Atonement Reflection Paper

Pitipon Rodruan

Ruth

ENG345

March 13, 2013

Immaturity

One of the themes in Ian McEwan's Atonement revolved around Briony's perception and misinterpretation of Cecilia's intimate relationship with Robbie. This led to some misinterpretation about Robbie's motive as Briony mistakenly accused Robbie of sexual assault against her cousin Lola. Briony's changing personality and emotions were shown throughout the book as she lived out her life. Eventually she confessed about her failure to accurately say who sexually assaulted Lola at the time of the incident. Even though Briony was growing up and learning about relationships and love, she failed to reconcile and atone for her mistakes because she did not grow out of her own immaturity.

Briony wanted a world with order and perfect harmony. Eventually her perspective on life changed when she wanted reality to prove that her view of the world was wrong and “dispel her insignificance” (McEwan 72), but her immature perception of reality was distorted when she had an inaccurate interpretation of the sexual assault against her cousin—placing the blame on Robbie. Eventually Briony was unable to reconcile or repair the damage with the people she wronged. Nearing her death at the end of the novel, she was reluctant to finish her act of kindness towards Robbie and Cecilia (McEwan 351).

The novel revealed Briony's initial behavior and desire for things to be in order. She was wanted the world to be “just so” which was in contrast to her sister Cecilia's unkepted behavior (McEwan 4). Briony and Cecilia had a close relationship with each other even though they had different personalities. Although Briony wanted the world to go the way she perceived, but she wasn't completely self-centered. Briony displayed her selflessness by the play she wrote early in the novel for her brother Leon (McEwan 7), and her willingness to love and protect her sister Cecilia (McEwan 147). The problem with Briony wasn't her selfishness, but of her...