I just finished the novel Atonement by Ian McEwan and I am beyond speechless. No wonder why he was dubbed the modern Jane Austen, his novel was mind boggling, deep, and thought-provoking... it was a masterpiece. A true work of art! I don't even know where to begin! I never knew someone was capable of writing a novel so... beautiful (?)! I don't even know what to say! When I finished his novel, I was speechless, and for a person who has mastered the art of speech at a young age and always has something to talk about, being speechless feels... awkward! And I don't like that feeling!
I'll start with Part One:
In Part One, the characters are introduced. There is Briony Tallis, Cecilia Tallis, Leon Tallis, Robbie, Lola, Loa's little twin brothers, Paul Marshall, Briony's parents, her housekeeper and others. Briony is introduced as a writer who fictionalizes every situation. She is young and dramatic and aspires to be a writer (hmm... reminds me of... me.) Briony sees an interaction between Robbie and her older sister Cecilia. Since Briony is young and never does get the full story, she does not completely understand what is going on. Briony was trying to direct a play for her older brothers' Leons arrival and Lola and the twins were terrible actors, so Briony had deserted them. What Briony sees from her bedroom window is Cecilia taking off her clothes in front of Robbie, and going swimming. What really happens is that Robbie accidentally broke a piece of a vase off and it fell into the lake. Cecilia is angry at him and just wants to get away from him, so she takes off her clothes to go find the pieces... (Keep in mind that this is set in 1935, in England, so a female taking of clothes in front of a male is considered highly inappropriate). This one scene, that only lasts a minute of two, sets up the backbone for this story. Briony starts to believe that Robbie forced her sister to undress, and instantly begins thinking up a story about it. Ironically, in her story, there are 3 different points of views, the character watching from the upstairs window, the boy and the girls down by the lake. It’s funny how Briony thinks about it like that for her story, but not in reality.
Robbie has now realized that he has feelings for Cecilia, and feels bad about breaking the vase, so he decides to write her an apology letter. He gets carried away and writes some inappropriate things such as "I think about making love to you...” He puts that letter aside and begins a new one, one that’s completely sendable. However, he accidentally takes the inappropriate letter and puts in an envelope. All this time, back at the Tallis's house, Cecilia is discovering that she has feelings for Robbie, too. Robbie is walking over to the Tallis' and sees Cecilia’s little sister (Briony), he asks Briony to deliver the letter to Cecilia and goes back to his house to finish getting ready for the dinner that night. Briony's mind is still on that scene that took place by the lake today and is curious as to what is going on between her sister and Robbie. She opens the letter, reads it and shocked at what she reads. She confides in her cousin Lola. Briony delivers the letter to Cecilia, who immediately realizes that if has been already read by her little sister. When Robbie arrives, Cecilia tells him that Briony has read the letter, and although he is embarrassed, he can no longer hide his feelings for her and they share a series of passionate kisses in the corner of the downstairs library. Briony hears noises and enters. When Cecilia heard the door opening, she tried to push Robbie away, but he held on tightly until she spoke aloud that someone was in there with them. To Briony, it seems as though Robbie is attacking her sister, and she feels proud that she was able to rescue her sister from Robbie. She still hasn’t talked to Cecilia about what was happening, so Briony still does not know that what happened in the library was an act of love. Briony let her imagination run wild, and turned Robbie into a maniac psycho murderer who is obsessed with her older sister.
During the dinner, Lola's twin brothers run away. Everyone runs outside to go searching for them and while outside, Lola gets raped. Briony finds her, and she immediately believes that it was Robbie, even though she has known him her entire life. To Briony, it would make sense, because maniacs aren’t just obsessed with one person, of course he would also be obsessed with Lola! Briony tells her parents, goes to show them the note and tells them what she witnessed between Cecilia and Robbie in the corner of the library. Robbie is still out searching for the twins when the police arrive. Briony recounts her story numerous times, as Lola is somewhat traumatized and is put to rest in another bedroom. Cecilia is angry that Briony went through her stuff and sticks up for Robbie! But the police ignore her, believing that she was sticking up for him only because he was a friend of hers. The decide to stick to the story of a 13 year old girl, who didn’t even see him commit the crime, but saws she did. Everyone believed Briony, even her mother, and her father (who was almost like a father to him and paid for Robbie's education) Briony stuck with her story because she wants to protect her sister, to get Robbie out of her life for her! When Robbie returns, he is holding the twin boys in his hands. Instead of receiving praise for bringing the boys back safely, Robbie is handcuffed and taken to prison.
