Literature Analysis #1

Atonement- Ian McEwan

The novel starts out with 13 year old Briony Tallis working on a play for her older brother Leon who's coming home that day of summer of 1935. From the window, she witnesses her older sister Cecilia strip off her clothes and jump into the fountain, to retrieve shards of a broken vase. Also on the scene is Robbie Turner who watches Cecilia in awe. Robbie is later invited to dinner by Leon; when trying to write a letter for excuse of absence, he accidentally puts the wrong letter into the envelope, one with vulgar language and his feelings toward Cecilia. Briony reads the letter and thinks him as a maniac that must be stopped. She walks in on Robbie and Cecilia in the library, which she misunderstands as Robbie attacking Cecilia when in actuality they were having an intimate moment. After dinner, Pierrot and Jackson (little twin boys who are visiting with their sister Lola) run away. Briony unsuccessfully attempts to find them but instead witnesses Lola being attacked by a stranger, who she accuses as Robbie and turns into the police.

Part 2: By the time World War II has begun, Robbie has spent a few years in prison, released on condition that he'll enlist in the army. Cecilia went back to school to become a nurse and has cut off all contact from her family because they took part in sending Robbie to jail. Cecilia and Robbie are in contact only through letters since she wasn't allowed to visit him in jail. They manage to meet each other during one of Cecilia's lunch breaks before Robbie has to go to war. And though a little awkward at first, they warm up to each other and part with an endearing kiss. The war in France is going badly, and Robbie ends up at a safe haven after having been wounded. He thinks of Cecilia, their last encounter, Briony's possible motives for turning him into the police. The thought of seeing Cecilia is the only thing that keeps him going, that encourages him to keep walking. 

Part 3: Briony is a trainee nurse in London. She now realizes she was wrong to accuse Robbie, that it was actually Leon's friend, Paul Marshall, who raped Lola. Briony is tending to Luc, a young French soldier fatally wounded in battle. She consoles him, but he mistakes her for a young English girl his mother wanted him to marry. Just before death, Luc asks Briony, "Do you love me?" to which she replies, "Yes." And in that moment she really did love him. Briony attends the wedding of Lola and Paul Marshall and runs into Cecilia and Robbie, both of whom say they'll never forgive her. But she promises to make things right by exonerating Robbie even though Paul Marshall will never be held responsible for his crime.

London 1999: Written in her perspective, Briony is a successful novelist at 77 years old and dying of vascular dementia, It is revealed that she is the narrator of the previous stories, that she changed events (Robbie and Cecilia meeting each other again, making amends) because she wanted to give Robbie and Cecilia their happiness. 

1. One of the most obvious themes is that of atonement or forgiveness. The entire book is centered on Briony trying to make amends for the crime she committed as a child. She spends her life writing this book in attempts to do so, how a girl doesn't truly understand what she sees and how she tries to rectify her mistake. In part 2, Briony confronts Robbie and Cecilia about it, how she will try to fix her mistakes. And even though they say they'll never forgive her, Briony tries anyway. In the last part, it is revealed that the events never really happened and Briony writes the novel to atone for her sins. But the question arises: is the novel really enough to forgive her mistakes? Is she allowed to feel better for writing a better ending for Cecilia and Robbie? 
2. McEwan's tone is indignant. When Briony reveals the intimate letter Robbie wrote to Cecilia, she yells, "How dare you! How dare you all!" Briony has no right to snoop through Cecilia's things and violate her privacy. And that was the exact moment of Robbie's ultimate demise. While Briony works as a nurse, she tends to Luc; "He was a lovely boy who was a long way from his family and he was about to die."Now while this quote doesn't have an angry attitude, it does represent the injustice of the war, how young innocent men were killed for a reason unrelated to them, fighting another man's war. And in part 3, at Lola and Paul's wedding, Robbie says, "I want to find him... I want to kill him." He says this because he knows the entire truth, not just part of it, knows that it was actually Paul Marshall who raped Lola. And yet there he is marrying her. It's not fair to Lola and not right that Paul will never be punished. 
3. Setting- McEwan's use of pre-World War II sets the stage for the rising tension and struggle from Briony's thoughtless act. Parallelism- related, the devastation of World War II parallels the personal problems that Briony, Cecilia, and Robbie all have to deal with. Mood- McEwan wants his readers to feel and experience the same loss and tragedy experienced by many during the war; he describes "bomb craters... more bodies." Irony- readers learn the truth that Robbie and Cecilia never ended up together even though they so desperately wished; and who better to pair them together than the one who ripped them apart: Briony. Tragic flaw- Briony's lack of better knowledge and judgment lead not only to her eventual downfall but that of Robbie; Briony ends up alone with her guilt. Flash forward- the last part advances a couple decades into the future with Briony at the frail age of 77. Imagery- McEwan uses imagery impeccably, from the weeds that Briony angrily hacks away at or the sexual encounter between Robbie and Cecilia. 
4. "[Lola] had green eyes and sharp bones in her face, and hollow cheeks, and there was something brittle in her reticence that suggested strong will and a temper easily lost." On Emily Tallis, "Habitual fretting about her children, her husband, her sister, the help, had rubbed her senses raw; migraine... had distilled... a sixth sense..." | "Paul Marshall took control of the conversation with a ten minute monologue." which insinuates that he is very proud with a touch of arrogance. About Robbie, "He tilted back his chair and surveyed his desk as one might a life... He had no further use for his notes,but too much work, too much success was bound up with them and he could not bring himself to throw them out yet." Robbie can't let go of his hard work, his pride; even though he dropped out, he still feels proud of his work.
5. McEwan uses long sentences when describing characters and setting. He uses little dialogue. He packs as much detail into each sentence as he can, no matter what he's describing. 
6. Briony is a dynamic character and grows from a flat character to a round one. As the story progresses, she realizes her mistakes and tries to make up for them, rather when she was a child, she didn't much care for details and accuracy or who she hurt. Briony matures greatly and attemps to atone for her sins, rather when she was a child she didn't care who she hurt.
7. I feel like a met different characters. I am disappointed in Briony's character but I understand where she comes from. A naive mind that doesn't know any better, an imaginative mind that concocts crazy stories. And I don't think that her novel and her happy ending will ever atone for her sin. Some may argue that what she did was a mistake, but I think she turned a blind eye from Robbie. And she needs to suffer for keeping her sister from her lover.