I have to be completely honest here. I started reading this book sitting at Ocean Isle Beach with my little sister. I started reading the first few pages reading about an egotistical, mis-behaved child and it was so interesting and eventful…until I fell asleep. BEST nap I’ve ever taken by the way. But then I started to read again.. and it got really good. So much so that my eyes were practically touching the spine. I was asleep again. If you can’t tell, I hated Briony’s play. I hate Briony. I have no sympathy for her methods of atonement. In fact she could have done more… but that’s besides the point!

Anyhow.. now to the halfway intelligent part! 

My relationship with this book clearly started off slow. It wasn’t until I had gotten to the fountain scene when I ultimately started to enjoy this book. 

McEwan does an interesting job of displaying the personalities of each character through their environment and role within the family. Briony has a much different outlook on life than Cecilia. Although they have lived in the same house with the same set of parents, they play two drastic roles within the household. 

To illustrate, Cecilia is constantly playing the role of the mother. She seems to envy those her age who have a perfect home-life, and are marrying the richest man. However, it would be no shock if Cecilia only envied true love, due to the fact that she never saw that through her parents. Although it’s evident that Briony bases her life upon stories in which she knows the prince will always save the princess, is it reasonable to question whether Cecilia has fantasies about what her perfect life would look like had she not been forced to take on a motherly role? Perhaps she feels the need to overcompensate in regards to love due to how her father has treated her mother. While Briony is far too young to understand the full truth of what her father is doing and where he is, Cecilia knows all too well. McEwan demonstrates Cecilia’s potential fear of this through her pure love and need for Robbie. 

Cecilia’s mother is ill and her father is away, most likely with other women. McEwan displays Cecilia’s need for Robbie, in the same way that she is not in the position to throw away true love in fear that she will end up like her parents. 

On the other hand, the devil child longs for approval and attention because she rarely sees the presence of an adult figure who has her best intentions at heart. She feels as though she must gain her substance in life through stories because no one has taught her to seek the present. Therefore she implements her delusion into the lives of others, therefore ruining them. 

While Cecilia stepped up and attempted to maintain the motherly figure to the best of her ability, she is not Briony’s mother. Therefore she does not have certain instincts to build Briony into who she so desperately needs to be. The lack of guidance makes her the catalyst for mass destruction. #nosympathy 😀

Also, if Briony wanted the enemy to bomb so badly to prevent Paul and Lola’s wedding, why couldn’t she have been in the Balham tube station…. 

RIP Cecilia… I love you queen. Fly high with Robbie.

When I was first reading Atonement, I thought I hated Briony. In part one, there were many moments where I wanted to throw the evil book at the wall. She was very infuriating. Everything had to be all about her. Then in part three, I felt that she had redeemed herself a bit. Her guilt and attempts at atonement reminded me that she is only a child. Nevertheless, the way she acted as a kid was really a reflection of her upbringing. Since finishing the book, I have been on the search for the reason behind why I seemed to dislike Briony so much. Minus the fact that she sent innocent James McAvoy,  I mean Robbie, to jail.  I realized that the root of the problem is that I seemed to relate to her since the very beginning.

The main thing I related to was her imagination. As a child (and maybe a little bit now), I allowed my imagination to run wild and create stories in my head. I had millions of stories going on, both ones I created, and established stories I continued the way I wanted them to. But unlike Briony I would never write them down. Also, I would never really allow myself to get lost in worlds of my creating when I was interacting with others. I saw her as another child with a gift of imagination. But she soon became obnoxious with her stories and allowed them to take over her life. It made me fearful of having such stories in my head, like it was a possibility that I could make a mistake like that. It made me resent her, and her out of control mind.

Another thing that rubbed me the wrong way was that we both grew up in a similar manner. Briony was excessively sheltered. She lived in a little bubble of her own world. I too was a bit sheltered as a child. But unlike Briony, I was introduced to the world little by little. That way nothing was exposed too early and I was never overwhelmed. Briony’s sheltered world came crashing down all within a few hours. I guess I assumed she would be mature enough to handle it properly. I thought she would choose integrity over attention. It just goes to show that it is impossible hold others to your own expectations (quote Mr. Nigro).

There is one thing I will give her some slack on, the fact that she misunderstood the situation. She was not raised in the world to be desensitized to things. To see something and not just have a rock hard opinion of what it meant and instead think rationally using common sense. She is the perfect example of why some say eyewitnesses are sometimes unreliable. They make their own assumptions without knowing the situation. I also don’t understand everything people say or do in public settings (probably because of how I was raised), but I also know that I can’t assume anything about others.

