City, the Global: Spaces 

of Catastrophe in Ian McEwan’s Saturday” that the novel “engages with catastrophic imaginaries and 

social anxieties by illuminating the entanglement of the spaces of terror with the bodily” (p. 1). Though 

the focus of these studies is space, they all give a glimpse of the violence phenomenon in the novel, 

which provides a basis for this paper.  

Besides, scholars also explore Saturday from the perspective of trauma. In “Sudden Awakening: 

Traumatic Narrative in Ian McEwan’s Saturday”, Wang Taohua and Li Yaqing analyze individual trauma, 

collective trauma and the recovery from trauma in the novel. They point out that the novel reveals 

“McEwan’s concern over history and deep thoughts on the topic of trauma” (p. 43). The trauma study is 

meaningful in that it not only delves into the psychology of the protagonist but also provides a solution 

to the trauma faced by modern humanity. 

In addition, Starck Lindsay concentrates on the intertextuality between Mrs. Dalloway and Saturday, she 

argues that “the juxtaposition of Ian McEwan’s Saturday with Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway 

demonstrates how one’s experience of a text is doubled and amplified through repetition and 

remembering” (p. 328). Moreover, Tammy Amiel Houser analyzes the ethics embodied in the novel. In 

“The Ethics of Otherness in Ian McEwan’s Saturday”, she argues that by subverting the liberal-

individualistic ideology, McEwan is in favor of a radical notion of responsibility towards the different 

Other (p. 131).  

Last but not least, scholars also pay close attention to the confrontation and integration of science and 

literature in Saturday as represented by Perowne and his daughter Daisy respectively. In “Revisiting C.P. 

Snow: Two cultures in Ian McEwan’s Saturday”, Shang Biwu notes that “McEwan revisits C.P. Snow 

and explores the possibility of complementarity of two cultures, despite their seemingly exclusiveness” 

(p. 43). His exploration helps reveal the profound connotations about culture in the novel. 

To sum up, though scholars from home and abroad have studied this novel from different perspectives, 

there are some spaces left for the study of violence writing. To make up for the deficiency, this paper will 

explore the violence writing of the novel through the analysis of direct violence, structural violence and 

cultural violence. 

 

2. Johan Galtung’s Violence Triangle Theory  

Norwegian sociologist Johan Galtung is famous for his philosophy of peace and is internationally 

recognized as “the father of peace studies”. In 1969, Galtung first distinguished between direct violence 



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and structural violence in “Violence, Peace, and Peace Research”. He notes that if there is a sender, an 

actor who intends the consequences of violence, then it is direct violence; if not, it is structural violence 

(Galtung, p. 2). In other words, direct violence is intentional and has real perpetrators, while structural 

violence does not.  

Direct violence is obvious. It includes threats, rape, murder, war, genocide, psychological abuse, and 

other intentional behaviors which may cause physical or mental harm to victims (Ruolan, p. 98). Structure 

violence is less obvious. It comes from “the social structure itself—between humans, between sets of 

humans (societies), between sets of societies (alliances, regions) in the world” (Galtung, p. 2). That is to 

say, structural violence is built into the social system and manifests in unequal relations.  

Later in 1970, Galtung added cultural violence into his classification of violence in “Cultural Violence”. 

At this point, Galtung’s direct-structural-cultural violence triangle took shape. According to Galtung, 

cultural violence refers to “those aspects of culture, the symbolic sphere of our existence exemplified by 

religion and ideology, language and art, empirical science and formal science (logic, mathematics) —

that can be used to justify or legitimize direct or structural violence” (Galtung, p. 196). It means that 

cultural violence is the prevailing attitude and belief that makes direct and structural violence justified. 

In the wake of the discussion mentioned above, the three kinds of violence are interdependent. Cultural 

violence preaches, teaches, admonishes, eggs on, and dulls us into seeing exploitation and/or repression 

caused by structural violence as normal and natural or not seeing them at all (Galtung, p. 200). “Then 

come the eruptions, the efforts to use direct violence to get out of the structural iron cage (Galtung, p. 

200)”. Therefore, there is “a causal flow from cultural via structural to direct violence” (Galtung, p. 200). 

This indicates that direct, structural and cultural violence are interrelated.  

McEwan’s Saturday is stuffed with direct violence, structural violence, and cultural violence which 

echoes Galtung’s Violence Triangle Theory. Therefore, employing Galtung’s violence theory, this paper 

explores the violence issues in McEwan’s Saturday, hoping to clarify the manifestations and roots of 

violence in the novel and find solutions to cope with this threat.  

