And the moral of the story is: DO NOT get in the car of a strange man, Even if he offers you candy

don't be THIS guy

In The Comfort of Strangers, Ian McEwan uses symbolism and irony to embellish and explain the central themes in his novel. Ultimately these literary devices and the interplay between them foreshadow the ultimate plight of the novels two protagonists: Mary and Colin. Many of these symbols and irony are related to the idea of place and tourism. The fact that the novel ends in death shows that there is a dangerous side to tourism, especially when the travelers are naïve.

One of the reoccurring symbols in The Comfort of Strangers is the map. Mary and Colin are constantly relying on maps to avoid getting lost but for some reason the maps are not particularly helpful because they are either too generalized or too specific. Additionally, some of these maps are fragmented into sections which “unfortunately” do not overlap. In the same way that Mary and Colin found “it was easy […] to get lost as they walked from one page to another,” (20) they also found it easy to lose themselves in their surroundings. By this, I mean that their common sense seemed to disappear. Additionally, they were incredibly unassuming and foolish with regard to Robert and Caroline and completely unresponsive to all of the signs pointing to danger.

Another symbol in the novel is the camera. At the end of the novel, we learn the significance of photography: Robert has been stalking Colin since his arrival, taking pictures from hidden vantage points. This is revealed when Caroline shows Mary the collage of all of the pictures of Colin. Before this, however, Cameras are mentioned several times, especially their frequency (around the necks of approximately 2/3 of all the male tourists). Also, Mary recalls in the middle of the night that there was a picture of Colin hanging in Robert and Caroline’s house. If Mary and Colin had been more cautious and thoughtful about the meaning of that one photo before whimsically choosing to return, maybe Colin would not have been murdered. The lost meaning of the photo on Mary and Colin is another example of their foolishness and naïveté.

The dark irony that lies beneath the symbolism is also present on a more obvious level. Exemplary of this more obvious type of irony in the novel is the title. Taken at face value, the idea that there is a comfort in strangers seems to imply that their encounters with strangers will be a positive experience, perhaps offering some sort of benefit for them. This is far from the truth; their encounter with Robert and Caroline is nothing short of a chilling encounter as the novel ends in blood being spread across Colin’s lips and Mary being poisoned (though, unlike Colin, she survives).

Much of their foolishness seems to be rooted in their mentality that everything is always okay because they are on vacation. They are less perceptive of danger and seem to accredit everything strange solely to place. They put themselves in danger, and make themselves susceptible victims. On a rather basic level, this story contains a real moral similar to the anecdote that most of us learn as young children: do not get into the car of the strange man, even if he offers you candy. This world is a crazy place full of crazy people and it is dangerous to forget that.