National Identity in Eric Amblers Journey into Fear Essay -- Journey

National individuation in Eric Amblers go into FearIn his novel A position for Dimitrios, Eric Ambler writes A mans features, the bone structure and the tissue which covers it, are the result of a biological process but his face he creates for himself (269). This tuberosity between the physical flesh and the face, the devil mask is for Ambler a crucial metaphor of duplicity (269). It is a screen to hide the hears nakedness...though they experience instinctively that the mask cannot be the man behind it they are generally shocked by a demonstration of the fact (269). If we extend this smell of the face to other external indicators of the man beneath, such as raiment and nationality, we begin to see the politics that imbue Amblers characters. whole wheat flour, the hero of journey into Fear, plays the parting of the innocent Englishman in a double-faced world of false individuality and devil masks (269). As the act of identification occur, both of the mask and of the mind behind the mask, Grahams relation as the Englishman to the other characters becomes a politicized description on Englands role in the early stages of the Second World war.In Journey into Fear, Graham is presented to us as an embodiment of the Englishman. To the members of his society, Graham presents nada to a greater extent than the epitome of their national individualism, to the extent that they are unable to recognize Graham as anything but unremarkable. Entrenched in their own culture, he presents nothing more than what they expect. Insofar as he possesses characteristics particular to him they are required only for driving the plot forwards. Beyond providing an alibi for his presence in Turkey, Graham is characterized by the inability of his peers, the ... ... or so away from the cars armored combat vehicle and fires at it (262). It is this act of identification of the situation and the action that follows that allows Graham to execute over the German agents. Ultimately, Journey into Fear reads as a commentary on the political situation of England in the beginning stages of World War II. The nationalist and supra-nationalist identities speak to the necessity that Ambler saw of England first recognizing the situation, creation able to identify the ape beneath the mask of national identity and subsequently acting upon it. The hero, Graham in this case, must identify, as Amblers the cougar does, the mind through the face and become aware of the inherently duplicitous nature of that mask.ReferencesAmbler, Eric. A Coffin for Dimitrios. Random House New York 1939.Ambler, Eric. Journey into Fear. Random House New York 1940.