 

3. Direct Violence in Saturday 

Galtung notes that direct violence can be “divided into verbal and physical, and violence harming the 

body, mind or spirit. All combinations leave behind traumas that may carry violence over time” (p. 31). 

In Saturday, direct violence mainly manifests in Perowne’s verbal violence towards Baxter and Baxter’s 

physical violence towards Perowne and Perowne’s family members. This part will delve into the 

manifestation of verbal and physical violence and analyze the causes of these violent phenomena. 

Perowne’s verbal violence towards Baxter is reflected in their car accident. Perowne establishes a subject 

position in their confrontation by holding discourse power in his relationship with Baxter. Baxter gives 

Perowne a blow in the heart after the accident because Perowne refuses Baxter’s extortion. To get rid of 

Baxter’s physical violence, Perowne cheats Baxter that he knows a treatment plan that could cure 



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Baxter’s incurable Huntington’s disease. Lured by the hope of curing, Baxter becomes less hostile to 

Perowne.  

Seizing the discourse power, Perowne exercises verbal violence on Baxter indifferently and ruthlessly. 

Considering little on Baxter’s dignity, Perowne directly tells Baxter and Baxter’s friends that “your father 

had it. Now you got it too” (McEwan, p. 68). It means that Baxter has inherited Huntington’s disease 

from his father. Then, Perowne continues to bombard Baxter with questions like “I’m a doctor. Has 

someone explained to you what’s going to happen? Do you want me to tell you what I think your problem 

might be?” and “what has your doctor told you?” (McEwan, p. 68, p. 70). On the surface, Perowne is 

performing a doctor’s duty to inquire about a patient’s condition. Whereas the truth is Perowne is 

depriving Baxter’s discourse right, making Baxter flummoxed and flustered. As Li Juhua points out 

Perowne is cheating and disciplining Baxter in the name of humanism (p. 42). In other words, Perowne 

is exercising intentional verbal violence on Baxter, harming Baxter’s dignity mercilessly.  

As for the cause of Perowne’s verbal violence, the fear of being beaten by Baxter certainly comes first. 

However, the deeper cause is Perowne’s worship of scientific and technological rationality. To be specific, 

as a doctor, the belief in science and rationality makes Perowne have little humanitarian spirit, and he 

has lost the ability to empathize with others due to years of clinical experience. Thus, he keeps asking 

Baxter questions with no compassion. 

In Saturday, Baxter commits two physical violence. One is the blow he gives to Perowne in the car 

accident as mentioned above. Baxter’s Huntington’s disease is the main reason why he loses control in 

this confrontation. As Perowne analyzed and diagnosed, “poor self-control, emotional lability, and 

explosive temper” are all symptoms of the disease (McEwan, p. 66). This indicates that Baxter’s physical 

violence is caused by the disease. 

Baxter’s the other physical violence manifests in his intrusion into Perowne’s house at night. In this 

confrontation, he threatens Perowne’s wife with a knife and attempts to affront Perowne’s daughter. In 

this intrusion event, Perowne’s verbal violence is the main cause though Baxter’s Huntington’s disease 

is still a factor. Exposing Baxter’s disease in front of his friends, Perowne damages Baxter’s self-esteem 

and dignity. As Perowne’s son Theo evaluates Perowne’s behavior and attitude towards Baxter, “You 

humiliated him. You should watch that” (McEwan, p. 106). Theo knows that “the street guys can be 

proud” (McEwan, p. 106). However, Perowne doesn’t. Thus, he hurts Baxter fearlessly, which compels 

Baxter to take revenge. As Geng Xiao notes, counterviolence is the only way Baxter could employ to 

save his dignity because he is a member of the lower class (p. 37). 

It is worth noticing that Baxter’s counterviolence also brings Perowne’s counterviolence. At last, 

Perowne and Theo subdue Baxter by flinging Baxter down the stairs, which throws Baxter into a coma. 

Here appears a vicious circle of violence. Perowne’s verbal violence leads to Baxter’s counterviolence. 

At the same time, Baxter’s counterviolence also brings about Perowne’s counterviolence. It is 

conceivable that if Perowne didn’t give up his hatred and had surgery for Baxter in person at last. This 



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vicious circle of violence and counterviolence may not be broken. Hence, McEwan shows readers that 

violence may bring violence. McEwan not only opposes violence but also disapproves of counterviolence.  

