T h e C o m p a r a t i v e An a l ys i s o f A t o n e m e n t a n d L i f e o f P i
By studying one text in relation to another, you can see that the same
idea, experience, emotion, or opinion can be treated in different ways.
You may explore ideas of intertextuality as their interpretation and
understanding of the texts chosen for study are informed by their
awareness of other texts. Each of the texts being studied forms part of
the intertextual context for the other. You consider the choices made
by authors and the interpretation made by readers.
English Studies Curriculum Statement
The pairing of Atonement with Life of Pi enables us to focus on themes of trauma, memory, forgiveness, love and the healing
power of storytelling. Both texts also experiment in very obvious ways with narrative structure, especially in their use of fiction
to explore the boundaries of reality and truth, and equally provide both hope for redemption and an ambivalent tone about the
human condition. The contrast in text type between novelistic prose and filmic adaptation, as well as the genres of historical
romance and magical realist adventure, should also prove a rich source of comparative study.
The key assessment criterion for the paired texts study is:
 How effectively does the student compare and contrast texts to evaluate the role of sociocultural and situational
contexts?
The options for establishing a link between these paired texts could be:


A common theme, idea, or topic (e.g. relationships, memory, forgiveness, love, truth and fiction)
The same historical or literary period (both are produced as early 21 st C. postmodernist avant-garde texts – one
literary the other ‘art-house’ 3D cinema – but their textual settings differ between a social history of the English 20th
C. and a Post-colonial story of miraculous individual survival at sea)
The same genre or different genres (novel vs. cinema; socio-historical mystery vs. magic-realist adventure)
Similar or contrasting cultural perspectives (Spanish-Canadian vs. Chinese-American authors)


With the above in mind, choose two short excerpts – a passage from the novel and a sequence from the film –
which provide a focus for some of the key ideas and techniques in both texts. The revelation by Briony that her
story of Robbie’s survival and reconciliation was fictional has both obvious and contradictory connections to Pi’s
alternative version of his survival at sea, for example. Your task will be to write a comparative analysis of those
key excerpts in a maximum of 1,000 words, explaining how they express both similar and contrasting aspects of
Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement and Ang Lee’s film Life of Pi.
As an appendix to your essay, include annotated copies of both extracts (a shot-by-shot breakdown of the film
sequence and an annotated copy of the prose passage).
The following are suggested potential pairings of extracts from the novel with episodes from the film:

Part I, Ch.7, p.72-77: ‘The island temple…’ to ‘… until events, real events, not her own fantasies, rose to
her challenge, and dispelled her insignificance.’
o
From Pi’s account of how he found Christ at age 12, to the after-effects of his father’s cruel lesson
with Richard Parker about a tiger’s true nature (DVD chapters 4 – 6 0h14m20s to 0h25m10s)

Part I, Ch.14, p. 173 – 187: ‘Her memories of the interrogation and signed statements and testimony,’
to ‘…and finally vanished into the whiteness.’
o

Part II, p.226-34: ‘The road no longer had the protection of the plane trees’ to ‘That was the lasting
damage’
o

