Atonement Themes

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  • Created by: emi2266
  • Created on: 17-01-22 12:33
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  • Atonement Themes
    • War
      • The reality of War - Pt2 starts with the lack of introduction to R, makes us focus on the conditions of war.
      • Cold Lang emphasises the brutality & how soldiers are desensitised to it
      • War united everyone - suffering.
      • Victimises people that suffered b/c of war
        • Frames War as a Villain - McEwan's intentions
      • McEwan uses explicit details & vivid depictions of violence & its consequence
      • Pt3 Briony sufferers with dealing with solider injuries, it challenges her, does this job in hopes to alleviate guilt.
      • 'She could see through the bloody cartilage into his mouth, and onto the back of his lacerated tongue' Pg298
      • 'he was about to die' Pg309
      • 'when they shut their eyes, they saw those mutilated bodies' Pg199
      • 'the bodies were almost cut in half' Pg199
      • 'It was a perfect leg, pale, smooth, small enough to be a child's...this is a leg' Pg192
      • 'He had lost his rifle and simply intended to survive' Pg191
      • Metaphor for what R goes through - he is at internal war with himself but also fighting for his life - Maggie Brandewiede
      • Comment on Society
    • Guilt
      • 'Atonement' - books title is Briony's aim, highlights her guilt from the start and how it burdened her. Aware of her wrongs.
      • B's guilt for her incorrect testimony against R, for separating C & R, and other things her lies led too. E.G. L marrying P
      • Daunting overtone of guilt and a need for resolve throughout.
      • Reader Q whether B's attempt to atone has selfish intent
        • Only writes the book properly once she finds out abt her dementia.
      • B's guilt physically torments her, highlights her position as a criminal.
      • 'If something happened to Robbie, if Cecilia and Robbie were never together...' Pg288
      • 'It was for herself, for her own crime which her conscience could no longer bear. Was he supposed to feel grateful?' Pg228
      • In Pt2 there are moments of possible narrative intrusion where the novels form of a reflective novel is highlighted - B thoughts show her guilt.
      • 'he had even conjured her onto the end of his bayonet' Pg229
        • Victimises herself still, deflecting the perceived hatred making herself feel better.
      • 'she's taken on nursing as a sort of penance' Pg212
        • Worries that R will get hurt at war and fantasises abt saving him
      • P & L get married, implications that it allows them to escape their guilt for allowing R to be wrongly convicted
        • L wont ever be able to testify against P. They are bound together, P can hide his crime of **** and L gets rich throught the marriage to her ******.
      • 'They were rare, the moments in the day when her mind could wander freely' Pg281
    • Perspective
      • Builds its Post-Modernism aspect
      • Highlights the unreliability of the narrator - we don't know if B made up C & R's parts - the parts that weren't the letters
      • Each characters POV juxtaposes each other, building each characters reality, biases and assumptions.
      • B's perspective leads to the wrongful incrimination of R - all her reasoning was self-centred.
        • 1) resentment at being excluded from C+R's love. Made her view R negatively 2) Her childish imagination
          • these things led her to interpret the letter wrongfully, causing her to convince herself that she saw R attack L
      • Role of the narrative plays in our individual understanding of the truth
      • 'How had she not seen it? Everything was explained. The whole day, the weeks before, her childhood. A lifetime. It was clear to her now' Pg111
      • The fountain scene - Pg29-30 and Pg38-39
      • 'how easy it was to get everything wrong, completely wrong' Pg39
      • 'Growing up...godamnit! You're 18. How much growing up do you need to do? There are soldiers dying in the field at 18. Old enough to be left to die on the roads. Did you know that?' Pg342
      • 'She knew what was required of her. Not simply a letter, but a new draft, an atonement, and she was ready to begin' Pg349
    • Class
      • Tallis Family initially believe B b/c R's class position
        • Despite his position, possibly due to his gender, Mr Tallis paid for R's education at Cambridge.
      • R class position also  stops him from protesting against his higher class accusers.
      • R+C believe the real ****** is Danny Hardman, again due to his position.
        • 'Perhaps he was interested in Lola. He was sixteen, certainly no boy' Pg48
      • P's social class protects him from conviction and suspicion despite his behaviour being consistently creepy in Pt1
        • 'one member was even accusing Marshall of being a warmonger' Pg50
        • His and Lola's class position and their reputation further protect them from being convicted (P specifically)
      • The setting emphasises the class position of the Tallis residence - Ch2 and Ch7
        • Shows off their wealth but also shows how their class position declined b/c of the war.
      • McEwan emphasises how a persons social status has little correlation with his/her moral and intellectual worth.
      • 'I'm beginning to understand the snobbery that lay behind their stupidity' Pg209
      • 'My mother never forgave you your first' Pg209
      • The class division in the Tallis house juxtaposes the unity war created amongst people.
    • Stories/Lit
      • B's obsession with writing obstructs her view of reality, it causes her to misinterpret things she doesn't understand so that they fit her fantasies.
        • The whole book shows the power of writing - she is able to bring C+R back to life creating an unreliable narrative
        • 'how can a novelist achieve atonement when, with her absolute power of deciding outcomes, she is also God?' Pg371
        • B relies on her stories to atone and come to terms with her mistakes - makes us Q if it's real atonement.

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