The drama of Part One ends where it started, Briony looking out the window. This time, instead of seeing a flirtation between Robbie and Cecilia, she sees them whispering to each other, mouthing words. She then watched the police car take Robbie with them and Cecilia chasing after the car for a while, as they take away the love of her life.
Part Two:
Part is all from Robbie’s prospective. It becomes known that Robbie did in fact get sentenced to prison, and he was able to bargain an early release in return for joining the infantry. Cecilia was what kept him going. Because her family turned on him, Cecilia left to go work in a hospital as a nurse, never returning their letters or communicating with them in any way. Part Two is based around the horrors of war, and how Robbie kept going, only so he can return home to Cecilia. He went from sleeping in barns, to running from stukas (those are air bombs), to burying dead people along his way to the beach where the rest of the army was heading. The war was going badly and the British were retreating. During his trek to the beach, Robbie contemplates why Briony accused him. He then has a flashback to when she was 12. He had been given her swimming lessons, and Briony asked him if he would save her if she drowned. He says he will and Briony (not a good swimmer) throws herself in the water. Robbie jumps in (fully clothed) to get her and saves her life. He then screams at her and reprimands her for doing such a foolish thing. On the way back to the Tallis's house, Briony tells him why she jumped in, she says it’s because she loved him. Then Robbie has another flashback to giving the letter to Briony to give to Cecilia. He realizes that Briony probably felt betrayed by her own sister, and believes that the betrayal was a good enough motive for her to accuse him of something so horrid, like raping Lola. They were he section ends with Robbie falling asleep when he and his fellow soldiers reach the beach and are a few hours away from being shipped back home.
Part Three:
Part Three is based on Briony's perspective once again. She has grown older and wiser and now realizes that what she did years ago was wrong. In order to make things right, she goes to the hospital that her sister is registered at and becomes a trainee there. She has given up her writing after being rejected and tries to focus on helping others instead of herself. After being at the hospital for some time she goes out in search of her sister and finds her at an apartment. Robbie is there. Briony apologizes to them and Robbie says the only way to make things write is too let the courts know that she lied, then let her parents know and then write a letter to him explaining to him why she accused him in the first place. While over by her sisters’ apartment, Briony tells them that the guy who did rape Lola was Paul Marshall. What is kind of ironic was that she had just come to their apartment from Lola and Paul’s wedding. Cecilia and Robbie share some kisses in front of her and Briony realizes that nothing could keep them apart, not here, not even the war. When she leaves, she's ready to make her atonement.... (Atonement is almost like an apology...)
Part Four:
Part Four is also called London, 1999. Briony is now a 77 renowned author. It is revealed that this novel was her atonement to Robbie and Cecilia. It is also revealed that Robbie died during the war, and Cecilia died during a bombing. Briony did not in fact go to apologize to them. Because it was her who prevented them from being together in the first place, she made her novel so that Cecilia and Robbie would be together forever, as long as the original final draft of the manuscript was kept in her hands. She also made her novel end that way because she would hate for her readers to know the real ending. To know that Robbie and Cecilia never had a chance at being together. The novel ends with Briony's 77th birthday party at the Tallis' house. Her grand nephews and nieces had found her old play that she wrote for Leon and were acting it out beautifully, better than anyone could have imagined. Pierrot started crying because he and his (now-dead) brother had wanted to perform the play, and now his grandchildren were acting it out. Briony apologized to him and admitted it was her fault for the disastrous rehearsals. She had finally achieved atonement.
I truly enjoyed this novel, and i loved how everything started and ended with the same thing. (Eg: Drama started with Briony looking out the window, and ended with her looking out the window. Eg#2: Novel started with the play being written and ended in it being performed). All the loose ends were tied, and Briony had learned a lesson and had to deal with it for her whole entire life.
Moral: A small lie, can ruin a person's future, and that you should always get ever persons story, because things aren't always what they seem to be... Isn't that right Briony?
