Archive: Atonement

Atonement is a novel written in 2001 by British author, Ian McEwan.



On a fateful day, a young aspiring writer, makes a terrible mistake that has life-changing affects to many people. Due to this mistake, she lives not seeking forgiveness, but atonement. Which ultimately leads to an adventure on the nature of writing.

Atonement is widely viewed as one of McEwan's best works of writing. It is one of the most honored and celebrated books of all time. It was short listed for the 2001 Booker Prize for fiction. TIME Magazine named the novel in its list of All-TIME 100 Greatest Novels. In 2007, it was adapted into an award winning film starring Kiera Knightly and James McAvoy and directed by Joe Wright.

Plot Summary
Atonement is a novel about just that, atonement. The novel begins in the summer of 1935, Briony Tallis, a successful English girl with a talent for writing, lives on her family’s estate with her parents, her older sister, Cecilia, older brother, Leon, and cousins Jackson, Pierrot, and Lola. Cecilia is in love with the family gardener, Robbie Turner. Briony accidently sees a sexual tension between the two and interprets it to be rape, calling Robbie a “sex maniac.” Later in the novel, a family dinner party is interrupted because the twins, Jackson and Pierrot, have gone missing. The family splits up in an attempt to find the twins. During her search, Briony sees her cousin Lola being, what looks to be, raped in the woods by an unknown assailant. Briony decides to accuse Robbie. Robbie is taken to prison, with only Cecilia and his mother believing in his innocence. By the time WWII has started, Robbie has spent 2-3 years in prison. He is released on the condition that he enlists in the military to fight in the war. Cecilia had studied and became a nurse and cut off al contact with her family because of the part they played in sending Robbie to jail. Before Robbie must go to war, they meet once in France, despite the awkwardness of the meeting they share a kiss before saying goodbye. Briony, reluctantly, refused her spot at Cambridge and is a nurse trainee in London. Briony attends the wedding of her cousin, Lola, and Paul Marshall before heading off to visit Cecilia. However, Briony does not know Robbie is in on leave and unexpectedly meets him at her sister’s house. Both Robbie and Cecilia refuse to forgive Briony for what she did, even after she tells them she will try to put everything right. She promised to begin the legal process of exonerating Robbie, even though she knows the real perpetrator, Paul Marshall, can never be accused of the crime due to his marriage to Lola, the victim. The final section of the book, titled “London 1999” is written in the perspective of a 77 year old Briony who is dying of vascular dementia. It is revealed that Briony is the author of the preceding sections of the book, even though Robbie and Cecilia were reunited in the book, they never were in reality, Robbie may have died of disease and Cecilia may have been killed in the bombing above Balham Underground Station. However, the marriage of Lola and Paul Marshall was true, Briony never met with Cecilia after the wedding to make amends. Briony gives her explanation as to why she decided to change real events in her novel. Briony was not trying to be forgiven for all that she had done wrong as a child, she was trying to achieve atonement; and because she prevented them from being together in real life, she wanted to give Robbie and Cecilia their happiness by being together, even if only in her novel.

Meet the Author
Ian McEwan was born on 21 June 1948 in Aldershot, England. He studied at the University of Sussex, where he received a BA degree in English Literature in 1970. He received his MA degree in English Literature at the University of East Anglia.

McEwan's works have earned him worldwide critical acclaim. He won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1976 for his first collection of short stories First Love, Last Rites; the Whitbread Novel Award (1987) and the Prix Fémina Etranger (1993) for The Child in Time; and Germany's Shakespeare Prize in 1999. He has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction numerous times, winning the award for Amsterdam in 1998. His novel Atonement received the WH Smith Literary Award (2002), National Book Critics' Circle Fiction Award (2003), Los Angeles Times Prize for Fiction (2003), and the Santiago Prize for the European Novel (2004). He was awarded a CBE in 2000. In 2006, he won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel Saturday, and his novel On Chesil Beach was named Galaxy Book of the Year at the 2008 British Book Awards. McEwan has been named the Reader's Digest Author of the Year for 2008, the 2010 Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award, and in 2011 was awarded the Jerusalem Prize.