From Pi’s SOS in a can, through consulting the ‘Survival at Sea’ handbook to the Blue Whale
upsetting his raft full of the lifeboat’s provisions (DVD chapters 13 – 17 0h54m57s to 1h10m32s)
From Pi’s admission that Richard Parker gives his life purpose to his hallucination of the Tsimtsum
on the ocean floor (DVD chapters 19 – 21 1h17m25s to 1h22m55s)
London, 1999, pp.369-372: ‘I was helped out of my comfortable chair…’ to ‘But now I must sleep.’
o
The closing scenes of Pi telling the writer his alternative account of surviving at sea that he gave the
Japanese insurance investigators in Mexico (DVD chapters 26 – 27 1h45m15s to 1h55m10s)
The analysis or close reading of a key passage from any text, often referred to as an ‘explication’, can benefit
from a guiding question to provide the writing with a clearer line of argument. This may be generalised as asking
what the main narrative, thematic or stylistic purposes of the passage are. Depending on the choice of passage,
it can also relate to specific themes explored by the text as a whole. On the following pages are seven questions
(adapted from the Paired Texts questions of past exam papers) which may be illustrated by key episodes from
the two texts and could help you to provide a focus for your explication.
NB: the commentaries accompanying each question give advice for writing full length essays responding to the
entirety of both texts in the examination, and so should not be read too precisely as guidelines for writing a
1,000 word explication or critical reading of paired passages.
1. Compare the ways in which Ian McEwan and Ang Lee use symbolism to explore similar ideas in
Atonement and Life of Pi.
This topic demands a fairly obvious focus on techniques and indicates quite clearly that it is intended for the ‘similar ideas’ found in
the book and film. ‘Symbolism’ may be interpreted in varied ways: virtually anything that you can show as having multi layers of
meaning or as representative of an idea or concept will be acceptable. You may show how the two authors use quite different symbols
to explore similar ideas, such as McEwan’s use of architecture in Atonement and Lee’s use of animals, objects, shapes and colours in
Life of Pi to suggest the persistence of social attitudes; or the symbols, such as motifs of reading, writing and remembering, may be
similar across the texts. The focus should not just be on a description of the symbols and the ideas but on how the two authors have
used symbolism to explore the ideas; such as McEwan’s layered social connotations of the cracked Meissen Vase or Lee’s use of the
gaze to represent mindfulness. Good responses to this question should identify symbols clearly, and compare how the authors used
them to explore similar rather than different ideas.
2. Compare the ways in which Ian McEwan in Atonement and Ang Lee in Life of Pi explore the idea that
it is important to have something to hope for.
‘Compare the ways’ allows for both similarities and differences, and you have to discuss the stylistic features used by the authors to
explore the idea that it is important to have something to hope for. A liberal range of stylistic features is acceptable (such as contrast,
repetition, symbols, characterisation, narrative viewpoint), and better responses will move well beyond plot development and themes.
Such responses would invariably focus on whether or not it is important to have something to hope for; for example, that it is hope that
keeps us going, provides motivation, allows us to take a stand or is a key element of the human condition. There is an implicit latitude
in the question regarding what you saw as being important in maintaining hope: from the trite imperative read out in Pi’s voiceover
from the lifeboat manual’s guide to survival at sea, to the way McEwan has Briony play with the idea in her narrative of Robbie’s war
experience. The more successful responses will refer explicitly to stylistic features and effects, and you are also free to contend with
the statement.
3. Compare the ways in which Ian McEwan and Ang Lee explore the idea in Atonement and Life of Pi that
redemption can be found even in the most adverse circumstances.
‘Compare the ways’ allows for both similarities and differences, and requires you to discuss the stylistic features used by the authors
to explore the idea that redemption can be found in the most adverse circumstances. Better responses will focus on whether this
statement is actually true. Redemption could be emotional or spiritual, or achieved through a specific act. The same scope of
definition is available for the phrase adverse circumstances, which may refer to environmental factors, poverty, deprivation, abuse, or
isolation. Better responses will focus on articulating the adverse circumstances which necessitated redemption, and use techniques
as the vehicle for the discussion.
4. To what extent was it the differences between Atonement and Life of Pi that gave you a better
understanding of the ideas in each text?
This question not only expects you to consider the contrasting elements in the two texts as the focus of your discussion, but to cover
more than one idea that is explored in both as well. While it is unlikely you may argue, in considering ‘to what extent’, that the
differences were not as significant as the similarities in shaping your understanding of ideas, the richness of these two texts’ contrasts
lies in the unlikely survival of Pi’s cosmic faith in benevolence as opposed to Briony’s lifetime of ambivalent reconciliation with her
