Analysis of Atonement by Ian McEwan free essay sample

Atonement by Ian McEwan falls under the genre of fiction, mystery, and suspense. The word Atonement means reparation for a wrongdoing. The book is set time of pre, present, and post World War II. The book references many well know works including Grey’s Anatomy, Macbeth, and Hamlet. Briony Tallis plays the role of both the protagonist and the antagonist in this piece. She is the main character and the story is told primarily through her eyes. Briony Tallis is a 13 year old who expresses great passion in writing. Briony has 2 older siblings Leon and Cecilia, who are visiting from London and Cambridge. One day, Briony comes across her older sister Cecelia and Robbie, Briony’s crush, making love in the library. Briony, being so young, didn’t understand what was going on. She misinterpreted the whole situation and ended up telling false stories about Robbie. This led to problems in Cecelia and Robbie’s relationship, resulting in a break up. Briony later realizes he effect of her actions on Robbie and Cecelia, and even if Robbie and Cecelia never forgive her, she is determined to receive atonement for what she did. Main themes include guilt, misconception, and innocence. A few symbol in this piece include, the vase, water, and the window. Ian McEwan did a wonderful job of using other literary devices such as diction, foreshadowing and allusion. Part Two: Journal Entries One: In the first chapters of Atonement, the thirteen-year-old main character, Briony, struggles with determining who she wants to be and what she wants to do. It is like she is an adult trapped in a child’s body. She even describes her life as â€Å"unbearably complicated† (34). However, there are some things, life changing things, which Briony is yet to understand. This is determined primarily in the beginning of the book when she happens to notice Cecelia, her older sister, and Robbie, son of the Tallis’ charlady, in a somewhat intimate looking scene by the fountain. This comes as an unexpected surprise to Briony who, at such an immature age, doesn’t understand why her older sister is standing in her undergarments, drenched in water, in front of Robbie. This part of the story sets the tone for the rest of the piece and determines one of the main themes, misconception. Briony forms her own view on the scene between Briony and Robbie, which is obviously far different from what really happened. When reading, it can be determined that this introduction to the main character, Briony, and her actions are a foreshadowing for what is to come of Cecelia, Robbie, and herself. Two: Lola, the oldest sibling of the Tallis cousins, is also down to visit her cousins, aunt, and uncle. These next few chapters are based around how she is developing into a woman, and struggling with the need for a man in her life. This is based around the absence of her father in her life, so she not only wants a â€Å"lover† but also yearns for someone who she can look to as a father figure. One particular scene is when she notice Paul Marshall’s luggage in her Auntie Venus’ room. This reminds her so much of her father. Lola spends much of her time trying to act more mature than she actually. Her character is normally seen using her maternal instinct as she always tries to instruct the two younger brothers to do what’s right, and is spends a lot of her time in the nursery. This is when Paul Marshall shows up and kind of plays along with Lola’s maternal ways towards the boys and tells them that their parents are good people and they still love them. The presence of Paul Marshall sort of sets her tone for this part of the book. She obviously shows interest in him, and likewise, he does in her. This, however, posed a question to me. How would Paul Marshall feel about Lola is he knew that she is looking, in a way, for someone to look to as a father figure? Would this change his mind about her? Three: Briony is still struggling with determining exactly who she is, which is kind of odd for a 13 year old who has her whole life to figure that out. Through these chapters, the reader can sort of get an explanation to the symbol of water and how it plays so importantly into Briony’s life. Briony is at the temple that sits in the middle of a small island in the middle of a man made lake on the Tallis property. This is described through a quote on page 64, â€Å" Briony would have gone out with her mood, probably to be by the water, by the pool, or the lake, or perhaps she had gone as far as the river. † Water seems to be Briony’s getaway, the place where she feels most comfortable and safe. This reference to water can also be seen in several other places leading up to this point in the book. Specifically when Cecelia and Robbie break the flower vase and Cecelia removes her clothes to jump into the fountain to retrieve the broken pieces. So far, water can been seen as a key point in this book. Four: Social class creates many unnerving situations in this piece. The Tallis’ are obviously of the more wealthy part of society, seeing as they own a large piece of land, on which sits a huge house, a garden, and a bridge over to a man made