Atonement by Ian McEwan
1. The novel begins with the announcements that five of the Tallis' family members are going to be heading home for a visit. The older brother, Leon, and his friend Paul Marshall are heading home for a day's visit, while cousins of the Tallis', Lola and her twin brothers, are also coming to visit, unexpectedly. It was the summer of 1935, Briony Tallis is finishing up the poem she wrote for her brother's return home while all of a sudden her eyes come across her older sister, Cecilia, taking off her clothes getting ready to dive into the fountain to retrieve pieces of a broken vase. Oblivious to her surroundings, Cecilia's bare skin and objects are visible for anyone to see, and unfortunately visible to Robbie Turner, a family friend who Briony is infatuated by. With the amazing, graceful sight of Cecilia's bare body, Robbie is in awe and acknowledges the fact that he has then fallen in love with Cecilia. Later on, Robbie was invited over for dinner at the Tallis house, when he accidentally inserted a letter depicting the inappropriate things he would do with Cecilia into an envelope. Briony came across the letter and in disgust with what she read, was determined that Robbie was insane and a creeper. That night, Briony walked into the family library to Robbie and Cecilia doing inappropriate things and becomes so utterly confused with the interactions and feelings between her sister and her "dream boy." After witnessing the disturbing scene in the library, the family eats and finds out the twins had ran away. Frantic, the entire family went to look for them but Briony took off to try to find them on her own. While by herself, she witnesses Lola being "attacked" by a man who she thought was Robbie. When she returns home, she accuses Robbie as the attacker and reports him to the police which puts him in jail even after the long, conflicted court trial. In part two, the novel skips to the year 1940 when Robbie was let out of prison. He then joined the British Expeditionary Force in which he is in France battling against the Nazis. The war becomes extremely dangerous and Robbie ends up getting wounded and becoming delirious. The only method of communication to the outside world is letters in which he speaks to Cecilia. The novel refers back to Briony and the guilt she faces after she realizes that she had made a false accusation and that Robbie did not rape Lola. She becomes so fed up with her guilt and consequences of her accusation, that she desperately tells Cecilia that she will tell the court that Robbie was not the man who raped Lola. Cecilia and Robbie are free of accusations but continue to have resentment towards Briony and the family because of the trouble that they have created for her and Robbie. Part three also reveals that it was Paul Marshall, Leon's friend, who had raped Lola and that Lola was now getting married to him. Although not ever forgiven by Cecilia and Robbie, Briony still goes on and lives her life "guilt free." The end of the novel depicts Briony when she was 77 years old and in which she had just found out that she was dying of vascular dementia. The audience is revealed that Atonement was her book that she had not yet published and she wouldn't do so until Lola and Paul were dead. Unfortunately, she acknowledges that she will not outlive the two and that the story will be revealed while they were still alive. She also admits that the novel wasn't entirely truthful and that Cecilia and Robbie didn't reunite but died separated from one another while Robbie was at war.
2. Although the book contained several themes, I believe the one that is portrayed throughout the entire novel and serves the novel a great purpose is guilt. Both Briony and Lola experience a great amount of guilt and also suffered from its consequences after performing wrong actions. Briony having blamed Robbie for Lola's rape when it was not him, and her writing a book around the conflicting events the family faces, Briony never escapes the feeling of guilt her entire life. Lola's lies about her rape situation and not revealing who the real man was never diminished and she also had to live with that guilt for the rest of her life. Guilt is what Ian McEwan's novel was built upon and was deeply portrayed in each and every page in the novel.
3. The author's tone in the novel is resentful. When Briony retrieves Robbie's letter, she is filled with anger and resentment in which she states," How dare you! How dare you!" Briony was at fault, herself, because she had no right to go through Cecilia's belongings. Another instant that depicts the tone is at Paul and Lola's wedding when Robbie says, "I want to find him... I want to kill him." This statement is made by Robbie because he knows the truth about the rape of Lola and wants to make Paul pay for his stupid mistakes and wrongdoings. Another instance was when Briony was working as a nurse and becomes admirable towards Luc. "He was a lovely boy who was a long way from his family and was about to die." Although this quote doesn't portray resentment, it does symbolize the those innocent, kind men who were murdered for a reason that had nothing to do with them nor their lives.
4. Setting- The story takes place in the era of the World War II and portrays the difficulties experiences by the families who were affected by the war. Tone- McEwan's tone was resentful throughout the novel and gave depth to the conflicts the characters faced. Parallelism- the drastic affects the world had on its victims were, in comparison, alike the conflicts Briony faced throughout the story. Irony- At the end of the novel, the author reveals that Cecilia and Robbie were never reunited after he returned from war and the same person who had tore them apart had lied and "put them together again." Allusion- in a couple instances, the author includes Briony alluding back to her younger years such as when she recalled to the time when she had admitted to loving Robbie at the age of ten. Tragedy- Briony's bad decisions and false accusations left her all alone suffering from the consequences of her wrong doings. Foreshadowing- In part three, the book skips forward to Briony at the age off 77 in which she predicts that all hell will break lose when Lola and Paul find out that she had published a book that depicted the mean, silly games and lies they had preformed that had caused so many people to experience unneeded struggles.
Characterization
1. "Paul Marshall took control of the conversation with a ten minute monologue." This quote suggests that Paul is very courageous and proud/arrogant. "Lola had green eyes and sharp bones in her face, and hollow cheeks, and there was something brittle her reticence strong will and temper easily lost." Emily Tallis: "Habitual fretting about her children, her husband, her sister, the help, had rubbed her senses raw; migraine.. had distilled.. a sixth sense..." 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 just yet." Robbie could not let go of his hard work, pride, not even after he dropped out. He still remained proud of himself and his work.
2. I would say McEwan's syntax remains constant throughout the novel for each and every situation and character. In each situation he uses little dialogue and sentence length while describing/introducing.
3.Briony is both a dynamic and round character. As the story progresses, she changed as she acknowledged the wrong doings she had completed. As she grows, she matures and notices that she needed to make up for her mistakes and fix the bonds that had broke because of her actions.
4. Throughout the novel, I felt a relationship forming between me and Briony. Like her, I was also immature as a child and did not care who I hurt or offended. But as I grew and matured, I acknowledged the mistakes I made and made amends for them. I, at first, disagreed with the family's actions, especially Briony's and Lola's, but as the story progressed, I began to form an understanding and admiration for the family and their methods of making amends
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