In conclusion, Perowne’s verbal violence stems from his rationality. Baxter’s physical violence is rooted 

in his Huntington’s disease and Perowne’s verbal violence. And what McEwan calls for is a harmonious 

and friendly interpersonal relationship. 

 

4. Structural Violence in Saturday 

According to Galtung, “structural violence divides into political, repressive and economic, exploitative; 

supported by structural penetration, segmentation, fragmentation and marginalization” (p. 31). This part 

will deep into the structural violence in Saturday, specifically political repression and patriarchal 

oppression, and explore the roots of them.  

In Saturday, the ruling class represses the British public’s political will by controlling media, thus 

marginalizing the British public. Against the backdrop of the 9/11 terrorist attack, British people are 

anxious about their safety and are fear of war. Facing the impending Iraq War, the British public held 

protest marches to express their wish for peace. The Anti-Iraq War Demonstration described in the novel 

is the “largest gathering of humanity in the history of the islands” (McEwan, p. 87). 

However, there is little report of the anti-war movement on TV and radio. Reports are always the 

government’s preparation for the Iraq war like “there’s the Kuwait–Iraq border, and military trucks 

moving in convoy along a desert road, and our lads kipping down by the tracks of their tanks” and “an 

officer, barely in his twenties, is standing outside his tent pointing with a stick at a map on an easel” 

(McEwan, p. 122). 

The political repression in Saturday roots in social structure. It can be seen that there is a sharp contrast 

between the British public’s will and the British government’s will. Whereas what the mass media is 

reporting aligns with the government’s will. Therefore, the media becomes a ruling tool, propagandizing 

the ruling class’s political will. The ruling class holds more discourse power in national affairs and the 

public arena, thus marginalizing the public’s will. Galtung mentions that structural violence “comes from 

the social structure itself” (p. 2). Thus, the political repression in Saturday belongs to structural violence. 

In Saturday, patriarchal suppression mainly embodies in Perowne’s daughter Daisy and her grandpa John. 

As the elder and first literature teacher of Daisy, John always attempts to impose his male authority upon 

Daisy. When Daisy’s poem wins the Newdigate prize, there is a confrontation between John and Daisy. 

John doesn’t praise Daisy for her achievement. On the contrary, John belittles Daisy’s achievements and 

thinks lightly of Daisy’s poem. He comments Daisy’s poem as “ill-advised and not the sort of thing that 

generally won the Newdigate” (McEwan, p. 94). And he tells Daisy his comments as though “she must 

know it already and was bound to agree” (McEwan, p. 94). Taking advantage of male authority, he intends 

to impose his literary taste on Daisy. Facing John’s oppression, Daisy responds with silence. However, 

Daisy’s silence doesn’t satisfy John. “Encouraged by his granddaughter’s silence, John went on a roll, 



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warming to his own authority, stupidly affectionate in his manner” (McEwan, p. 94). John keeps 

expressing his criticism of the poem.  

John’s negation of Daisy’s poem reflects the patriarchal oppression of women. Women’s talents are 

denied by arrogant men. Correspondingly, female literature is always marginalized compared with male 

literature. The root of the inferior position of female and female literature is the social structure that gives 

males the privilege to dominate society. Consequently, John’s patriarchal suppression of Daisy belongs 

to structural violence. 

In a nutshell, both the British government’s political repression of the public and John’s patriarchal 

suppression of Daisy roots in social structure. Thus, the two types of violence are structural violence. 

Through the presentation of structural violence, McEwan is appealing for an equal society, free of 

repression and oppression.  

 

5. Cultural Violence in Saturday 

Galtung emphasizes that “the study of cultural violence highlights how the act of direct violence and the 

fact of structural violence are legitimized and thus rendered acceptable in society” (Galtung, p. 292). He 

further points out that cultural violence works in two ways. One is by changing the moral color of an act 

from wrong to right or at least to acceptable; another way is by making reality opaque, so that we do not 

see the violent act or fact, or at least not as violent (Galtung, p. 292). Thus, this part will probe into the 

cultural violence represented by extreme scientism and individualism in Saturday and explore how they 

work.  

In Saturday, science is represented by the neurosurgeon Perowne. “He advocates science and hates 

literature. This kind of extreme scientism extends from Perowne’s career to his daily life. He reads for 

his profession rather than for fun. For fifteen years he barely touched a non-medical book at all” 

(McEwan, p. 10). He submits to his daughter’s reading lists of literature only because “they’re his means 

of remaining in touch as she grows away from her family into unknowable womanhood in a suburb of 

Paris (McEwan, p. 10).”  

