Juxtaposition In Atonement

The story of Atonement truly begins when Briony witnesses the fountain scene between Robbie and Cecilia. Being a thirteen-year-old young writer, Briony’s limited understanding of the scene, where two adults have expressed seemingly unusual behaviours, has pushed her to evolve as a writer, and going from “fairy-tale castles and princesses”, to a modernist writing style (McEwan 39). Her initial attempt to portray reality under the modernist notion of truth is done by presenting it from different characters’ perspectives, while using the flexibility, juxtaposition, and the blending of the notion of time as a tool to convey reality.
Although the story is told in a generally chronological order, the notion of time becomes flexible in order to allow …show more content…
Throughout the novel, different characters’ flashbacks in time add to the exposition of multiple perspectives of reality which enhance the understanding of the notion of truth. When Robbie has a flashback to the swimming lesson that he had with Briony, he links this past event to the present, to justify Briony’s presence at the bridge seemingly waiting for him (229-232). In reality, , the readers then learn later in the novel, from Briony’s brief flashback, that her love for Robbie lasted no more than a few days after her confession on the path of the kissing gate. In addition to the flashbacks, the use of prolepsis in the story goes beyond the characters’ consciousness, and brings the notion of time to an even more abstract level. Prolepsis, indicating the presence of a narrator, allows the readers to know more than the characters do about reality, and is giving away some ideas about the future that are not yet happened in the story’s time frame. For instance, as Robbie goes out into the woods, the narrator states that “this decision, as he was to acknowledge many times, transformed his life” (144). Such element of style adds more dramatic irony to the unveiling of truth and