Class Biases In Atonement

"The rise and fall of class in Britain" is both an allusive and ironic phrase, totally correct yet also at least half mistaken” (Cannadine). Through Ian McEwan’s bestselling novel, Atonement, the author tells a story that develops social class tensions across lines of culture and time. Atonement focuses on the rape of a girl within the upper class by an extremely wealthy and powerful man named Paul Marshall. After becoming aware of this assault her family blames Robbie Turner, the son of their maid, due to the biases that follow his low social standing. This false accusation is pursued by the family’s youngest daughter, Briony Tallis, eventually, the accusation tears the family apart as Briony’s older sister is in love with Robbie and is aware

By developing the interactions, ideals, and aspirations of characters at different levels of status such as Briony Tallis, Paul Marshall, and Robbie Turner the reader can discern the bias that is held by the characters and the audience at large. This literary work allows the reader to analyze their own interactions with those born into a different social class and how these biases contribute to the prejudices held by societies that claim to have grown past the concept of class. Through these revelations, the reader is given a complete view of the world and an opportunity to put effort towards the transcendence of these archaic

On the contrary, they are now widely dismissed as being deeply and fatally flawed” (Cannadine). Robbie Turner serves as the stories low-class perspective and a heartbreaking example of the effects of bias on society. Early on Robbie is characterized as an extremely smart man. Despite his mother’s status as a maid, he is able to transcend class through education. “He liked people to know he didn’t care – there goes my mother’s employer’s daughter, he once said to a friend. He had his politics to protect him, and his scientifically based theories of class and his own rather forced self-certainty. I am what I am” (McEwan 81). Even though Robbie believed he had pushed past his social class he is still bogged down by where he comes from. Rather than seeing his true intentions, Briony manipulates his actions to fit her narrative. Even when he is operating in a regular manner Briony perceives it to be suspicious. “Did he believe he could conceal his crime behind an apparent kindness, behind this show of being the good shepherd? This was surely a cynical attempt to win forgiveness for what could never be forgiven. She was confirmed again in her view that evil was complicated and misleading” (McEwan 143). Despite his extreme knowledge and the fact that he is attempting