Perowne’s extreme scientism leads to his verbal violence on Baxter opaque. When Perowne keeps asking 

Baxter about Huntington’s disease, he is acting verbal violence as mentioned in the third part. As Shang 

Biwu argues the real intention of Perowne is to control Baxter through medical knowledge and to disgrace 

Baxter in front of his friends (p. 41). Medical science provides a protective barrier for Perowne’s verbal 

violence, beautifying it as a doctor’s ordinary inquiring about a patient’s condition. As a result, cultural 

violence represented by Perowne’s scientism successfully justifies his verbal violence on Baxter.  

Besides, Perowne’s extreme scientism also becomes a justification for his physical violence. In his second 

confrontation with Baxter, Perowne and his son push Baxter down the stairs, which is a manifestation of 

immoral physical violence. However, Perowne covers up his immoral behavior with the pretext that 

Baxter will lose control because of Huntington’s disease if not conquered by violence. Hence, Perowne’s 



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physical violence toward Baxter is justified by medical science which is the representation of cultural 

violence. 

In Saturday, cultural violence also takes the form of extreme individualism, which is embodied by the 

British ruling class and John. The British ruling class’s individualism mainly manifests in their 

manipulation of media to propagandize their own political will as mentioned in the fourth part. 

Individualism is entrenched in the ruling class, thus they manipulate national affairs according to their 

own will, ignoring the voice of the public. 

In addition, John’s patriarchal suppression of Daisy is also a kind of individualism. When commenting 

on Daisy’s poem, the deep-rooted individualism makes John self-centered. He only cares about his 

criticism and evaluation of the poem, neglecting Daisy’s dignity and feeling. It can be seen that the 

structural violence of political repression and patriarchal suppression derives from the cultural violence 

of individualism. That is to say, the Western culture of individualism becomes the soil of structural 

violence.  

To wrap up, extreme scientism and individualism are the manifestation of cultural violence in Saturday. 

By exposing cultural violence, McEwan expresses his appeal for humanism and love in society. 

 

6. Conclusion 

Against the backdrop of the “9·11” terrorist attack, Saturday exposes the violence problems in British 

society, including direct violence, structural violence and cultural violence. Through the exposure of 

violence problems, McEwan conveys his ideal for a peaceful society free of violence. For McEwan, 

violence will bring violence so that a vicious circle may come into being. Meanwhile, McEwan also 

provides a solution to violence problems in society, which is also meaningful for modern people’s 

violence dilemma. That is to cope with violence with empathy and love as manifested in Perowne’s 

reconciliation with Baxter. As Colombino points out, the end of the novel suggests our biological 

predisposition to human empathy and implies that only a narrative of human interconnectedness can 

reconcile us with the world and ourselves (p. 17). Therefore, what McEwan envisions and appeals to is 

a world of equality, harmony and love. 

 

References 

Amiel-Houser, T. (2011). The Ethics of Otherness in Ian McEwan’s Saturday. Connotations: A Journal 

for Critical Debate, 21(1), 128. 

Biwu, S. (2020). Revisiting C. P. Snow: Two Cultures in Ian McEwan’s Saturday. Journal of Hunan 

University of Science and Technology (Social Science Edition), 23(2), 36-43. 

Colombino, L. (2017). The Body, the City, the Global: Spaces of Catastrophe in Ian McEwan’s Saturday. 

Textual Practice, 31(4), 783-803. 

Li, J. H. (2013). Approaching Communicative Thoughts in Ian McEwan’s Saturday. Contemporary 

Foreign Literature, 34(1), 39-46. 



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Galtung, J. (1990). Cultural Violence. Journal of Peace Research, 27(3), 291-305. 

---. (1996). Peace by Peaceful Means: Peace and Conflict, Development and Civilization. Sage. 

---. (1969). Violence, Peace, and Peace Research. Journal of Peace Research, 6(3), 167-191. 

McEwan, I. (2009). Saturday. Vintage Canada.  

Koron, A. (2018). Narrative Space in Ian McEwan’s Saturday: A Narratological Perspective. Frontiers 

of Narrative Studies, 4(2), 359-373. 

Ruolan, F. (2016). Violence Triangle Theory in the Gender Perspective. Thinking, 32(1), 36-40. 

Starck, L. (2016). The Matter of Literary Memory: Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway and Ian McEwan’s 

Saturday. Adaptation, 9(3), 328-344. 

Wang, T. H., & Li, Y. Q. (2019). Sudden Awakening: Traumatic Narrative in Ian McEwan’s Saturday. 

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