Ian McEwan’s Atonement
Atonement is a novel about Writing:
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Letters
Stories
Plays
Biography
Journals
Perspective
Truth
Lies
Words
When writers do this, it is called
Metafiction
(above, or looking down from above on the act
of writing)
Consider the English tradition of epistolary novels.
In these novels, guess what kind of writing
consumes the majority or all of the text?
Letter writing
Consider the Epistolary Novel:
Letters are used for the entirety of the novel, or for
presenting the most important parts of the novel:
The Color Purple
Dangerous Liaisons
Pride and Prejudice
Consider the many ways the written word, in letters, operates in this text:
The big letter
Letters of information (too much information 78, too little information 192)
Love letters that serve as holy relics/talismans
( 194, 213)
Letters of evidence/ crime 107
Letters of rejection 294
Letters as correction for writing (metafiction) 295, 339, 340
Stories
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Just whose story is this???
Briony, certainly
Others: Robbie, Cecilia
Others: Lola, Paul, Mrs. and Mrs. Tallis, Nettle and Mace, etc.
Others: the unnamed victims/soldiers of WWII, prisoners with
stories
• Modern society, modern people who mess up
One thing is for sure . . .
• McEwan believes that stories enable us to empathize better than any other medium
“The novel is supreme in giving us the possibility of inhabiting other minds. I think it
does it better than drama, better than cinema. It’s developed these elaborate
conventions over three or four hundred years of representing not only mental
states, but change, over time.” (McEwan Interview Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2003)
Just a reminder:
• This is Ian McEwan’s story . . . He’s made it all up!
• The narrative is a “draft of atonement”
• The narrative structure of the novel is storytelling by a storyteller
who is created by another storyteller . . . . .
Biography/Novel
• We readers have to remind ourselves: this is a novel, not a
biography. The “author” lies to us.
• Pg. 349
• How does Briony make us assume this is her biography?
Detail, perspective, authority of I, lies directly told
Plays
The Trials of Arabella
– Serves as “bookends” of Briony’s story
– The tragedy (three acts)
– The unfolding of the drama of the story with characterization central
in Act I
– Pg 16, 347,348 the play is quoted
– The play falls apart, mirrors the action of the narrative
Journals
• Briony’s nursing journal: 264-265
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“true self” seen in writing
Names changed, imagination
“no obligation to the truth”
Like Chaucer: characters make a moral point
Reveals connection to her past, to others
“Age of clear answers was over”
Perspective
1. Several perspectives of the fountain scene
Cecelia 20-23
Briony 35-37
Young Writer’s ? Perspective 38
Older Writer’s perspective 295
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The famous library scene
Briony 116
Robbie 130
Postmodernists distrust the notion of only one
So, how does McEwan play with truth and lies
through writing?
Multiple perspectives of narrative
Moral complexity of plot
Level of detail
Using non fiction sources of writing to build trust in “characters”
All fiction is a beautiful lie that tells the truth
But for a work of metafiction . . .
It’s all about the words:
• The word in the Robbie’s letter
• Rape, Divorce, Adultery, Prison, “Come back to me,” Dunkirk, Gov’ner, NT,
Horror, speaking to the french patient . . .
• Watch the power of a single word
• Watch the power of single person’s word to commit evil
• Watch the power of the military’s word
• Watch the power of Briony’s words to make atonement
But is it
possible to atone for actions using words?
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Works Cited
Atonement book cover. United Methodist Church. United Methodist Church. United Methodist Church. 7 Sept. 2008 <http://archives.umc.org/interior.asp?ptid=1&mid=3990>.
The Color Purple [Book cover]. Digital image. The Color Purple. Barnes and Noble. 8 Sept. 2008 <http://search.barnesandnoble.com/the-color-purple/alice-walker/e/9780156028356>.
Dangerous Liasons [Film poster]. Digital image. Dangerous Liasons. DVDVideo.co.nz. 8 Sept. 2008
<http://www.dvdvideo.co.nz/shop/product_info.php?products_id=2055&oscsid=70a27433ae019babff51dad15eb44482>.
Daveblog. Kernals of Truth [Pop corn kernals spell truth]. Digital image. Flickr. 14 Feb. 2006. Flickr. 10 Sept. 2008 <www.flickr.com>.
From Atonement, Beach at Dunkirk. Digital image. Imagining War. Film in Focus. 10 Sept. 2008 <http://http://www.filminfocus.com/article/imagining_war>.
Gabeandchry. IM000947_2.JPG [Photo of old English house]. 2 Dec. 2006. Flickr. 3 Dec. 2006. 7 Sept. 2008 <http://www.flickr.com/photos/gabeandchry/313333994/>.
McEwan, Ian. Atonement. New York: Anchor, 2003.
SouthernPixel. Words [Penance and Penalty]. Digital image. Flickr. 28 Dec. 2006. Flickr. 10 Sept. 2008 <http://www.flickr.com>.
Thespian masks. Digital image. Off Broadway Acting. 10 Sept. 2008 <http://http://offbroadwayacting.com/img/thespianmask2.jpg>.
Ward, Dave. L.C. Smith & Bros. Typewriter [Photo of old typewriter]. 23 May 2003. Flickr. 24 May 2003. 7 Sept. 2008 <http://www.flickr.com/photos/daveward/15453474/>.