All in all, I would just say Briony is complicated and human. And that definitely is something I can relate to. She made a mistake, she tried to atone for it, and she inflicts pain on herself through guilt. I do the same, but unlike Briony, I have people to turn to and help pull me out of it. That is probably why I turned out the way I am. I wonder how she would have turned out if she had someone to turn to when the guilt began to crush her.

        Unlike other blog posts I have written, this one has less to do with the novel we read and more about the lasting thoughts I was left with after reading and analyzing Atonement. Throughout the novel, we see Briony’s journey of atoning for the “crime” she committed. Similarly, we see the journey of Cecilia and Robbie’s love. These two journeys are intertwined, leading to this post’s point. Can love be atoned? I believe there are two approaches to this question in relevance to Atonement. The first is Cecilia and Briony’s sisterly love, and the second is love in an emotional and physical sense. Briony wants to atone for the misunderstanding of Lola’s rape to forgive herself, but also she wants forgiveness from her sister. Cecilia has completely avoided Briony after she accused Robbie of raping Lola. Briony wants the attention and the forgiveness from her sister. Briony even goes so far as dropping out of Cambridge and working as a nurse to somehow gain Cecilia’s attention. This part of the novel connects to atoning for love through actions. Does Cecilia ever forgive Briony? The readers are left unanswered. However, this idea can lead the readers to focus on looking within themselves and their relationships. The definition of to atone is to make a reparation for a wrong or injury. The definition of to love is to feel deep affection for something, someone, etc. What do you do when you have to atone in love? I believe that love is not easily defined. Love has a lot of blurred lines. You can love someone who does not love you. You can love someone platonically. You can love something and let go of it. You can love Dunkin every morning. But love can lead to hurt, which I believe McEwean and other post-modern novelists highlight within their novels. Think about The Great Gatsby, essentially a love story between two star-crossed lovers, and one dies—the End. What leads Gatsby to die is not his personal issues (which there were a lot) but it was his love for Daisy. That green light was Gatsby’s atonement to Daisy. His “I am out here, waiting for you”. However, they are not destined to be together so no atoning can rewrite the course of fate. I do not think love can be atoned. I believe that what is meant to happen will happen. Your life is already mapped out for you. There is no “rewriting fate” or “changing my path”. Your path is set for you. This philosophy is set in the Christian religion and is also a philosophical belief called determinism. Looking at this in correlation with atoning for love, I believe that no matter how much you can atone for something, the person’s forgiveness is already determined. Love and atonement both have a blurry area- making it hard to justify being in love and having to atone. Love cannot be atoned for unless it is already determined. Forgiveness can be a hard thing, which is highlighted throughout the entirety of Atonement. You can forgive someone, but only if you feel it is possible to forgive them. You can say you forgive them, but if you are not at the point where you feel like you can. Then, there is always going to be a part of you that is always thinking about the thing that deserves forgiveness. Briony could not forgive herself, which is why the readers never see a closing for Atonement. We do not see a final ending. The story is now stuck in an endless loop of reading and rereading the novel. Forgiveness, atonement, and love are all connected, but it is up to us to determine our feelings about these feelings (haha!).

This book has motivated me tell the truth and nothing but the truth for the rest of my life. Life moves on and who cares if there was an embarrassing moment, you do not have to lie to cover it up. You just have to live with the consequences of your actions and Briony needed to just zip her lip. Lola really got lucky with Briony being in the same house as her because she can manipulate her without doing anything. Briony puts herself on a pedestal and thinks no one sees life like her. Briony knew she didn’t see Lola’s attacker but she was so entangled in her belief that she was right and she knew, but her vision was not reliable. She wanted to see Robbie so she makes that the truth.  I am glad that older Briony is aware of her self-appointed heroism ideal and that she thought of herself as  the center of the universe. Being the baby of the family and spoiled by her brother and mother makes her think she has to be better than Cecilia so she is automatically capable of being better. Also, it disgusts me that she tries to write Robbie and Cecilia’s happy ending but she is the one who took that away from them. I do not, not hate Briony… but she deserved to live somewhere else. I think Cecilia and Leon should have been the only kids in the house and I wish their father wasn’t a cheating scum bag. Emily is annoying because she needs to lock herself away in her room but, maybe that is where she belongs. The house turning into a hotel shows the irony of Briony being in the house and trying to rely on her memory and trusting she is right.

I feel bad for Lola because of what happened to her and her being a victim. Paul Marshall was a terrible person and should be in prison for life and subject to torture but at the time, a man of his status could never have that fate.

