Overcoming Emotional Barriers in Cleave's Incendiary In Chris Cleave's Incendiary, explores the life of a middle-aged, working-class woman whose life is turned upside down by a terrorist attack. The unnamed narrator loses her husband and four-and-a-half-year-old son in the attack. The narrator lives through a traumatic experience, the bombing, which makes her lose her sense of security, her faith in the people around her and any sense of hope is completely destroyed. The narrator tries to fight her emotional breakdown and gets a job with the police to investigate the event. Her unequal revenge and regaining her sense of hope take her to unimaginable depths until she is finally lifted out of her misery. The narrator, who remains nameless throughout the book, is deprived of her husband and four-year-old son when they are taken as victims of a terrorist attack during a soccer match. The narrator is a working-class woman living in London, England. He faces and endures the stress and pressure of belonging to the lower middle class of society. She must always “make sure there is enough for the next day and hope to have a time when [she] can distract herself and relax” (Cleave 12). His life is representative of that of the average London citizen. On the day of the accident, her husband, who works for the bomb squad, takes his son to see an Arsenal match. In the meantime, she goes to a pub to relieve her mind from the daily pressure she is constantly subjected to. After drinking in desperation, he meets a reporter named Jasper Black. Later, the narrator invites Jasper to her house to spend some time with her. Oddly enough, their relationship grows intimately in a rapid succession of them meeting in... middle of a paper... out of a human. It's like a tube of toothpaste. You can twist it and squeeze it, but there's always a little left, isn't there?” (Cleave 214). Ultimately, when the threats are eliminated, the narrator lets go of all the traumatizing experiences she has been through and strives to start a new and better life even while heartbroken by her family's absence. her sense of hope, security and faith is destroyed when she experiences trauma after losing her husband and four-year-old son in a terrorist attack. Her emotions destroy her; however, he stands up to them only to see his trust in society shattered once again. She finally opens her eyes to reality which in turn frees her from her misery. Overall, the truth might be painful at times, but knowing it can be helpful in the long run.