‘In McEwan’s ‘Atonement’, war is positioned as a greater crime
than Briony’s’. To what extent do you agree?
Truthfully, ‘Atonement’ translates to at-one-ment, making two things
which were formerly separated, at one with each other. This ideology
permeates the entire novel as Briony attempts to retrieve forgiveness for
her purgery through the craft of her writing. Alongside Briony’s main
position as the main antagonist of the postmodern novel, the theme of
war and its impact upon society pervades the text. Therefore, Briony’s
crime and the crime of the war are inextricably linked in her attempt to
seek ‘atonement’ and the reader is forced to consider whether the impact
of Briony’s crime outweighs the collateral damage and overarching
pessimism of the Second World War.
Initially, it can be postulated that perhaps the horror of the war and the
subsequent suffering of innocent victims is greater than the consequences
of Briony’s crime. In particular, the consequences of war are depicted, by
McEwan, through the exploitation of the evocative vignettes to reveal the
‘magnitude of the war’s devastation’. When Robbie Turner and the two
corporals are navigating their way to Dunkirk, they spot a ‘leg in a tree’
which was ‘a perfect leg, pal, smooth, small enough to be a child’s’. The
asyndetic list combined with the semantic field of youth and innocence,
which the adjective evoke, is utilised to capture the stripping of
individuals’ humanity and identity, but also the loss of innocence
eradicated by the brutality of the war. Perhaps, the adjectives associated
with ingenuous nature exposes the unforgiving element of war,
juxtaposed to Briony’s misguided desire to seek justice. Just like
‘Atonement’, Faulks’ ‘Birdsong’ uses the novel and metahistorical status to
uncover the transgenerational effects and truth of the war. Moreover,
McEwan highlights the sheer impact of war when he spotlights, ‘five
bodies in a ditch’. McEwan’s use of the determiner ‘five’ combined with
the noun ‘bodies’ portrays the anonymity of innocent civilians victimised
by the war. Perhaps, McEwan brands the war victims as faceless to
provide a Marxist comment on the plight of the working classes who
suffered at the hands of Plutocratic society, like Paul Marshall, who
profiteered from the war, elucidating that the war is a much greater crime
than Briony’s false accusation.
Alternatively, in some cases, it can be argued that Briony’s crime holds
greater magnitude than the war. Possibly, her deliberate decision to make
Robbie accountable for Paul Marshall’s crime is the main crime of the
novel which provides ‘Atonement’ with a sense of direction. Briony’s
epithet ‘maniac’ to refer to Robbie highlights her misconstrued perception
of reality and her calculated vindication of Robbie Turner. Although, her
crime is undermined by her age and position as a child, as it almost seems
to feed her misunderstanding. Whilst Briony’s crime falsely accuses an
innocent victim, it fails to amount to the severity of the war. Perhaps,
McEwan utilises the juxtaposition of Briony’s crime to the crime of the war
to promulgate the insignificance of her false accusation. In a sense, the
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