McEwan, Ian - Atonement (2)

Atonement

Genre: historical fiction, love story, bildungsroman.
Structure: the novel is divided into 3 parts. Every part takes the point of view of a character and through his/her eyes the reader can understand what the character is living.
The novel has a cyclical structure because it begins and ends with a party and with Briony’s comedy.
Setting: the story takes place in England and France during the years between 1935, 1940, 1999, therefore the period coincides with the Second World War.

First part

The first part is settled in a hot summer day in 1935. The events narrated develop for 24 hours.
In the summer of 1935 Briony's maternal cousins, Lola and her twin brothers Jackson and Pierrot, come as guests to the Tallis since their parents are going through a difficult divorce. Briony's immaturity and her inability to grasp certain situations that are beyond her comprehension, lead her to misinterpret a quarrel between Cecilia and Robbie that she witnesses casually: dragged by fantasy, she is convinced that Robbie is behaving aggressively towards her sister because of the idea that Briony nurtures towards patriarchy and the dominion that men exercise over women. At the same time, Robbie realizes that he is in love with Cecilia; after their quarrel he writes several drafts of a letter to her in which he apologizes and expresses his feelings, and then gives it to Briony to give it to his sister. By mistake, however, he gives her a discarded version that he had written jokingly, containing obscene and vulgar references, realizing it only when it is too late. The little girl is convinced that Robbie is a maniac from which to protect her sister.
The 13 years old Briony Tallis writes a comedy for the return of her brother Leon. The whole Tallis family waits with anxiety the visit of Leon and his friend Paul Marshall. That same evening her cousins escape, and the family goes in groups to look for the 2 twins. In this situation, Briony witnesses the violence suffered by Lola. Although it was too dark to see, Briony convinces everybody that the raper was Robbie Turner, the housekeeper’s son. Only his mother and Cecilia believe his declarations of innocence.
Robbie is sent to jail and separated from his lover Cecilia Tallis, Leon and Briony’s sister. This unfounded accusation will change forever the lives of all the characters.

Second part

It is narrated 5 years later from the point of view of Robbie. Through his eyes, the reader can live the Second World War and its atrocities. Robbie enlists in the army to have a reduction in the years to be served in prison, while Cecilia has finished her studies and has become a nurse; the woman, disappointed and furious with her family for how she turned against Robbie despite the close bond they shared, moved away from them.
Since Cecilia was not allowed to visit Robbie during her detention, the two wrote each other letters. Before Robbie leaves for France, he meets for half an hour with the woman during her lunch break. Despite the initial embarrassment, the passion is quickly rekindled, and Cecilia makes him promise to return to her before they have to separate.
In France Robbie is separated from his unit and wanders with two other soldiers around the country to reach Dunkirk, where the British are retreating due to the catastrophic course of the war. The young man, bearing a wound with a splinter inside which he does not give much weight, along the way has the opportunity to experience first-hand the horrors of the conflict, which involves soldiers and civilians.
Robbie becomes increasingly tired and weak, but does not give up as his sole purpose is to keep Cecilia's promise to return to her. Now feverish and delirious, Robbie falls asleep in Dunkirk a day before the evacuation begins.

Third part

The contemporary situation is narrated from the point of view of Briony. She is now eighteen and full of remorse for her actions having recognized the seriousness of her mistake. Therefore, she refused her job at Cambridge to become a nurse in London despite having no vocation, hoping to make herself useful to others. Meanwhile, when she can, she still writes, though no longer with the same recklessness as when she was a child.
With the outbreak of war, Briony also encounters its tragic consequences when numerous wounded soldiers are admitted to the hospital where he works. One evening she is called to the bedside of Luc, a young French soldier seriously wounded in the head. She comforts him in his last minutes of life, pandering to him when he mistakes her for an English girl his mother wanted him to marry. Briony comes to have a fantasy in which she imagines that she is really marrying the soldier. Subsequently, Briony secretly participates in the marriage between Paul Marshall and Lola: he has now realized that he was the real rapist of the girl, not Robbie.
At the end of part three, Briony visits her sister, who is living with Robbie. Briony admits her guilt and seek counsel on what she can do to make it better, although the couple doesn’t forgive her.

The final part

The end of the third part “London 1999” is a letter from the author to the reader, in which it becomes clear that the story we have read up to that moment is nothing else than the novel written by the protagonist.
Briony informs her readers that she has made up the part about visiting Cecilia and Robbie in London and how both people died in the war. Her act to let their love last forever in the pages of her book will be her final atonement to her crime.
“Atonement” is a metafictional novel, a novel in the novel.
Atonement ends with the birthday party in honour of Briony, who is now 77 and is afflicted from a serious illness that will make her lose her memory. All the family participates to the party to celebrate her. The children play the comedy written by her so many years before “the misadventures of Arabella”.

Themes

Love: between Robbie and Cecilia.
War: the war that destroys the life of everybody. Through it the characters expiate their guilty.
Atonement: the entire plot of the novel centres on a woman who devotes her entire life repenting a crime she committed while still a young girl.

