Perception In Atonement By Ian Mcewan

In his novel Atonement, Ian McEwan effectively presents the theme of people’s perception; he presents the concept that a person’s perception of a situation will change the way they adjudge reality. Perception impacts the Tallis family throughout Atonement when each individual Tallis family member interprets the rape of their cousin, Lola. Depending on each family members idea of the servant son Robbie, they create their own perception of what really happened the night of the incident. When Briony, the youngest Tallis child and aspiring writer, witnesses a moment of flirtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner; she misinterprets the meaning of the situation. Briony’s misconception of the situation leads to childlike resentment of her sister as she tries to write herself into Cecilia and Robbie’s love story. When she reads a letter written by Robbie intended for Cecilia, Briony determines he is a suspect in her cousin Lola’s rape. Briony’s childlike imagination leads her down the path to falsely accuse Robbie, a man who has always been kind to the family, of raping her cousin; her need to understand and be a part of everything leads her to claim she saw Robbie commit the act. After writing a play for her brothers return to the house, Briony is dismayed over the failure to get her …show more content…
Ian McEwan uses the Tallis family’s different perceptions of a servant’s son, Robbie, to represent how their different perceptions put an innocent man in jail. He shows how Briony’s adolescence causes her to not understand Robbie’s actions, how Cecilia perceives Robbie’s actions as an act of love, and how Emily perceives Robbie as a hobby and waste of money. He represents how different perceptions led Briony and Emily to believe a reality that was not true, and for Cecilia to defy the perceptions of her family and defend