Briony Tallis 'Coming Of Age In Atonement'

1. The theme of coming of age is featured throughout the entire novel Atonement because of how people grow up and change during their lifetime. McEwan expresses his opinion on whether people remain the same or change as they grow up and mature by covering 64 years of events in Briony Tallis’ life. He begins by showing Briony’s young and innocent mind in Part One, where she falsely accuses Robbie of raping her cousin Lola. She is unable to tell the difference between her own fantasies and the realities of real life. Until she reads Robbie’s letter, she questions her life purpose. When she reads the letter she is appalled and disgusted by it because of how she perceives it as something terrible. This is the first encounter she has with the reality

that Robbie is in love with Cecelia and Briony is confused to how she should react to the situation. McEwan writes the end of the novel as a way to show Briony’s “coming of age” when she come to terms with her mistakes. She realizes that the world is not all about her and they there are other people in the world with more complicated problems. Briony changes as she grows older throughout the novel by acknowledging her past wrongs, but she remains the same in that she is too afraid to admit those wrongs to the public.
Atonement is a novel containing a multitude of stories and literature to show the power of writing. McEwan features many different works of writing in his writing to emphasize the storytelling and narration in the plot of the novel. He makes it evident through Briony that whoever is the author of the story has the authority to play the role of a “god” in changing the plot to fit whatever their heart desires. Briony’s play “The Trials of Arabella” turns out to be a disaster when nothing goes Briony’s way. This is later reflected in the rest of the story when the occurrences in Briony’s life do not go her way as well. The only way she was able to control her life when it spun out of control was to write them into the story, as it is later revealed that many of the reconciling events were written in by Briony. To the reader, it is believed that these fictional events were real in the context of the story. The power of Briony’s writing was able to convince the reader that all ends were met when in fact they were just figments of Briony’s imagination to achieve atonement.
McEwan uses the theme of different versions of reality in his novel to show how there are a variety of perspectives in the world that shape that individual’s perception of reality. In the novel, he shows the same storyline from the point of view of different characters. Each character has evident conflicting understandings of events that happen based off of their personal opinions and thoughts. Briony’s false accusation of Robbie is the most prominent and consequential event in the novel that shows how her version of reality had muddled the truth. The fountain scene, library scene and Robbie’s letter were aspects that led to Briony’s perception of Robbie being a sex-crazed man, therefore causing her to believe he was the man responsible for raping Lola. Briony’s faulted perspective influences those around her including her mother and the police officials into believing that Robbie is guilty. They are partially biased towards Robbie being of the lower class as well which adds towards their idea that he committed the crime without any physical evidence besides the word of a 13 year old girl.
2. Ian McEwan’s character Briony in Atonement is a reflection of his own personality. They are both similar in their origin and occupation of being English and writers. Both McEwan and Briony have a passion for writing because of how it allows the author to create and manipulate anything in their writing. The novel would be different if Briony was written as a male instead of a female. Her point of view would lose the feminine characteristics that make her narration descriptive and in awe of her surroundings. The character’s connection to her family, especially towards Cecelia and her mother, would be weaker because of how typically female family members share a special bond with each other. The entire situation of Briony’s concern for her sister and Robbie’s relationship may not have happened if she was portrayed as a boy. If she was a male and saw the fountain scene between the two lovers, she most likely would not have been curious about their relationship enough to read Robbie’s explicit letter to Cecelia. She would not have viewed Robbie as a sex-crazed mania and felt the need to protect her sister from him if she did not read the inappropriate letter. Many of the events leading to Briony’s misleading accusation of Robbie would most likely not occur in the novel if Briony was a boy. At the end of the novel where Briony narrates as a woman, she explains how she had used her creativity in her writing to create atonement of her past mistakes. If Briony had been a man at the end of the story, there would be no need to create figments to repent her sins because of how they would most likely not have happened.
3. Atonement is a war novel in that there is both war physically and figuratively throughout the storyline. The war that happens simultaneously with the events serves as a metaphor to the conflicts and struggles that occur in the life of Robbie Turner. Briony’s false accusation and betrayal of him through the incident with Lola and his later separation from the love of his life, Cecelia, creates turmoil in Robbie’s life. World War II was an era of chaos where cities were destroyed and loved ones were never seen again. The war parallels Robbie’s life in that after his imprisonment he lost his relationship with Cecelia, similar to how many people lost hope during the fighting in the war. After his imprisonment, Robbie serves in the war in Part Two of the novel as a way to “exonerate” himself from a crime that he did not commit. The metaphor becomes a part of his life, symbolizing the loss of his normal life replaced with a life full of chaos from his separation from Cecelia. The novel suggests that war is an enemy of creative activity. War in the novel is a representation of the reality of life. A majority of the Briony’s account is not factual until World War II becomes a part of it. The events of the war, such as the retreat at Dunkirk, actually happened in the real world unlike the fictional assault of Lola. When the war enters the novel and becomes a part of the story, it disrupts the creative flow of the fictional story with the reality of real life events that occurred during the same time period.
4. The last section of the novel, “London, 1999” changes the reader’s understanding of the earlier parts of the story because of how it establishes Briony as the author. The point of view of the novel changes from being a third person narrative to a first person narrative, creating a frame tale type style. It is revealed that her meeting with Robbie and Cecilia in London 1940 was made up and that the two lovers were never reunited in the end. She exposes her previous crime in this last section and how she used her creativity and imagination in her writing to come to terms with her guilt from her past. This last section is more truthful than the rest of the novel because it shows how untruthful the rest of the novel is. Previous to the last section, there are false details about Robbie’s imprisonment and his relationship with Cecelia ending happily. Briony reveals these details and clarifies the truth in the last section, meaning that the actions previously stated cannot be trusted as completely truthful events.
5.

