Color Symbolism in Ian McEwan’s Solar

Sep 7th, 2020

In another story, set in a more contemporary environment, Ian McEwan, master of choice detail, fleshes out the differences, both physically and emotionally, between Michael and Patrice as their marriage disintegrates. The color pink is used in the descriptions pertaining to both characters, but with entirely different symbolism.

An early sigh of Beard’s distress was dysmorphia, or perhaps it was dysmorphia he was suddenly cured of. At last he knew himself for what he was. Catching sight of a conical pink mess in the misted full length mirror as he came out of the shower, he wiped down the glass, stood full on, and took a disbelieving look. What engines of self-persuasion had let him think for so many years that looking like this was seductive? That foolish thatch of earlobe-level hair that buttressed his baldness, the new curtain swag of fat that hung below his armpits, the innocent stupidity of swelling in gut and rear. Once he had been able to improve on his mirror self by pinning back his shoulders, standing erect, tightening his abs. Now human blubber draped in his efforts. How could he possibly keep hold of a young woman as beautiful as she was? Had he honestly thought status was enough, that his Nobel Prize would keep her in his bed?

Michael, who has been riding the waves of his Nobel Prize win, is now forced to grapple with the reality before his eyes. The short but poignant details paint a vivid picture of our protagonist, and McEwan, like Doerr, uses color to amplify the physical disarray that is Michael; the “conical pink mess” permeates the passage, and pairs with the “thatch of earlobe hair that buttressed his baldness,” to present a sad sight.

Similarly, pink is one of the colors utilized to bring Michael’s wife, Patrice, to life, however, the effect is starkly different:

That summer of 2000 she was wearing different clothes, she had a different look around the house—faded tight jeans, flip-flops, a ragged pink cardigan over a T-shirt, her blond hair cut short, her pale eyes a deeper agitated blue. Her build was slight, and now she looked like a teenager…She was thirty-four, and still kept the strawberries-and–cream look of her twenties…There was a fullness in her lower lip, a promise of trouble when she lowered her gaze, and her shortened hair lay curled on her nape in a compelling, old-fashioned way. Surely she was more beautiful than Monroe, drifting about the house and garden at weekends in a haze of blond and pink, and pale blue.

In Patrice’s case, hues of pink come across as summery and youthful, reminiscent of the “strawberries-and cream-look” of earlier days. Clearly, the dismantling of their marriage has revitalized Patrice and the color motifs present a picture of inherent optimism. The depictions of husband and wife are so diametrically opposed, not only because of their physical differences but also because of the shift in tone. Michael’s description carries a permeating heaviness; the humid, airless bathroom, his heft of his body, and his own insecurities that are weighing him down. Patrice on the other hand, is shrouded in a sense of light-weighted youthfulness—a blast of fresh air after viewing Michael in the misted bathroom mirror.