These final two chapters in Part One is the set up for Briony’s crime. In Chapter 13, the opening sentence informs the readers that this is the chapter where Briony will commit her crime. As Briony takes in what she sees, from Lola's attack, Lola – without saying it clearly – sobs to Briony that she was in the process of being raped. When Briony repeatedly asks her cousin who was the man who attacked her, it suddenly comes to Briony’s realization that Lola isn’t certain who her attacker was, and Briony takes this opportunity to plant the notion that it was Robbie the “maniac” who was Lola’s attacker. However, Lola continues to be unsure if it was Robbie who was the attacker, yet Briony holds her ground and confesses to Lola the scene she witnessed in the library of Robbie “attacking” her sister. At once, Briony is now determined that the rapist must have been Robbie. “ . . . she knew was not literally, or not only based on the visible. It was not simply the eyes that told her the truth. It was too dark for that. . . . But nor was this figure invisible, and its size and manner of moving were familiar to her. Her eyes confirmed the sum of all she knew and has recently experienced. The truth was in the symmetry, which was to say, it was founded on common sense. So when she said, over and again, I saw him, she meant it and was perfectly honest, as well as passionate.” (Pages 158 – 159). Another common theme that occurs throughout Atonement, is the theme of misunderstanding or misinterpreting a sensory experience. What Briony ‘sees‘ by the lake isn’t enough to overcome what she ‘imagines‘ to be true. Briony’s own fatal flaw, is that she trusts her literary instincts more than visual data. Briony’s crime then, is not that she blatantly lies, but that she confuses fact for fiction through her talent for artistic creation. In Chapter 14, Briony gives her interview and statement to the police of what she saw at the lake. While Briony gives her testimony, her sister, Cecilia remains silent and furious at Briony’s accusations. To further ignite Cecilia’s anger, Briony shows the police the letter Robbie had written to Cecilia with the forbidden ‘c’ word. Briony backs up her claim by describing what she had witnessed in the library between her sister and Robbie. Upon the official interview, the lead detective repeatedly asks Briony if she is certain she saw Robbie attacking Lola. Briony confirms that she did. “ ‘You saw him then.’ ‘I know it was him.’ ‘Let’s forget what you know. You’re saying you saw him.’ ‘Yes, I saw him.’ ‘Just as you see me.’ ‘Yes.’ ” (Page 169). By now, Briony changes her phrasing from the sensory: ‘I saw him,’ to the factual and cognitive: ‘I know it was him.’ By the time Briony sees Robbie’s innocence laid out in front of her, she is ‘outraged,’ a sign that she is fully convinced of his guilt.
Chapter thirteen begins with the prospect that something might actually happen in the book with the talk about Briony’s crime. Briony tries to follow her sister to try and protect her from Robbie. She is also not very worried about the twins; she is just wandering around knowing that eventually someone will stumble across them. She is much more worried about her sister. What she does find is Marshall attacking Lola, yet she convinces herself it is Robbie. Briony is such a good writer that she even begins to believe her lie and by the time the police arrest Robbie she honestly seems to believe it was Robbie that she saw. Lola did not need to lie or accuse anyone at all, she just let Briony do all the work.
There were some wonderful lines in these concluding chapters on Part one. The first line of chapter thirteen of course is great,"within the half hour Briony would commit her crime." That line says it all; it's dark, ominous and concise. It sets the mood for these chapters. I want and know something is going to happen and I know who is going to cause it. Another great line is on page 148 when Briony is talking about evil people, "this was exactly what no one would have expected, and of course villains were not announced with hisses or soliloquies, they did not come cloaked in black, with ugly expressions." Something about that line just stuck with me. It is a very grown up thought that Briony is aware of how evil differs in the world than in cinema. It isn't easy to tell who is evil. The most frustrating conversation probably is the one between Briony and Lola right after Lola was "attacked" on pages 155-156. When Briony says "It was him, wasn't it"" my only thought was of course it was him. We know it was a male but that refers to a whole host of people. At that point it seemed that Briony was being vague to she could insert in her mind whomever she thought fit the role best. This section bothered me because there was an air of passivity amongst everyone. Everyone was just letting things happen. The only active ones it seems are Briony and the rapist. And their action are deplorable; people just sit back and allow things to happen. Once Robbie is arrested the only person who actively protests is his mother which is just so sad. She has been betrayed by everyone she trusted and now they are taking her only son away.
My last thought is on the police force. They are bad at their job. Here's an idea: ever heard of timelines? they are great for establishing peoples whereabouts. I'm pretty sure some type of watch device has been invented by now, so really there is no excuse. I'm just saying.
This chapter was so incredibly sad and annoying at the same time. I was so frustrated when Briony witnesses the crime and claims that she clearly saw Robbie when she even admits to herself that she couldn't see anything the entire time. She seems so wrapped up and sure of her lie that even as she realizes it's problems she can't stop herself from digging deeper and deeper into a hole. Somehow I can't really believe someone would actually do this to themselves but I suppose it was a different time so maybe it was easier for Briony to engage in such a destructive chain of events. It also angered me that Cecilia never did anything to stand up for Robbie. She could have told someone at any time that Briony was just a child and making up what she was saying and just say that Robbie was a nice guy. She didn't even have to admit she was in love with him or had sex with him. I mean I understand she's supposed to be an indecisive character but it's just so frustrating to see the moment in which she could actually save Robbie fading away.
