Essays

The image of London in Hearts and Minds
In his poem “The Waste Land” T. S. Elliot presents a picture of London as a busy, anonymous city where individuals’ struggles are meaningless, this is shown through the symbolism of the crowd that “flowed over London Bridge” (l. 61). The title itself describes London as an inclement place, homelike to no one.
Amanda Craig reflects this impression already in the first scene of her novel “Hearts and Minds” when she describes the place the murderer chose to hide the body of Iryna. The city she describes reflects different aspects of the image of London in The Waste Land: The anonymity comes clear when the “sour air” is “breathed in and out by eight million lungs” (p.1), this shows both the namelessness of all the different people living there and their connection, London, the big city full of life.
For Elliot and Craig the fog (in the winter months) is characteristic of London, Craig describes it as the “eternal dust of London” (p.1) to point out its omnipresence.
Amanda Craig calls London a “world of its own, a country within a country” (p.1). London may have its own rules; in London happenings that would be unconceivable in the rest of the country are possible. London’s language is called a “fusion of many other tongues” (p.3) what points out the differences between the people’s ethnicities. And just like the decay of London accumulates (p.1), the lives of all kinds of people interfere with each other.
In the novel the characters’ different points of view affected by their life situations strongly influence there impression of London and their idea of life there.
The colour orange which turns up for example as orange street light is very common in Amanda Craig’s descriptions of London. It is a present symbol in the character’s experiences of the “never wholly dark” (p. 1) nights in London.
Polly feels at ease in her neighbourhood and likes the place where she lives in London (the orange street lights do not bother her; p.5). Her children go to private schools in the suburbs of London which she considers to be safe. Her ex-husband Theo has a different opinion on London, for him London’s time is over.
For Katie, the anonymity in the big city was the reason for her to come to London, to find a place “where nobody knows her, or cares” (p. 44). Daniel’s invitation is the first time for Katie that she is invited to someone else’s house in London (p. 114). The reader gets the impression that private houses serve as the only homely places in this city and that privacy protection therefore plays an important role. Even though Katie likes the independency of living in London, she was able to develop a connection to this unpleasant place (p. 76).
For Ian, London is a playground (p.16). As he is only “passing through” (p. 17)and does not want to commit himself to London as his new hometown, he enjoys what London offers him. The city centre is compared to a bowl of jewels (p. 15) and thereby reflects Ian’s optimistic attitude towards his life in London. As a South-African, Ian understands how the grey London weather and the indifferent atmosphere can be a strain to people who are used to different circumstances (p.14), yet he has found some pleasures in this unfriendly city. Ian is aware of the fact that London is a busy city and trade is what keeps London alive (p.15). However, Ian’s image of London is clouded when the body is found, he always thought of London as an innocent and also strong and fearless city (p.51). Ian is amazed by London’s “density and antiquity” (p.91). In “Hearts and Minds” very different facets are shown, poor and rich sites of London and the reader gets to know that London will never stop changing its outward appearance.
When Job came to Britain, he thought the city would resemble the image of London he knew from Charles Dickens’ novels and was disappointed by the density of buildings in London (p. 61) and its modernity. The traffic in London appears to him just as a “stream of metal and flesh oozing towards the centre” (p. 25), this huge amount of people all acting similar and monotonous is strange to him.
The symbol of people accumulating into a big stream is again taken up in the end of the novel when Job is about to leave Britain and merges with the “steady stream of people” (p.419).
For Anna, London seemed to be everything her hometown could not offer her. She thought of London as “a place of unlimited wealth and opportunity” (p.72). Anna was told London would be a “friendly” (p. 31) city where she would soon make friends with others. This is completely contrary to the image of an anonymous London Katie has. When Anna sees the orange street lights, she thinks of orange as the colour of hope in her home country (p.30). She expected London to be the paradisiacal place she knew from TV and when she arrives there, everything Anna sees seems to be absolutely positive to her. After realizing that she has been tricked into human trafficking, the city appears strange to Anna (p.103), her new life in London has not turned out as she expected.
Anna notices that the people in London all are unalike (p. 32) and considers London’s dimensions as positive until she has to learn that she is absolutely alone in a city so full of people. These dimensions make it possible for many people to find their own niche but also cover the tracks of every individual.