Blog 08: Atonement

In today’s blog, the focus will be the next of our A Level texts: Ian McEwan’s Atonement.

With all of these blog posts, I’ll be highlighting three important things to consider to elevate your exam responses.

Key Character

Briony. The book is an exploration of what is done to Robbie — perhaps because of the magnetism of James McAvoy in the 2007 film — so by many he is seen as the protagonist of the novel. But it is Briony who, through her ‘spontaneous’ (to quote from her own play, performed at the start of the novel) actions, acts as the catalyst for the novel’s dramatic, tragic action.

Key Theme

Fiction. In its original sense: human creation. What happens to Robbie — and, thus, Cecilia — is a direct result of the story created by Briony. But we must remember that this postmodern novel is also concerned with questioning the very nature of truth itself: to what extent is Briony a reliable narrator? How much can she realistically know about Robbie’s wartime experiences?

Key Quotation

Briony describes, after the events leading to Robbie’s arrest, a ‘dreamlike’ time in which she is kept awake by ‘her own vile excitement’: even at this stage (p. 173, before the sections about Cecilia, Robbie, and the events of WWII), Briony knows that she has done something wrong; she has committed a ’vile’ act, and it is not Robbie who commits the evil act that drives the narrative — it is Briony who must ‘atone’.

📌 If you want more of this focus on character, theme, language, and context to prepare you for your exams, get in touch.