Atonement focuses on the first person narrative of thirteen year old Briony when she falsely accuses family friend Robbie Turner of raping her cousin Lola. Briony comes to this conclusion after a series of events including the reading of an extremely private letter, sent to her sister Cecilia by Robbie. Whilst Briony isn’t ever found out about lying to the police about Robbie she spends her adult life trying to repent for her actions, and in part one of the novel, McEwan explores the idea of Briony’s criminality and whether or not she is too blame for her actions and thus their consequences.
Arguably the only true criminal act of Briony’s, is her lying to the police about claiming to see Robbie rape Lola. When she first finds Lola, Briony describes seeing a ‘larger figure’, but provides not further details about the man’s description. However, later on she repeatedly tells Lola ‘I saw him’. Briony’s deliberate repetition of this phrase directly implements her in the false accusation of Robbie and her desire to be involved. Briony herself …show more content…
Whilst Briony appears to have very few secrets of her own she goes through part one acquiring secrets from other people and through McEwan’s structuring of part one the reader is able to see Briony assume the role of the detective as she tries to piece together her version of the day’s events. Therefore, when she feels she had the power she decides to spill the secrets, ironically she believes that it is Robbie who is the threat posed to the family’ something irreducibly human, or male, threatened the order of their household…they would all suffer’. However, it is instead Briony’s actions which cause the family to fall apart and consequently the disastrous events that
Arguably the only true criminal act of Briony’s, is her lying to the police about claiming to see Robbie rape Lola. When she first finds Lola, Briony describes seeing a ‘larger figure’, but provides not further details about the man’s description. However, later on she repeatedly tells Lola ‘I saw him’. Briony’s deliberate repetition of this phrase directly implements her in the false accusation of Robbie and her desire to be involved. Briony herself …show more content…
Whilst Briony appears to have very few secrets of her own she goes through part one acquiring secrets from other people and through McEwan’s structuring of part one the reader is able to see Briony assume the role of the detective as she tries to piece together her version of the day’s events. Therefore, when she feels she had the power she decides to spill the secrets, ironically she believes that it is Robbie who is the threat posed to the family’ something irreducibly human, or male, threatened the order of their household…they would all suffer’. However, it is instead Briony’s actions which cause the family to fall apart and consequently the disastrous events that