I really enjoyed the post-modernism aspect of this book because as a teenager, I feel like the truth is always changing. There is always a new, different perspective that can alter your world. With creating your own truth, it may help you sleep at night but at what cost. I can get confused with the inevitable possibilities and scenarios of the path taken and the alternate realities. If I had just said something different or not said anything, would anything have changed? Being a young woman in the year 2023 means I can have the power to do anything I put my mind to because humans are capable of insane things. Like Michael Phelps,  Simone Biles and Coco Gauff in the US Open.

When Briony takes the letter and humiliates Cecilia, I have never wanted to stop reading a book so bad. And when Briony was at Cecilia’s home and tried to call her Cee, it broke my heart because Briony will never be able to call her that again because she will never be that person, ever again.

Luc’s conversation with Briony made me have to read through my tears because even though he was about to die, he was reliving his memories through Briony. Briony for once was just the outside observer, listening to his life story, and knowing the ending.(his death) Although, as the reader, you want to change his ending so that he goes back to his home. His death, and the presence of soldiers in the hospital brings a sense of disorder to the orderly hospital. The hospital, in a sense, is like Briony’s younger life. She always wanted to have control and organize everything (like the play) and it is not possible to control everything. There will be Lola’s and Pierrot and Jackson Quincy’s that challenge the structure of your life.

As much as we want happy endings to be our endings, I think just an ending can be appropriate. They shouldn’t be configured to some happy thing if (Robbie and Cecilia’s ending) it isn’t at all. Although the love they had for each other never died, I don’t think Briony should have ever put herself between them. I think Briony was correct when living her life atoning to her grave mistake, by working as a nurse and not going to school. I appreciate how well-rounded McEwan wrote Briony and showing how human she is.

Parallel with the wedding and the fountain, left Briony to construct her truth out of little evidence left after the fact. I hate that Briony is always trying to piece things together and she should stick to puzzles or something.

Initially, I understand the common hatred of Briony in Atonement and why she is such a problematic character. Her actions were loathsome but in my opinion there are much bigger issues within Atonement. My major issue with this book as a whole is the stupidity of all adults present at Briony’s claim. It doesn’t matter to me if it’s the most confident thirteen year old I’ve heard in my life, the adults should’ve known better. The police should’ve known better. Arresting a man on the claims of a child is outrageous. An egregious letter from Robbie to another woman is hardly evidence that he would rape a child. For the police to conclude that Robbie should be arrested based on the claims of a thirteen-year-old and a vulgar letter he sent to a grown woman is nonsensical. Obviously class plays a major role, and to accuse a lower-class man is practically to make him guilty, which falls in line with the postmodernism theme that there is no absolute truth and truth is relative. Nevertheless, a child should not have this power. So while this is Briony’s fault, I blame the system of the time being unfair to lower class people and primarily the stupidity of the police and adults involved. They had every chance to act reasonably and didn’t. In terms of the “villain/s” of this book I give Paul and Lola that label. Lola because she had an oppurtnity to do right, and conciouslty made consistent choices against it. I understand that many would argue that Lola gave herself the best life possible, but at what cost. At the cost of her life, her morality, her moral dignity? I realize that if Lola had called out Paul it would’ve likely ruined her life. That is why, knowing justice wouldn’t be served t0o Paul, she should’ve at least said that it wasn’t Robbie. Saying that it wasn’t Robbie doesn’t require her to blame Paul. All Lola had to say was “No it wasn’t Robbie, the figure wasn’t his height”, or “didn’t look his age”, or “wasn’t his size”, or even “I didn’t see Robbie and I don’t think it was him”. Practically anything could’ve been said to keep Robbie from harm without directly blaming Paul. And even after this Lola marries Paul, in spite of his atrocious acts, brining into question Lola’s judgement from the beginning. For Paul, no evidence beyond Paul’s disgusting crime is needed to label him as such. While many people made crucial mistakes along the course for retribution for this sin, he’s the one who committed it. The avalanche that is this book is also a result of Paul’s sin. This instance and many lead me to the claim that man is inherently evil at his core, as Thomas Hobbes and Hsun Tzu claimed. I believe that man must follow God and without him he is lost and sinful and will act evil as are the “default settings”. By ourselves we act out of wickedness. After all what man has not lied? Who has not committed wrongs? Who effortlessly puts good at the forefront of his mind, without building the habit of brushing evil thoughts aside. I think this also partially plays into Briony’s sin. I think its multifaceted nature leaves her child innocence partially to blame but also her desire to blame Robbie for the letter, as well as the hatred built from her rejection. Briony’s loneliness and lack of support also plays a role. She has built an attention seeking life and mindset resulting majorly from an absence of present family. She has lost herself in her imagination because reality has left her to do so and Briony is adventurous at least in thought. This all has played a role in Briony’s horrid action that ruined Robbie’s life. Regardless, and I know this may come as a  shock to many. I don’t think Briony shouldn’t have tried to make atonement. This is for a few of reasons. The starting reason is that I am a realist, and while this may sound harsh, but why waste time focusing on what you can’t do, when you an focus on the things you can. Briony could’ve followed her passions and lived a fulfilling life and potentially changed the world. She gave her life atoning, and while the way she did it was admirable but it wasn’t for the right reason. Nothing should ever be done if it’s not for the right reason. Atonement wasn’t possible and would never be, the attempt is meaningless. The attempt only has value if there is even the slightest of possibilities it could have an affect. If my friend is at gun point, I might be several feet away, and leap towards the attacker knowing I won’t stop them. But the sliver of a chance that the distraction will, or something else I could cause makes it valuable. The past is the past and it is unchangeable, the more we try to forget it the more we remember, we can only wait until it fades away piece by piece. Briony’s attempt to make a remedy is her real sin. It sounds bizarre, but Briony’s actions ruined not only ruined another life, but also hers. It didn’t have to do so. I know from personal experience that a tragic event like that changes you, and I’m sure even more so if you are at fault, but that’s no reason to tear apart your life. You go through a period of deep grief, remorse, etc., and you move on. You will always live with that remorse, and at times struggle with it, but if you let it stop you then you have lost. I do wonder if in some way Briony could’ve actually helped Robbie, in some reality where she went and somehow sacrificed herself to clear his name or somehow gained him a new life. Nevertheless I blame this catastrophe of a book on the adults involved in Briony’s accusation, the villains are Lola and Paul, and Briony shouldn’t have bothered a doomed attempt to atone, when more could’ve been done with her life.

