Comparative Essay On Atonement

Alice “I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. That myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more powerful than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience. That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death,” - Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. Imagination and writing go hand-in-hand, yet when writing about real life, where does one find equilibrium between fiction and reality? In Atonement, Briony Tallis has been writing her whole life, crafting works of fiction not only from her imagination, but from her life. If Briony were not a writer in Atonement, one with a particular fantastical sense of reality, the sins she must atone for might

She “was one of those children possessed by the desire to have the world just so,” (4). People cannot fully control those around them, so Briony found other ways to control her life. She cleans and organizes her room meticulously. Writing became a perfect outlet for her controlling tendencies. Not only was writing exciting, but “[h]er passion for tidiness was also satisfied, for an unruly world could be made just so,” (7). In stories, Briony can decide what happens start to finish and what everyone is thinking and feeling. Writing is essential to Briony because it is an outlet for her to take control over all that she cannot actually

The story she writes, the story that is Atonement, has a proper plot and proper characters who are essential to the story and develop over time. This story is still fantasy since we know Briony changed the fountain scene as well as invented a happy ending where Briony is reunited with Cecelia and Robbie who both manage to stay happily alive and in love. Though they might have actually died, as Fulgham said, “love trumps death,”. This fantasy is a very different fantasy than Briony presented when she was young. The fantasy she presented when she was young served to protect her sense of control. This one serves to expose her transgressions and how she got caught up in imagination. She “gave [the readers] happiness, but [she] was not so self-serving as to let them forgive [her],” (351). Her final draft is true atonement because it is without