Atonement Essay

The novel Atonement by Ian McEwan, takes place at different times in Britain, mainly in the 1930s, the 1940s, and 1999 at last. The story follows the life of Briony Tallis, the main character, and the life around her. McEwan portrays many characters in his novel, as all of these characters play an important role in this novel. In addition to the roles of these characters, their different kinds of relationship reveal the story revolving around Briony and leading to the development of the theme of the story. The novel first begins in 1935, where McEwan introduces Briony Tallis, a thirteen-year-old girl who wishes to become a famous writer one day. She prepares a play for her older brother, Leon Tallis, who is coming home from London, where

The most identified main idea of this story is the guilt, forgiveness, and atonement of Briony. After her grave mistake which led her sister’s boyfriend to “send to prison for a rape that was committed by a millionaire friend of [her] brother,” she devoted her whole life in repentance for the crime she made (Swan). She vowed to become a nurse for her atonement, but throughout her caring of the wounded French soldiers, she realizes that her mistake will be hard to be forgiven. With the characterization of Briony, McEwan develops the theme of becoming greedy will torment one’s life and the people next to them. Towards the end of the story, the readers are aware of Briony’s book that she wrote about her life, but left the viewers wondering if she has finally reached her atonement by writing this book. The main criminal, who should have gone to jail was Paul Marshall, but because of Briony’s lie, everyone’s lives were broken apart. The rich estate the Tallis family lived in was made into a resort, Emily, the mother of the family, Jack Quincey, Briony’s husband are all dead. The fatal part of the story was the death of Robbie, in which “when the war permitted him early release into the infantry, he died on the verge of rescue from Dunkirk in June 1940”