In Ian McEwan’s book Atonement, a story of how a little girl with a creative imagination produces false statements that lead to accusations, division, and death, the primary narrator, Briony publishes this novel within a novel in the hope of achieving atonement for her actions. Does she? Well in the book I believe Briony thinks she has, but in my opinion, I don’t think she can achieve it fully. My reasoning, for if Briony gains atonement comes from two thought processes. At the end of this book, we discover that this whole time we have been reading from what appears to be Briony’s book, based on the evidence of her initials at the end. By doing this, I believe that Briony thinks this novel will ultimately give her atonement for her
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According to the literal definition of atonement, Briony cannot correct her mistake. She can have her book published, but it is after the deaths of both Cecilia and Robbie, they are not going to be able to read this literature and find out Briony’s feelings of guilt. My other reasoning for why Briony is not able to gain atonement comes from the archaic and philosophical reasonings of pseudo-eye-for-an-eye and the Buddhist ideology of forgiveness. (Seems funny; they contradict each other. I’ll be looking at these situations in two …show more content…
After Robbie had been taken off to jail, Cecilia left the Tallis household to become a nurse. This division was constant, apparent, and sad. If any family member were to write a letter to Cecilia, her response would be silence. Also, when Leon went to see Cecilia at her hospital, she deliberately ignores and avoids him, walking right by him without a word. This is sad. By the reasoning of an eye-for-an-eye, Briony would have to ostracise herself for her family just like Cecilia did. From what we can tell from the book she’s not going to do that. It is evident that Briony is still with her family on good terms, they’re throwing her a birthday party. Therefore, Briony cannot gain complete atonement for her action with reaping what she sows. Now if we look at this from a forgiveness perspective, Briony cannot achieve atonement because she never apologises from dividing the family, she might not be aware of this, but it’s true. By doing this, she would be taking ownership of her actions and acknowledging the damage she
According to the literal definition of atonement, Briony cannot correct her mistake. She can have her book published, but it is after the deaths of both Cecilia and Robbie, they are not going to be able to read this literature and find out Briony’s feelings of guilt. My other reasoning for why Briony is not able to gain atonement comes from the archaic and philosophical reasonings of pseudo-eye-for-an-eye and the Buddhist ideology of forgiveness. (Seems funny; they contradict each other. I’ll be looking at these situations in two …show more content…
After Robbie had been taken off to jail, Cecilia left the Tallis household to become a nurse. This division was constant, apparent, and sad. If any family member were to write a letter to Cecilia, her response would be silence. Also, when Leon went to see Cecilia at her hospital, she deliberately ignores and avoids him, walking right by him without a word. This is sad. By the reasoning of an eye-for-an-eye, Briony would have to ostracise herself for her family just like Cecilia did. From what we can tell from the book she’s not going to do that. It is evident that Briony is still with her family on good terms, they’re throwing her a birthday party. Therefore, Briony cannot gain complete atonement for her action with reaping what she sows. Now if we look at this from a forgiveness perspective, Briony cannot achieve atonement because she never apologises from dividing the family, she might not be aware of this, but it’s true. By doing this, she would be taking ownership of her actions and acknowledging the damage she