Setting
This novel is set in Surrey, England. It begins in the summer of 1935, however, it spans a large number of years. Beginning in 1935 and basically ending in 1999.Surrey is one of the South East counties in England and is considered a “home county.” Since the election in May of 2008, conservatives control the majority of Surrey. Many famous authors do, or once had, resided in Surrey. It is also known for being one of the earliest places where the game cricket is known to have been played.

Major Characters

 * Briony Tallis- Briony is the younger sister of Leon and Cecilia Tallis.


 * Cecilia Tallis- The middle child in the Tallis Family, Cecilia falls in love with her child hood companion Robbie Turner.


 * Leon Tallis- Eldest child in the Tallis family.


 * Emily Tallis- The mother of Briony, Cecilia, and Leon.
 * Jack Tallis- Father to Briony, Cecilia, and Leon. Husband to Emily.
 * Robbie Turner- The son of Grace Turner, he lives on the grounds of the Tallis Family home. Attends Cambridge University with Cecilia.


 * Grace Turner- Mother of Robbie Turner, lives on the Tallis Family home grounds.
 * Lola Quincey- A 15-year-old girl who is Briony, Cecilia, and Leon’s cousin. Moves in with the Tallis Family after her parents divorce.
 * Peirrot Quincey- A young boy (Jacksons twin)
 * Jackson Quincey- Twin brother to Pierrot, brother to Lola, cousin of Briony, Cecilia, and Leon.


 * Paul Marshall- A friend of Leon's.

Themes, Symbols, and Motifs
Motif 1:

Death

Throughout the second half of the novel, the motif of death contrasts the motif of life shown in the beginning of the novel. The motif of death occurs mostly while Briony is working in the hospital, as she encounters the death of many soldiers and bystanders from the war. Death is also portrayed during the war, when Robbie is participating in the retreat. Robbie witnesses the death of many soldiers and innocent bystanders, and many bystanders experience the death of others around themselves.

Significant Quotes
'''"A world could be made in five pages, and one that was more pleasing than a model farm. The childhood of a spoiled prince could be framed within half a page, a moonlit dash through sleepy villages was one rhythmically emphatic sentence, falling in love could be achieved in a single word--a glance. The pages of a recently finished story seemed to vibrate in her hand with all the life they contained." Pg. 7'''

At an early age Briony is aware of the power someone has with a pen, the power to write. At age 13 she can make her own world in as little as 5 pages. However, she is still too young to understand fictionally invented plots and characters in reality.

'''"The very complexity of her feelings confirmed Briony in her view that she was entering an arena of adult emotion and dissembling from which her writing was bound to benefit. What fairy tale ever had so much by way of contradiction?" Pg.106'''

This confirms that Briony is aware of her transient age; she is growing up, growing older. This is a moment her writing will no doubt benefit from.

"How guilt refined the methods of self-torture, threading the beads of detail into an eternal loop, a rosary to be fingered for a lifetime." Pg. 162'

A major theme of the novel is guilt, which is what this quote is about. It is not meant to be too deep; it just simply means what it says. An act at which Briony committed at a young age with leave her feeling guilty for the rest of her life.

Atonement as a Major Motion Picture


In 2007, Ian McEwan's highly acclaimed novel, Atonement was cast into the spotlight by being made into a major motion picture by Working Title Films. The movie follows the book, telling the story of aspiring writer, 13-year-old, Briony Tallis, as she irrevocably changes several lives when she makes false accusations towards her sisters lover, Robbie Turner. After accidentally seeing an act of love between her sister, Cecilia, and Robbie, she mistakenly takes is as rape, claiming Robbie is a "sex addict." Weeks later, Briony's brother, Leon, and his friend, Paul Marshall, interrupt a Tallis family dinner with news that the Tallis' twin cousins, Jackson and Pierrot are missing. In an attempt to find the boys, the family splits up searching the surrounding woods. Briony stumbles upon her cousin Lola, apparently being raped by an unknown assailant. Lola claims she has no knowledge of who her attacker was, however, Briony is certain it was Robbie. This accusation sends Robbie Turner to jail, with only Cecilia and his mother, Grace, believing him.