Yes, Marv has returned to discuss Dante’s work again. Yes, I do have an obsession. Yes, this will be a Briony Tallis blog with some light slander.

Briony Tallis interests me because of the mind-bending ethical philosophy arguments and questions she brings about. I navigate the world through a lens of strict ethical and moral codes, therefore making the philosophical conflict in this text all-consuming for me.

Can we truly atone in the same lifetime that we committed countless sins? Or is the only place for humans to truly face accountability a place that only exists beyond the veil of death? What sins do we pay eternity for, and what sins are paid with a brief time in brimstone?

I find myself confounded by the question of not only whether or not Briony Tallis was able to atone during her lifetime, but if she would ever be able to after death. Would Briony go to Inferno, where the 9 circles of hell torment your soul mercilessly for all of time? Or Purgatorio, where she suffers until the suffering she caused tipped the scale of sins to equivalence? Or did she fully atone during her life by working in the war and then fully publicizing all of her evils, no forgiveness asked, and rise to the peace of Paradiso?

I truly wish I could answer this question, especially because I dislike Briony so much. However, I know it would not be genuine if I said the solution was easy and bid her goodbye into Satan’s torturous realm. On one hand, Briony was indirectly (or, arguably, directly) responsible for the deaths of Cecilia and Robbie, directly responsible for their years of anguish, and opened the door of opportunity for Marshall to marry Lola Quincey. The youngest Tallis sister tore lives apart with her desire to exist as the valiant savior, the martyred daughter, the overlooked sister.

However, Briony became fully aware of all she did and then threw away her place at Girton in leu of working in the war and then writing, in full, the sins she committed in her self-serving nature. Her novel not only gave away her atrocities but carried the honor of those she brought harm to: Robbie and Cecilia.

I am not, in any way, commending Briony for these actions in an attempt at atonement. Her lifelong suffering, from my perspective, was the minimum punishment that she deserved in life. And while I am not confident in the question of where she would fall in the afterlife following her attempts at atoning, I am fully sure that she would deserve the worst of Inferno had she not chosen to give up her alternate, ‘normal’ life as a scholar after taking that very choice away from Robbie.

I am a major Briony hater, to be clear. I do not believe that her lifetime of suffering because of her grave actions earned her any forgiveness from anyone – Robbie, Cecilia, the reader. But Briony also never asked nor expected anyone’s forgiveness, and for that, I find that there would be mercy for her somewhere.

Writing this blog post has been quite therapeutic for me, as I feel as though I have been able to objectively (as possible) gather my final thoughts on Briony. Surprisingly, and slightly frustratingly, my evaluation of her is not so harsh as I once believed.