Atonement Theme

Innocence is something that can only be lost once. Within both The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley there are various characters that lose their innocence in very dramatic ways. A character can lose their innocence due to the death of someone else. They can also lose their innocence by just being looked at from a different perspective by others, this can be seen through the characters Bernard and Rachel. ADD ANOTHER TOPIC Someone who has lost their innocence changes their personality and perspective on life, which results in them acting in situations differently than they would before.

"All things truly wicked start from an innocence,” states Ernest Hemingway on his view of innocence. Innocence, what every youth possesses, is more accurately described as a state of unknowing but not ignorance- which connotation suggests a blissfully positive view of the world. Most youth are protected from the harsh realities of the adult world. Therefore they are able to maintain their state of innocence. While innocence normally wanes over time, sometimes innocence can be abruptly taken away. Some of the characters in Truman Capotes In Cold Blood lost their innocence due to the traumatic events they experienced in childhood and adulthood while some had none to begin with.

Characters lose their innocence throughout American literature. What exactly does “losing their innocence” mean? Losing one’s innocence can be seen as a character maturing. A character may lose his/her innocence in ways including the viewing of a traumatic event, especially one that will scar his/her life forever. Losing one’s innocence can also be caused by losing one’s trust in someone whom he/she once trusted, catching a glimpse into the “real world”, or performing an act of immorality. The recurring theme of loss of innocence, as seen throughout American literature and reality, can affect a person and the people around him/her both negatively and positively. As a result, the audience can see the character mature through losing hope of dreams, becoming an outcast of society, gaining a new perspective of ideas, or gaining confidence. Negative and positive effects falling onto characters as a result of a loss of innocence can be found in works such as The Scarlet Letter, The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, and The Hunger Games; this theme can also be seen in real life through the effects of children exposed to violent video games.

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.

As people grow older, the more we are inclined to learn; lessons of the world, personal identities, and more, but with these come the loss of innocence. In John Knowles’ A Separate Peace, the loss of innocence due to knowledge becomes evident; through the experiences of Gene, Leper, and Finny.

The lost of innocence can totally change the way people view the world. A person who illustrates this can be found in J.D. Salinger’s novel, the Catcher in the Rye. The story happened during the 1950s, in a small town in Pennsylvania called Agerstown. A teenage boy named Holden, who witnesses the death of his older brother Allie when he was only 13 years old. Then consequently, he blames himself all his life for the death of Allie. As time went by he starts to search for a sense of innocence that was lost in the beginning of the novel. Throughout the course of the novel, the author conveys that Holden is continually stuck in between childhood and adulthood. The author uses Holden’s struggle to convey that in reality often times people who

     The theme of the loss of innocence covers the entire essence of the book. There are many cases in the story where people had lost their innocence of life and it was lost to them

It is often said that loss of innocence is an essential part of the process of growing up. Usually, it is a personal experience, happening at unique rates for every individual; however, time and time again a case occurs where this change is experienced collectively. Timothy Findley’s novel, The Wars, tells the story of such an occurrence. The reader witnesses the horrors of the First World War through the eyes of Robert Ross, a young man who enlists in the army to escape a troubled home life. Along with several companions he meets during his tour of duty, Robert is subjected to a sequence of events that cause them all to realize that the world is a much uglier place than they had known it to be. Following his first kill in the trenches and

Often times, people view individuals by the way they handle situations and their responses to others. Every character in a story can be summed up in about three to four characteristics based on their actions and speech. In the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, the narrator reveals his true character through the way he treats his younger brother. He possesses characteristics including authority, pride, and cruelty, and readers know these traits through Hurst’s dialogue and actions.

In Timothy’s Findley’s novel The Wars lends itself to an archetypal criticism through the loss of innocence, recurring symbolic situations and the aspect of a conventional heroes throughout this text. Many texts have similar concepts of losing someone. In this text, the loss of innocence occurs throughout the text. Not only does it appears in Findley’s text, but also is portrayed through many literatures. Many individuals throughout history portrayed loss of innocence through their text.

Innocence is often a word used to describe children, they are pure because they have not yet become exposed to corruption. A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah illustrates what happens when innocence has been seized from a young child. When rebels attack Beah’s village, he is forced on a life altering journey. Beah involuntarily transformed from an innocent adolescent into a rebel soldier. He needed a lot of guidance and correction to reconstruct his virtue. The conflict of the Civil War shaped Beah’s character.

“In all our lives, there is a fall from innocence. A time after which, we are never the same.” – Stand By Me. Innocence can be found at any age or any point in one’s life. It means chastity, freedom from wrong, lack of knowledge, SIMPLICITY. When one has innocence the world seems easy without any worries, however that can all change when one loses their innocence. The loss of innocence can feel as though one has fallen into a black hole and can never escape, darkness, voicelessness, LONELINESS. In Amy Tan’s “The Joy Luck Club”, Nadine Gordimer’s “Once Upon a Time”, and Laurie Halse Anderson’s “Speak”, the authors use main and supporting characters to show a loss of innocence at a young age. In “The Joy Luck Club” loss of innocence is expressed through the old woman from the fourth parable, “Queen Mother of the Western Skies”. In “Once Upon a Time” loss of innocence is expressed through the young boy. In “Speak” loss of innocence is expressed though Melinda. Although all three of these characters go through the same struggle of loss of innocence, Anderson’s character Melinda is able to come to terms with her loss and regain her strength. In these three stories, Tan, Gordimer, and Anderson use the theme of loss of innocence to portray loneliness, fear, and barriers to show how one can learn from past experiences.

Innocence in life is always hard to keep and is usually not wanted back until it is too late. We are always in want of knowing more but when we finally reach that point of knowledge we finally realize that we have lost our innocence doing so. The theme of loss of innocence in this novel is well portrayed and is given many angles. The novel really shows the bad reality of losing one’s innocence to time and curiosity. Although it is all a part of growing up and maturing through living, I really do have to think back and make the conclusion that innocence is

From the moment Atonement begins it becomes clear that Briony, at age thirteen, is aware of the power writing has. To her, writing can make “ the childhood of a spoiled prince can 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”

Briony Tallis: Briony Tallis is the protagonist of Atonement. Though Briony has two older siblings, Leon and Cecilia, they are both at least ten years her senior. Therefore, Briony grows up virtually as an only child and as a result is quite self-centered. Briony is introduced to readers when she is working on her play The Trials of Arabella. Through Briony’s writing process and inner thoughts, readers are made aware of her obsession with order and control. This obsession combined with her self-absorbed mindset fosters Briony’s unaware naïveté. Briony believes that she understands everything that occurs around her, when in reality, she cannot understand adult concepts and ideas that do not yet pertain to her. It is this obliviousness that leads to her rape accusations against Robbie—Briony is unable to see the love between her older sister Cecilia and Robbie, the servant’s son. Once Briony matures, she begins to realize the depth of the consequences of her actions, and throws herself into atoning her “sins.” In doing so, she writes her own novel involving a couple that represents Robbie and Cecilia, and feels that she can relieve herself of guilt by admitting to her wrongdoings and rewriting the fates of the two lovers. However, the novel simply paints Briony’s naïveté in a new light—though she has grown up, she is still unaware of the dire