Atonement – Ian McEwan ‘McEwan suggests
Brionyʼs crime can easily be forgiven because
she is just a child.ʼ - Specimen
Atonement – Ian McEwan ‘McEwan suggests Brionyʼs crime can easily be forgiven because she
is just a child.ʼ To what extent do you agree with this view? Remember to include in your answer
relevant detailed exploration of McEwanʼs authorial methods.
[25 marks]
Significance of her age in her the 1935 context.
Being neglected alongside being in the upper-class.
Class conspiracy.
Her viewing other peopleʼs lives in terms of a narrative and her young age meaning that
she does not understand sexual relationships.
Forgiveness through her actions afterwards.
Themes of childhood and adulthood are common in crime fiction as focus on the construction
of the criminals and how crimes come to be committed have fascinated critics and readers for
centuries. Through Atonementʼs bildungsroman form we are introduced to Briony from when
she is 13 in Tallis Family Estate in 1935 to near her death in London 1999. This allows us to see
her progression as a writer and individual, determining if she can be forgiven because of her
young immature age.
McEwanʼs exact time setting of the first part of the novel is in 1935 where the age of legal
culpability was 8 years old. This is important as it makes Briony legally culpable and guilty for
her crime. This allows us as a reader to contextually perceive McEwan as a supporter that
Brionyʼs should have had to undergo the same legal response as a legally culpable adult for
uttering the untrue words; “Yes. It was him” which harshly parallel Robbie Turners; “Yes, she
was just a child but not every child sends a man to prisoner with a lie”. Immediately McEwan
creates a sense of unpredictability surrounding Brionyʼs age as he states that Briony “inhabited
an ill-defined traditional space between nursey and the adult world which she crossed and
recrossed unpredictably”. The verbs “crossed” and “recrossed” create a fountain for the
hazardous nature of Brionyʼs age suggesting that that is why “within the next half hour Briony
would commit her crime” placing the blame for the crime on her age.
From the beginning of the novel, it becomes clear that Briony Tallis is something of a 'little
prima-donna' as coined by Cecilia at the dinner scene. Briony wants to “lie alone, face-down on
her bed and savour the vile piquancy of the moment” with the very fact that McEwan combines
the verb “savour” with the adjective “vile” emphasising Briony's aching need for attention,
which was undoubtedly nurtured by her upper-class lifestyle. This creates the impression that it
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