In the novel Atonement by Ian McEwan, there are so many themes that give the story an

impeccable complexity.Therefore, the aim of this essay is to try to analyze if one of our main
characters Briony Tallis, who is also the author of the novel Atonement, was telling the truth
to us, the readers, about the motivation behind the creation of Atonement.

To start off, this novel takes place in England over the course of 64 years, from the end of
Briony’s childhood in 1934 to her last days in 1999 after becoming a successful author as she
has desired. This novel is her final work as she is losing her consciousness due to dementia
and she did not want to pass away before expressing her regret about a crime she committed
decades ago that transformed so many lives for the remaining main characters: Cecilia Tallis,
Briony’s older sister and Robbie Turner, Cecilia’s childhood friend and love interest.

In the summer of 1935, we are introduced to Briony’s life as a upper-class girl from the
countryside of England. She appears to live an incredible talent for writing and literature
which leads her to be seen by her family as an outsider, fully dedicated to her passion for
writing.As it is narrated in the first chapter
Normally, she would have been involved in these preparations, but they
happened to coincide with her two-day writing bout and the beginnings of the
front-of-house construction. She vaguely knew that divorce was an affliction,
but she did not regard it as a proper subject and gave it no thought. It was a
mundane unravelling that could not be reversed, and therefore offered no
opportunities to the storyteller: it belonged in the realm of disorder (p.8)

On the other hand, Cecilia ended up taking a motherly role towards Briony and Leon their
brother, due to the fact that their mother Emily was suffering from many headaches and she
was not capable of taking good care of them.

Then she goes to college where every once in a while encounters the family’s protege,
Robbie Turner. He is the son of the charlady that showed interest in literature thanks to being
in the Tallis’ library. As he grew older he managed to impress Jack Tallis with his interest for
being cultured, something that was perceived as an accomplishment given his class origins.
Therefore he was raised alongside Cecilia and Leon and ended up admitted in the University
of Cambridge just like Cecilia.
During those years they became distant due to how Robbie was finally able to notice their
differences and reunited that summer of 1935 after graduating college.
But in their first meeting, they ended up fighting over a Chinese vessel that broke.Cecilia
decides to go into the fountain to recover the missing pieces and takes off her clothes in from
of him.However, what they do not know is that Briony is watching them from her room.

Briony’s personality has been shaped by her love for literature and that is explicitly made in
this occasion after witnessed Cecilia and Robbie’s fight, she starts to believe that Robbie has
a sexist attitude.Her innocence but most importantly her inexperience in life causes to
misinterpret what was actually a casual fight between them.But is enough to motivate her to
write something. This is where the construction of her narrative began when she decides to
use this event as inspiration because she finds her outlook not only to be correct but also to be
noble as she believes she is protecting Cecilia.
Cristopher Butler points out that“These metanarratives traditionally serve to give cultural
practices some form of legitimation or authority.” (2001:13)
This element of the postmodernist movement is applied to the story to criticize Briony’s
idealization of “master narratives” that were present in the literature she read and later
shaped her perspective. The aggressive man Robbie forced an immaculate Cecilia to jump
into the fountain. Or at least that is what Briony believes as she was not hearing their
conversation.
Another element that appears early in the novel is Deconstruction thanks to the fountain
incident. According to Derrida “For the deconstructor, the relationship of language to reality
is not given, or even reliable, since all language systems are inherently unreliable cultural
constructs.(2001:17) However, we the readers have access to that information and become
uncomfortable that Briony ‘s opinion was completely incorrect. That knowledge liberates the
reader of believing Briony from the beginning even though she is the main protagonist while
at the same time giving us the information that Briony creates narratives that are useful to
grow as a writer which happens to be more important as the story progresses.

After the encounter, Robbie finally comes to terms with his feelings and decides to write a
confessional love letter to Cecilia, alongside that letter he also wrote another one that
included lewd language and accidentally gives it to Briony. When he realised his mistake it
was already late as Briony reads it and has more evidence that Robbie is a danger to Cecilia’s
wellbeing.
Meanwhile, Briony is being visited by her cousins Lola, Pierrot and Jack, who are twins, after
her aunt Hermione had a troublesome divorce. The relationship dynamics between Lola and
Briony are very telling of Briony’s perceptions of the world as she considers Lola to be on
the verge of adulthood even though they are almost the same age.

bullet points to develop

The revelation that Briony’s motives to not release Atonement while she is alive does not
coincide with England’s marry- your -rapist law and also marital rape that became illegal
after 1991 , eight years before her diagnosis. Therefore Paul Marshall could not use his
marriage to Lola after his crime for protection.
Paul Marshall and Lola ‘s social status against Cecilia and Robbie’s .

References
McEwan.I (2001) Atonement.A novel
-Butler, Christopher (2002) “Postmodernism – A very short introduction” pp. 16-17,69-7