Summary
Summary Atonement - Notes from Critical Essays
- Course
- Institution
These are notes taken from various critical essays concerning McEwan's Atonement that will help to deepen your understanding of the text.
[Show more]
3 reviews
By: ediamarc1 • 2 year ago
By: lucypritchard04 • 3 year ago
By: student-failing-their-Alevels • 4 year ago
Seller
Follow
alevelhistory
Reviews received
Content preview
Atonement – Critical ReadingAtonement – Questioning the Imagination
• Briony is only interested in an imagination that makes everything fit to her sense of order
• Her desire for a coherent story seems to override everything else. Through fiction she can imagine a world that is
better than it actually is
• McEwan identifies the limitations of Briony and of the novel and novelist who only tells a single, partial story
where so many others are available
• Some believe Briony deliberately uses her imagination in malign ways; others argue that she is subject to a force
she is unable to control; other argue that Briony’s imagination doesn’t go far enough as she can only imagine a
neatly packaged story
• ‘she simply fails to recognise the difference between the story in fiction and the stories she constructed to help
her make sense of the real world’
A Close Reading of Atonement – extended Interior Monologue
• Briony’s character is incredibly isolated and there is a lack of love in her live
• She is impulsive, restless, a perfectionist and an unreliable witness, narrator and character
• Briony as a young character notices and enjoyed the implementation of order on the world
Atonement and Post-Memory
• ’65 000 died there. Dunkirk is not simply the miracle of the little boats. Before that, there was a war crime.’
• The narrative is fragmented, told from multiple and often conflicting points of view. McEwen also uses prolepsis,
the sudden leap into a different time
• It is a mourning for our inability to access the past in anything other than this incomplete, imaginative way
• ‘Briony, an unreliable narrator with a serious ulterior motive’
Slips and Shifts – Time and Viewpoint in Atonement
• By narrating part 3 from Briony’s point of view, McEwan seals us off from Cecilia’s righteous fury and from
Robbie’s bitter anger. We instead focus on the courage she has for facing them
• The chronological shifts in part 1 with the different chapters emphasis the separateness of different points of vies
• The time slips reflect the novelists working to make a novel that is happier than life
Atonement – Revelations Withheld
• McEwan litters the narrative with words with the semantic field of violence
• The characters and readers taken on the role of detective – investigation and imposing meaning on the
narrative e.g. Emily in Ch.6
• Briony’s understanding of events is influenced and informed by her immaturity, wild imagination and long
standing taste for melodramatic fiction
• It explored the power an author has over a reader
Atonement – Briony, morality and textuality
• Briony is a detective – piecing together clues from Robbie’s behaviour
• The war section carries the trademarks of melodrama and romance – the wartime hero, fighting his way back
to his lover at home
• Does Briony really face up to her crime or is she still trapped by her own fiction?
• The reader is invited to judge whether to forgive or condemn her
• She sees herself as the heroin, as well of the author, of her drama, her story
McEwan on Briony
• Her imagination was the element that would disrupt and eventually ruin the love between Cecilia and Robbie
• ‘I never thought of her as a wicked person’, she is guilty of a mistake rather than intentional mendacity
• By the time she is 18, she Is a hard-working, dedicated nurse, and her remorse for what she ahs done is just
beginning
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller alevelhistory. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $0.00. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
Can Stuvia be trusted?
4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)
61001 documents were sold in the last 30 days
Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy study notes for 14 years now