traumatic past. The focus should also be on the features of the different text types, such as shot types, music, camera angles and
narrative structure in film; or interaction of characters, dialogue, setting and plot in narrative prose. Some features such as narrative
structure or characterisation are present in both the novel and the film, but you should still identify the different ways the common
feature is used to explore an idea (e.g. dialogue and action do help to characterise both Pi and Briony Tallis as imaginative individuals
who have been torn away from idyllic childhoods; but performance, lighting and mise-en-scene are the key properties of one, while
exposition, introspection and shifts in focalisation are hallmarks for the other). Simply pointing out the differences in the storylines is
not an adequate response to the question. Successful responses must effectively highlight the differentiation between the features
that make a film a film and a novel a novel. The weakest response would simply discuss the themes or lapse into a recount of the
plots. The ‘ideas’ in Atonement and Life of Pi could cover such things as the impact of family on the individual, the role of parenting,
the effects of abandonment on children, the therapeutic value of storytelling, survivor guilt and expiation, etc.
5. In considering the contrasting text types of this pairing, how did McEwan use the conventional features
of the novel in Atonement and Lee the conventions of cinema in Life of Pi to explore similar ideas?
In this question you have to focus on text construction. The key phrases – contrasting text types, conventional features of the novel,
and conventions of cinema – should alert you to the fact that the role of a text’s specific modal features in conveying ideas must be
explicitly dealt with. Better responses will label and explore devices that are pertinent to the relevant text types (such as McEwan’s
use of focalisation through third person prose and explicit construction of varying chapter types; or Lee’s use of montage, mise-enscène, superimposition, parallelism and graphic matched editing). The connecting element of this question is the similar ideas (like
memory, forgiveness, love and the healing power of storytelling) around which the more successful essays must be constructed.
Given the stark contrast between the two texts’ plots and narrative genres (British ‘country house’ social drama and post-colonial lone
survival tale) this should strongly inhibit any ill-considered reliance on plot recount in response to this question.
6. Compare the ways in which Ian McEwan and Ang Lee explore the idea in Atonement and Life of Pi that
redemption can be found even in the most adverse circumstances.
‘Compare the ways’ allows for both similarities and differences, and requires you to discuss the stylistic features used by the authors
to explore the idea that redemption can be found in the most adverse circumstances. Better responses will focus on whether this
statement is actually true. Redemption could be emotional or spiritual, or achieved through a specific act. The same scope of
definition is available for the phrase adverse circumstances, which may refer to environmental factors, poverty, deprivation, abuse, or
isolation. Better responses will focus on articulating the adverse circumstances which necessitated redemption, and use techniques
as the vehicle for the discussion.
7. Compare the ways in which Ian McEwan and Ang Lee explore the importance of confronting one of the
following in Atonement and Life of Pi:
 attitudes
 the past
 oneself.
Regardless of the choice of bulleted prompts, you must follow the direction ‘explore the importance of confronting one’ to maximise
your opportunity to fully develop your discussion across both texts. You are clearly directed to use only one of the listed ideas. If you
discuss more than this, you will penalise yourself as your argument will be fragmented. The listed thematic device or idea you choose
must also be the link between the texts. You will determine the techniques you discuss in relation to the idea you choose, but as the
question states ‘ways’, it is expected that a range of stylistic techniques and narrative approaches will be discussed.
Assessment Design Criteria
Your performance in the shared studies, particularly in a comparative exercise like this paired texts essay, will be
judged by the extent to which you demonstrate:
Knowledge and Understanding
KU1. Knowledge and understanding of authors’ use of stylistic features
and language techniques to communicate ideas and influence the
reader’s response.
KU2. Knowledge and understanding of ideas, values, and beliefs in texts.
KU3. Knowledge and understanding of the textual conventions of different
text types.
Analysis
An1. Analysis of the interplay between what authors present in texts and
the experiences, ideas, values, and beliefs of readers.
An2. Analysis of the similarities and differences in texts, in comparative
exercises.
Application
Ap1. The use of language skills and techniques to create coherent
texts that address the meaning and intention of the task.
Ap2. Recognition of connections between texts, and an integrated
approach to comparing and contrasting texts.
Ap3. The use of evidence from texts to develop and support a
response.
Communication
C1. Accuracy, clarity, and fluency of expression.
C2.
Appropriate form and register for audience and purpose.