Characters

Briony Tallis: The youngest daughter of the Tallis family. At the beginning of the story, she is thirteen years old and demonstrates a precocious and mischievous personality, with aspirations as a writer. Her great fantasy leads her to over-dramatize the reality that surrounds her, coming to misinterpret some events she witnesses and concluding that gardener Robbie Turner is a sexual maniac who has targeted her sister Cecilia. She accuses the young man of the rape of his cousin Lola leading to his imprisonment; her gesture will upset and lead to the ruin of several lives. Growing up she realizes the gravity of her action and comes to refuse to go to university to work as a nurse despite being without a real vocation. As an adult she becomes a successful writer, but guilt will continue to haunt her throughout her life and, once she is old, she writes a book in which she tells the truth about what she did to atone for her actions.
Robbie Turner: The gardener of the Tallis son of the maid Grace Turner. He is an extremely brilliant young man, so much so that Mr. Tallis pays for his studies and grows up going to school with Cecilia and Leon. He realizes that he has developed feelings for Cecilia, but after the two declare themselves, he is accused of rape by Briony and imprisoned for this after the entire Tallis family (except Cecilia) has turned their backs on him. With the beginning of the Second World War he leaves in service to shorten his detention, with the intention of returning to Cecilia to start a new life with her. In France he experienced firsthand the horrors of the conflict, going on only to the thought of reuniting with Cecilia, but died before returning home due to a small wound infected in 1940. Briony in her book imagines a happy ending for him and his sister as atonement for what he caused them with his lie.
Cecilia Tallis: The middle daughter of the Tallis family. She finds herself in love with her childhood partner Robbie Turner, and when her family accuses him of a crime she didn't commit, she turns away from them by completely cutting off relationships and becoming a nurse. She and Robbie plan to start their lives together when he returns from the war, but Cecilia dies during a bombing in 1940. Briony in her book imagines a happy ending for her sister and Robbie as atonement for what she caused them with her lie.
Leon Tallis: The eldest son of the Tallis family, of cheerful and sunny character. He returned home in the summer of 1935 bringing with him his friend Paul Marshall, an event for which there were great preparations at tallis' home. Despite the close connection he has with Robbie, he does nothing to prevent his incarceration on rape charges. When Cecilia breaks off contact with the family for not believing Robbie, Leon tries to talk to her but is badly rejected. In the present it is discovered that he is still alive at a venerable age and has several marriages behind him.
Emily Tallis: Briony's mother, Cecilia and Leon. He does not have strong control over the family, spending much of his time in bed because of his migraines. He feels a lot of affection for Briony, while he seems to be annoyed with Lola because he believes he wants to "draw all attention to himself with his problems" similarly to how his younger sister Hermione did. She disapproves of her husband paying for Robbie's studies as he is the family gardener; when he is accused of rape, he fights very actively to have him convicted. It is implied that she eventually divorced her husband.
Jack Tallis: Briony's father, Cecilia and Leon, often absent because of his work. He pays for Robbie's studies by acknowledging its potential and quietly allows him to hang out with his children as a family member, but does nothing to prevent his arrest when he is accused of rape. It is implied that he later divorced Emily for another woman.
Dolores 'Lola' Quincey: The cousin of the Tallis brothers, a girl with red hair and freckled skin. At the beginning of the story he is fifteen years old and goes to stay temporarily with the Tallis family with his younger brothers due to the difficult divorce of his parents. Her tendencies to attract all the attention earn her the dislike of Emily and Briony. She suffers the attention of the rich tycoon Paul Marshall who attacks her on two occasions and rapes her. Lola, however, cannot (or does not want) to recognize her attacker and lets Briony point to Robbie Turner as guilty of the sexual assault. Years later she marries Marshall, making it impossible to condemn the man as her husband. Briony senses that Lola would never allow her husband to be accused of rape, so she plans to have the book published in which she tells the truth of what happened only after her and Marshall's death.
Jackson and Pierrot Quincey: Lola's younger twin brothers and cousins of the Tallis boys. At the beginning of the story they are nine years old and are sent together with their sister by the Tallis family during the difficult divorce of their parents. Briony insists on having them act in his play, only to cancel it to their great disappointment. They suffer a lot from the situation, also because of the distrust of the people who take care of them, so much so that they try to escape by setting in motion the events that will lead to Robbie's arrest. In the present it is revealed that Pierrot died years earlier.
Paul Marshall: A friend of Leon's visiting his family estate; he owns a chocolate factory that produces "Amo" bars, chocolate energy bars supplied to army troops, which earn him considerable fortune. He expresses interest in the fifteen-year-old Lola, going so far as to attack her on two occasions and rape her. In both cases he gets away with it, first blaming the girl's brothers and then Robbie Turner, who is also imprisoned. Years later, Marshall marries Lola, making it impossible for him to serve his crime. Age greatly aggravated his health, unlike Lola; Briony intends to have the novel published in which he tells the truth of what happened after the deaths of Marshall and Lola.
Corporal Nettie: One of Robbie's two companions during the evacuation of Dunkirk. In the fourth and final section of the novel, an elderly Briony alludes to an "old Mr. Nettie" who helped her with the writing of the novel, but it is unclear whether it is the same person.
Corporal Mace: One of Robbie's two companions during the evacuation of Dunkirk. He appears for the last time when he rescues an RAF man from the lynching of some soldiers.
Grace Turner: Robbie Turner's mother, was given permission by Jack Tallis to live on the property after her partner left her, becoming the Tallis' maid. When her son is unjustly accused of raping Lola, only she and Cecilia believe he is innocent; Grace distances herself from the Tallis family for allowing her arrest.
Betty: The servant of the Tallis family, of extremely rigid and severe character.
Danny Hardman: The handyman of the Tallis family; Robbie and Cecilia suspect that he is responsible for Lola's rape, although Briony later reveals to them that it was Paul Marshall.