Essay Comparing Atonement And The Sisters Brothers

The complexity of the human mind is very hard to understand. McEwan’s Atonement, is a novel beginning in 1935 when Briony Tallis, a thirteen year old girl commits a crime that sends Robbie Turner, an innocent man to jail. Consequently Briony seeks redemption and atonement throughout her live, initially during WWII and later in the late 1900’s in a form of a book that Briony writes of Robbie Turner’s and Cecilia Tallis’s undying love. On the other hand, DeWitt’s The Sisters Brothers, is a story that takes place in the Old West during the late 1800’s. The Sisters Brothers, is written from Eli Sisters point of view. Eli Sisters and Charlie Sisters are hitmen that work for Commodore, a underworld lord. Commodore assigns the Sisters brothers to assassinate Hermann Kermit Warm. On …show more content…
Readers will find that “Eli is perhaps the most endearing killer [they] will ever meet” (Christie). As a result, these conflicts lead Eli to yearn for a better life. Both, Atonement and The Sisters Brothers demonstrate how one’s conscience can alter how they perceive and make decisions in the same world through one’s emotions and one’s choices. To begin, in the novel Atonement, due to the lack of maturity in Briony and Lola, the emotions they experience affect how they perceive the world. Firstly, Briony feels this immense burden, that she needs to return a favour to Cecilia. Cecilia is always taking care of Briony and protecting her when the “monsters” under her bed scare her. Thus, when Briony reads Robbie's private letter for Cecilia, she interprets the letter as a threat to Cecilia’s life and not the love Robbie is showing through the letter. When Briony finds Cecilia and Robbie making love in the library, Cecilia quickly pushes past Briony due to the awkwardness of the situation; however, Briony perceives the situation as if Robbie is hurting Cecilia instead and in return