The Great Gatsby Loss Of Innocence Quotes

HOST: Robbie’s loss of innocence was significant in the novel. Was it important to include his trauma in the novel?

MCEWAN: Robbie’s loss of innocence was significant throughout the novel because it was his social status that condemned him. When Robbie returned to the Tallis mansion after University he would work as a landscaper making sure that everything on the Tallis property was presentable. He didn’t get to relax and enjoy the summer like the Tallis children. His home was a petite cottage which he and his mother had lived in for several years as they both worked there and his father used to be the groundkeeper. When he was inappropriately removed from the Tallis mansion and charged with rape, his life disappeared. Accused of rape and

condemned by what a 13-year-old girl believed she witnessed. Robbie was left alone with no one to defend him or help prove his innocence. I wished to perpetuate that the poor were known as criminals only because the rich could ‘buy’ their way out of trouble. This is why Robbie’s loss of innocence was important throughout the novel. Forced to choose whether he wanted to stay in prison or go to war, Robbie unwillingly chose to serve in the British army. He witnessed the tragedy of war when he attempted to save a mother and son that were helpless, but the mother refused to move. Robbie ran to hide behind a truck and the mother was killed by the bomb. His guilt was obvious, yet not long before they could finally go home, he miserably suffered from septicaemia and passed away in his friend’s arms. Not only did he lose his innocence for a crime he didn’t commit, Robbie lost his life.

HOST: Paul Marshall was incredibly deceitful in the novel, would you agree?

MCEWAN: Paul Marshall was Deceitful because he knew had enough money to cover up any trouble he ever got into.

When Paul Introduced himself to Lola Quincey, he gave her a chocolate bar but didn’t give her brothers any. While he told Lola to “bite it” he sat back in the arm chair creating an uncomfortable sexual attraction. Lola loved the attention, especially from an older, wealthy business man that her cousins had known for years. He raped Lola because she was a young fifteen-year-old girl that was naive and listened to anything he said. Yet she defended him because he had already burnt her arms by holding her down before the family dinner. I would agree that Paul Marshall was deceitful as he left Robbie to suffer and take the blame for the crimes he committed. After raping Lola, Paul deviously walked back to the Tallis mansion and fell asleep whilst Lola was being questioned by the police. Paul realised that Briony would think it was Robbie so he didn’t have to cover anything up. Robbie was an innocent young boy that was just there to help, and Paul was aware of that. But because of his class it would’ve been impossible for him to get the help he needed to prove that he was innocent. Paul was deceitful throughout the whole novel and his class allowed him to get away with raping an innocent young

girl.

HOST: The idea of perspectives appears throughout the whole novel. Was this intentional?

MCEWAN: Different perspectives were important throughout the whole novel because it was Briony’s perspective that changed Robbie’s life. She was a young naive girl that always had a crush on Robbie. When Robbie began to pay more attention to Cecelia she didn’t like it. This was intentional because Briony’s feelings got in the way of the truth and changed the way she saw things between Robbie and Cecelia. She let him take the blame over a life changing crime that she wanted to believe he committed. Long after Robbie was charged with rape, sent to war and could no longer see Cecelia, Briony realised that the relationship between Robbie and Cecelia was love not violence. She understands that her perspective at 13 was entirely different when she was 18. “It was her sister she missed or more precisely, it was her sister with Robbie (pg 330). Yet after the conflict between her, Cecelia and Robbie, Briony finally realized that she couldn’t change the past and that what she did would never be forgotten. She changed both of their lives forever and she also changed her own. Her perspective was clouded by her child hood and jealousy, and the consequences of that were life changing for everyone. She made it right and wrote a book for Robbie and Cecelia with a happy ending that they both deserved.