The movie continues to show the story of the beginning of WWII when Robbie is released from jail on the condition he will enlist to fight in the war. Cecilia and Robbie reunite, finding happiness in the presence of each other. One afternoon after the wedding her her cousin Lola and Paul Marshall, Briony goes to visit her sister for the first time in years. Unexpectedly, running into Robbie at her sisters house. Robbie and Cecilia both refuse to forgive Briony for what she had done years ago, despite her saying she will begin the legal process to exonerate Robbie, even though she knows Paul Marshall, the real attacker, could never be punished for his crime since he was now married to the victim, Lola. In the end, we learn that the preceding scenes are a figment of Briony's imagination, her way of achieving atonement. In reality, Robbie probably died of disease during the war and Cecilia was killed in a bombing, product of the war. At the age of 77, she is dying of vascular dementia. She knows that she prevented her sister and Robbie from being together in real life, but she could give them their happiness together in her imagination.

Themrobinson

Starring



 * Saorise Ronan- Briony Tallis (Age 13)
 * Kiera Knightly- Cecilia Tallis
 * Patrick Kennedy- Leon Tallis
 * Harrier Walter- Emily Tallis
 * James McAvoy- Robbie Turner
 * Brenda Blethyn- Grace Turner
 * Juno Temple- Lola Quincey
 * Felix von Simson- Pierrot Quincey
 * Charlie von Simson- Jackson Quincey
 * Benedict Cumberbatch- Paul Marshall

Awards

 * Oscars
 * Won:
 * 2008- Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures-
 * 2008- Best Score


 * Nominated
 * 2008- Best Achievement in Art Direction
 * 2008- Best Achievement in Cinematography
 * 2008- Best Achievement in Costume Design
 * 2008- Best Motion Picture of the Year
 * 2008- Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
 * 2008- Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay


 * Golden Globe Awards
 * Won:
 * 2008- Best Motion Picture


 * ASC Awards
 * Nominated:
 * 2008-Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases


 * BAFTA Awards
 * Won:
 * 2008- Best Film
 * 2008- Best Production Design


 * Empire Awards (UK)
 * Won:
 * 2008- Best Actor
 * 2008- Best Actress
 * 2008- Best British Film


 * Evening Standard British Film Awards
 * Won:
 * 2008- Best Technical Achievement


 * European Film Awards
 * Won:
 * 2008- Best Film


 * IFTA Awards
 * Won:
 * 2008- Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Feature Film
 * 2008- Best Director of Photography


 * Golden Trailer Awards
 * Won:
 * 2008- Best Romance


 * Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards
 * Won:
 * 2008- Youth in Film- Female


 * London Critics Circle Film Awards
 * Won:
 * 2008- British Actor of the Year
 * 2008- British Supporting Actress of the Year


 * Phoenix Film Critics Award
 * Won:
 * 2008- Best Achievement in Cinematography
 * 2008- Best Score
 * 2008- Best Performance in a Lead or Supporting Role


 * Rembrandt Awards
 * Won:
 * 2008- Best International Actress


 * San Diego Film Critics Society Awards
 * Won:
 * 2007- Best Editing


 * Satellite Awards
 * Won:
 * 2008- Best Adapted Screenplay


 * Teen Choice Awards
 * Won:
 * 2008- Choice Movie Actress: Drama


 * Venice Film Festival
 * Won:
 * 2008-Prize of the Forum for Cinema and Literature


 * World Soundtrack Awards
 * Won:
 * 2008- Best Original Score