McEwans 9/11 Quote Linking to Briony
McEwan stated that it is hard to be cruel when entering the mind of the victim. 'Imagining what
it is like to be someone other than yourself is at the core of our humanity'. This compassion and
empathy later illuminates Briony's character and progresses her writing.
Writing about the terrorist attacks of 9/11, for the Guardian McEwan stated that "if the
hijackers had been able to imagine themselves into the thoughts and feelings of the
passengers, they would have been unable to proceed... imagining what it is like to be
someone else is at the core of our humanity".
As a young child Briony considers peoples minds as she states when viewing the fountain scene
that "only in a story could you enter these different minds and show how they had an equal
value". Briony's consideration of other peoples minds and consciousness is referred to as 'The
Theory of the Mind' which recognises that different events which are experienced by different
people may have their own interpretations. She considers this as a child however upon second
read it appears to be the voice of adult Briony inserting her current thoughts into the past. Her
crime as a 13 year old is not understanding enough about the human mind as she mistakes a
love confession for a note from a "maniac".
The novel we read took her a whole lifetime to produce as she attempts to project herself
into the feelings of the two characters whose lives her failure of imagination destroyed.
She lacks empathy at the beginning of the novel which can be marked down to her young
age or maybe character traits, but as she begins to write her Atonement her empathy
increases which comes alongside guilt and realisation for the crime.
The Tallis estate is the scene of a crime where a detective could look upon a close circle of
suspects determining the criminal (Agatha Christie). The first part of the novel hints many times
that a crime will be committed through the sense of building pressure. This places the reader in
the position of the arm-chair detective where they begin to wonder what the crime may be or
who the criminal is. Later on, Briony takes on this role becoming the detective herself yet during
the London 1999 ending of the novel she reveals to the reader a plot twist in the same way a
detective would. Briony pictures herself as a detective as she attempts to understand the
psychology of other characters which is also does by writing the scenes through many different
perspectives. The ability to understand the workings of another characters mind is essential for
a detective and this is what Briony attempts to do in Atonement. Her Atonement is her new-
found ability to understand other peoples minds and much like Ian McEwan stated after 9/11 -'if
the attackers could have placed themselves in the victims positions the event would have been
unlikely to happen' - Briony places herself in the psychology of Robbie and Cecilia and through
this delivers to us a happy ending for the lovers which could have happened if she was more
emphatic and a better detective when she was 13.
"There did not have to be a moral. She need only show separate minds, as alive as her own,
struggling with the idea that other minds were equally alive. It wasnʼt only wickedness and
scheming that made people unhappy, it was confusion and misunderstanding; above all, it was
the failure to grasp the simple truth that other people are as real as you.
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