Realism is important in the novel Atonement because of how it helps to discern the difference between reality and fantasy. The reader believes that the fictional events of the novel are all reality within the context of the story until it is revealed at the end that a majority of the story was made up in the pure imagination of Briony. It is made evident that one can get carried away easily with the fantasies of writing the mind’s thoughts. The satisfaction Briony faces at the end when she comes to terms with the guilt that has been building up inside of her is a result of realism. She explains how her imagination had carried her away in the past causing the false accusation of Robbie. Briony uses realism to take responsibility and for atonement of her actions. Because she is finally able to admit her mistakes to the reader and come to terms with them, she feels a sense of satisfaction. If superheroes, vampires, or any other mythical/fantasy creatures were featured in the novel, the novel would not work because of how they would take away the believable but false parts of the majority of the storyline. The reader would know that the story was made up from their knowledge that mythical creatures do not exist in the real

world.
6. The novel Atonement shows the world from many different perspectives. If the story had been told from a single perspective throughout the entire novel, the viewpoint of the story would change. Briony’s point of view is naïve and stubborn; she is narrow-minded and innocent to the realities of the real world. The storyline would be whatever Briony is thinking at the time of the event or what she believed happened because of how she has a creative mindset. Anything that Briony believes is true is the truth in her mind when it could be false in reality. Contrary to Briony, Lola is a sophisticated and bright type of person. It is stated that they are complete opposites when Lola first arrives to the Tallis house and desires to have the part as Arabella in Briony’s play. Lola’s perspective would change the novel by being slightly confused in the beginning as to why she is at the Tallis household. It novel would focus more on her struggle to understand the lives of the adults around her and on her shaken and vulnerable experience after being assaulted, instead of Robbie and Cecelia’s love story. If the story was told from Cecelia’s perspective, the world in which they live in would be seen as dark and depressing because of how Cecelia views her own life. Throughout the story she does not find joy in anything and mopes around waiting for something to happen in her life. Robbie’s perspective would be the opposite of Cecelia’s due to his positive and ambitious attitude. He is always aiming to a higher goal, such as becoming a doctor. If either Robbie or Cecelia had told the story from their point of view, the novel would focus mainly on their romance before and after Robbie’s conviction.
7. The epigraph from Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey relates to Atonement in that it is another novel about an individual’s imagination overtaking their sense of reality. The main character, Catherine, of Northanger Abbey believes that Mr. Tilney is responsible for his late wife’s sudden death. Mr. Tilney’s son, Henry, is the speaker of the epigraph and is confronting Catherine’s suspicions of his father. He reasons with her about how they are English, Christian, and educated individuals. Because of these reasons his father would never have any immoral ideas especially any that could have jeopardized his high social status. This epigraph relates to Atonement because of how it foreshadows the novel being English and events in the novel being false. McEwan included this epigraph in the beginning of the novel to set up the storyline of Atonement by giving another example of a similar plotline. Both characters, Briony and Catherine, go through processes of falsely accusing another and end up living a life of shame. However, the characters in Atonement end up believing Briony and executing the punishments against Robbie, whereas in Northanger Abbey no one believes Catherine and no real harm is done to Mr. Tilney.
8. The last three paragraphs of the novel change the reader’s perspective by forcing the reader to question the reliability of the novel’s storyline as a whole. The reader believes that all of the events are true until they read these last few paragraphs when Briony reveals herself as the author. Briony’s confession allows the reader to learn that she wrote the story as a way to accommodate for her past mistakes and to find atonement among her wrongs. The purpose of the author McEwan for throwing a “curve ball” towards the reader was so that Briony was able to achieve atonement. He achieved this by making her give Robbie and Cecelia the happy ending in her story that they never got in the real story.