lake. The Turners are portrayed as much lower on the social scale. Grace Turner is the charlady, a woman employed to keep up the house, for the Tallis’. She was once married to Ernest Turner, a former employee of Jack Tallis. They have a son, Robbie, who, despite his social class, is in love with Cecelia Tallis. Due to the difference in social class, their relationship has to be kept on the down low. Cecelia is particularly worried what her parents will think if they find out she has been secretly seeing Robbie. This leads many unfortunate events when Briony notices what is going on between them. Social class in England during the early 1900s was uptight and taken very seriously. There were the upper and middle classes, where the Tallis’ would fall, and the working class, in which the Turners would fall under. Members of these social classes were rarely willing or able to move to another social class, it was almost under restrictions to do so. This is why it is such a problem for Robbie and Cecelia to see each other in a romantic manner. Robbie doesn’t care about social classes or the family background that either of them come from, however, this is a much harder feat for Cecelia because she doesn’t want to disappoint her parents. Five: Part two of the book is based specifically on Robbie Turner, Cecelia’s lover and the one who was wrongly accused of raping Lola. He was sentenced and sent to a British prison but is serving in the British army to decrease his jail time. This has to be a difficult time for Robbie. Obviously, he is in love with Cecelia but there is no way the Tallis’ will believe his side of the story over one of their own family members. Robbie, however, seems to be getting along somewhat okay despite the fact he is having to serve in the army, but it seems to be doing him some good. He has made new friends and helped several people during their journey to Dunkirk. I feel that Robbie is using this time away from his family and the Tallis’ to kind of figure things out. However, he is taking the situation pretty well. He knows that he will never win with the Tallis’ so he is just sort of taking what is thrown at him. This shows that Robbie is confident in himself but is disciplined enough to know when the right time to fight back is. Six: True guilt has now overcome Briony. She is finally seeing the reality of her actions towards Cecelia and Robbie. Briony is working in a hospital London during the time of war over in London. When she returns from lunch one day there are hundreds of wounded soldiers spread all over the hospital and its lawn. As Briony does her best to help as many soldiers as possible she realizes why she is really working in the hospital, to make up for what she did to Cecelia and Robbie. After an antagonizing visit with Cecelia and Robbie, Briony realizes that she is going to have to do some pretty selfless things in order to receive atonement for her actions. Part Three: Final Overview So far Atonement has been one of my favorite books. It not only tells a story but it gives the reader room to sort of figure some things out on their own. One specific instance is when Briony reads the letter the Robbie wrote to Cecelia. The reader knows what Robbie wrote two letters but he or she doesn’t know which one was given to Briony to deliver to Cecelia. Briony, however, reads this letter, knowing that she shouldn’t. In a way, this sets the basis for the rest of the book and gives characteristics to many characters in the book such as Briony, Cecelia and Robbie. Briony even descries her life as â€Å"unbearably complicated†(34). This can be seen as true for most of the characters in the book, all of their lives are complicated, or become complicated during the book. The biggest highlight of the book, I thought, was in the beginning at the fountain scene between Robbie and Cecelia, but it all goes down from there. I would describe this book as sort of a romance novel but with a twist. It could be compared to Romeo and Juliet but in a more modern time because the general theme of the book is forbidden love. This is one of the main reasons this book was so appealing to me. I mean, what teenage girl doesn’t love a sad romance story? The only thing I didn’t particularly like about the book is how negative the characters were all the time. There was always something going wrong and someone to blame for it, which ended in disaster when it came to the fate of two young lovers, Cecelia and Robbie. Although I haven’t recommended this book to anyone, I did have detailed discussions about it with Zoey Barton. She previously read the book and was able to help me better understand the context because it can become very complicated with the way McEwan writes in the past and present. For example, part one, two, and three are thought to be written in the present because of the ways the author writes in present tense. However, in part four, it’s found out that the whole story actually happened many years ago and was written from the point of view of the 77 year old Briony. This was my favorite aspect of the book, because it gave me one of those â€Å"OMG† moments when I finally put everything together.