Atonement Theme Analysis

To what extent are the protagonists of ‘Atonement’ and ‘The Girl Who Would Speak for the Dead’ similar and different?

When Briony was thirteen, she does not understand what she sees in the library that night until she matures (Matthews.) Briony walks in on her sister and Robbie, her innocence and her age show by misinterpreting what she sees and turns it into an attack, until she matures and understands the relationship between the two more. Briony has innocent motives, she is young and does not understand what she sees and the connection between what happened at the fountain, the letter and in the library. (Rooney.) She speculates her sister is in danger from Robbie and that it is her place to step in and say something because her sister can not. Ceelia feels like she should move on from her family, but then again, she doesn't want to leave them, but once they take Briony’s side on accusing Robbie, she becomes more mature and cuts her ties with them. (Finney.) Ceelia doesn't want to leave her family, she wants to be wanted by them and so she won’t move on. When Briony accuses Robbie, Ceelia realizes that her family will take her side on even the most serious matters. She decides that it's time for her to cut ties and move on with her life without her family. Robbie matures greatly in the span of five years. When he is coming home from serving in the war, he does not stop to think about his own life or plans. He tries to save a young mother and child by laying on them. It takes a

James Joyce’s short fiction, “Araby”, speaks of the loss of innocence when one enters adulthood. The narrator of “Araby” reflects back to his childhood and the defining moment when he reached clarity on the world he stood before. The young boy, living in a world lifeless and religious influence, becomes consumed with the lust of a neighbouring girl. The girl, Mangan, is symbolically the narrator’s childhood obsession with growing up. As she resembles the desire to become an adult, the Araby is the enchanted vision of adulthood. By the end of the short story, he realizes the bareness of everyday life. In fact, the disappointment that is Araby awakens the boy to the fact that his immature dreams have blinded him to the cold and stagnant

Throughout this lay, there is a sense of hope in the author's tone, almost good-natured and kind hearted. She also sets a series of sorrowful tones that creates an atmosphere for the troubles the lovers have gone through to be in the presence of each other. However, the majority of the story is the happiness and joy from the lovers finally being with one another. Toward the

This refers again to Briony’s desire to be at the center of everything and we can also see that Briony is trying to write herself as a heroine and Robbie as the villain once more.

It was you who awoke me last summer out of a life-long, stupid dream. Oh! You have made me so unhappy with your indifference. Oh! I have suffered, suffered! Now you are here we shall love each other, my Robert. We shall be everything to each other.”

Briony is the main character in the Atonoment. She is an eighteen-year-old girl that is training to become a nurse in London during the World War II. The story is written at an first person perspective and you see the story through Brionys eyes. You get to follow her through some horror experiences of being a nurse during the war.

“‘A new servitude! ...What do I want? A new place, in a new house, amongst new faces, under new circumstances: I want this because it is of no use wanting anything better.’”

Bret’s personal experience with being a parent and the kids not listening show in his essay. We learn stressful days will happen to all people, and the way they react to them will play a big factor in life. Hard times come and go throughout the essay “Atonement.” When it comes to parenting, times will get stressful, but be thoughtful of the people around. To start out, his two sons Zeb and Jacob have karate this morning at eight, so to start getting ready he let the dog outside to the bathroom.

Briony has a need for control and order, even as a young child. She uses writing as a way to create worlds in which she has the ability to manipulate her characters and their outcomes. Briony, the youngest of the tallis children with large age gaps between them, is often alone and isolated. This loneliness causes her to seek attention. Both her desire to be in charge and her need for attention are reflected in the play The Trials of Arabella. Not only has she written the play, but she plans on starring in it as well. Her obsession with order and control makes her commit a crime because she wants to have power over what is the truth. After witnessing the rape she approaches Lola who is confused about who the perpetrator is, but Briony takes control of the situation "if her poor cousin was not able to command the truth, then she would do it for her" (McEwan 158). She seeks atonement for her crime through a novel. Like her play, Briony attempts two roles. She is both the narrator and main character of her novel. Again she is able to direct the truth, yet at the same time she is unable to differentiate between truth and fiction.

Briony's craving to manipulate and control, and also her perception of how Robbie spoilt her play, leads her to committing her crime. Her overactive

228) in relation to the way that she is not able to rid herself of the way she separated two lovers. Briony had previously confessed to Robbie when she was ten-years-old, as revealed by Robbie’s thoughts in part 2 of the novel. “He had betrayed her love by favouring her [Briony’s] sister,” (pg. 233) which means Briony could have accused Robbie of rape to separate Cecilia from him. She did not feel guilty until she grew older and began to consider the complexity of her allegation. The war may take Robbie away from Cecilia and leave her devastated all because of a mistake Briony made. In addition, she will never be able to witness the lovers reuniting and may never be able to atone for her mistakes after all. Like a room without a door, she will not be able to escape the fact that she separated two

“Araby,” is a story of emotional passion carefully articulated by the author, James Joyce, to mark the end of childhood and the start of adolescence. It is told from the perspective of a young boy who is filled with lust for his friend, Mangan’s, sister. He lives in a cheerless town on a street hosting simply complacent families who own brown faced houses that stare vacantly into one another. The boy temporarily detaches himself from this gloomy atmosphere and dwells on the keeper of his affection. Only when he journeys to a festival titled Araby, does he realize that his attempt at winning the heart of Mangan’s sister has been done in an act of vanity. Joyce takes advantage of literary elements such as diction and imagery to convey an at times dreary and foolishly optimistic tone.

To begin, the naïvety and distorted views of reality that Briony Tallis possess reveals her inability to understand the meaning of justice. Briony, who is only thirteen at the time, “views the adult world from a child’s perspective, seeing adult acts through the lense of melodrama” (“Atonement” 7). As result, in reading Robbie’s letter she immediately “[casts] herself as her sister’s protector” (McEwan 115), and thus imagines that Robbie is attacking Cecilia in the library. This can be seen in her perception that Cecilia’s forearm “was raised

Arguments for the position held by Atwood with respect to the perfect ending to a work of fiction can be drawn from the societal relationships such as marriages and romantic affairs. These relationships are perceived as beautiful and comes with a form of fulfillment, thus should have a beautiful ending. Life should be easy and relationships should be successful. The ‘happy ending’ adopted by Atwood is an illustration of how easy life should be and how successful relationships such as marriages should turn out. She