UGH, Briony, WHY?! WHY would you sentence someone as yummy as James McAvoy to life in prison?! Don't you know that's a waste of eye candy? This is the scene where I would've loved to get in Lola's head rather than Briony's. Was in consensual rape? How afraid was she? What did Paul say beforehand, if he said anything at all? Why didn't Lola admit that it was Paul and not Robbie? I don't understand what was going on in Briony's head when she was accusing Robbie. I know she's angry and all, but...ugh. Can I push her into the lake? Pleeeease? And Cecilia! SHE COULD'VE DEFENDED HIM! She could've said the letter was a joke! She could've said that what Briony saw in the library was just her hugging Robbie!...With her legs! I see Briony as a very possessive child. She doesn't like all the changes happening around her, so she does whatever she can to get things to go back to normal. She just doesn't understand how serious the consequences of her accusation are.
Of all the sections we have read so far, I do think that this section annoyed me the most. I think part of the reason is the fact that this happens in real life, and part of the fact because I really hate people who consciously lie. From the perspective later in the book, it seems like Briony sees Marshal's face, but that just might be a thing added for the sake of the movie. I don't know.
When Briony finds Lola, and sees a man run off, she instinctively blames Robbie instead of looking at the facts. And once she falls into this rabbit hole, she can't go back. Part of the reason is the fact that she reads so much, and writes. In her stories, there is no undoing an action. Once committed to a path, there is no going back. No room to change. Everything has to be neatly packaged into a clean ending. This dooms Robbie, because in her mind, he can be the only perpetrator of the heinous crime.
This is the most exciting part of the book so far because a load of things happened and in only 29 pages! Briony is walking around in the woods thinking about how bad Robbie is and how she needs to help Cecilia out, when she comes across an unknown man (Marshal) attacking Lola. The two things that Briony has seen/heard from Robbie have made her think he is a sex driven freak. This makes it only natural for her to assume Robbie was the one Violating Lola. When Robbie does return to the house with the twins there is a police officer waiting to take him into custody. The most annoying part about this is that Briony never even saw the face of the perpetrator but she automatically assumes it was Robbie. I still don’t understand why nobody stands up for Robbie, not even Cecilia tries to help him she just is upset about it. The saddest part of the book so far was when Robbie’s mother runs out to the police car and just repeatedly yells “Liars! Lairs! Lairs!”(pg. 174)
The whole book is how Briony cimtted a crime. She accused Robbie of being her cousin's rapist, sending him to prison and destroying the love story between him and Cecilia. This book follows the line of a tragic love story with both protagonsits being separated by an evil character meeting an untimely death. The untimely death in this book would be the fact that they never got to be together after the war. They both died tragically. Though, I don't see Cecilia as a victim. She had the ability to clear Robbie's name and she didn't. She could have just explained that they were in a relationship and Briony was just misinterperting everything the wrong way. But no, she didn't speak up and just kept accusing Danny Hardman. When reading this chapter I just wanted so badly to yell at the other characters that Robbie was innocent and the person responsible was the guest that they believed was so respectable.
In this book, Robbie is the victim that is affected the most. Since he is of a lower class he does not have much crediabilty as people like Paul Marshall did. In the scene where Leon and Marshall are looking at the map of the grounds searching for the culprit I really wanted Marshall to give himself away and Robbie be saved. Then Briony could have been in a lot of trouble for accusing him and then sent to her room forced to apologize to both Cecilia and Robbie. But unfortuantely McEwan descided to make the novel longer and more complicated so there is no possiblity of that happening.
In this chapter I dispised Briony's character. How dare she think that when her sister is crying seeing Robbie put into the police car that her sister is grateful for Briony telling the "truth". I just hated the line on pg.174: "Cecilia remained where she was, facing down the drive, tranquilly watching the car as it receded, but the tremors along the line of her shoulders confided she was crying and Briony knew she had never loved her sister more than now." If Briony loved her sister she wouldn't have sent the love of her life away by accusing him of rape. and if Briony really loved her sister she would have asked for the truth before jumping to conclusions or have minded her own business.
Briony, I have concluded, is the worst person. Ever. Period. No contest. Okay, maybe I’m hyperbolizing a bit but come on, why would anyone trust the testimony of a highly imaginative thirteen year old girl? And now reading Devin’s blog post I have had the idea that Robbie would probably have been with the twins when Lola was being “raped”. Wouldn’t the twin’s testimony give him an alibi? And why would he rape her in the first place? What about the fact that he has had no history of violence or anything? So what we have is a shaky eye-witness testimony, and the letter, which is at best circumstantial. Definitely not an enough for a conviction methinks. I boil it down to classism, plain and simple. Robbie is easy to blame because he is lower class, and fuck the Tallis family for doing just that. There is nothing that disgusts me more than blind prejudice. He was practically family to them and they betrayed him without giving it a second thought. People like them should be wiped off of the face of the earth. And yes I know they’re fictional but it doesn’t make my indignation any less valid! Briony just wants drama and a play so she can feel like a director and weave an interesting tale regardless of the human consequences. What lack of empathy must be required to turn on someone who was practically your kin at the drop of a hat? The final scene with Grace Turner truly breaks my heart. I can only begin to conceptualize the infuriating hatred, and hopeless tragedy that she must feel as her son is dragged off for a crime he didn’t commit. The emotions surging through her must be indescribable. God, this section was stressful.
In this chapter, Briony's black-and-white thinking worsens. Part of the reason she is so quick to accuse Robbie is that it fits with her preconceived notion that he is a maniac; if she had slowed down to think about the situation more, she would have risked realizing that it was someone else, thus disturbing her world view. Although she thinks that between the letter and the library, she has become an adult and changed the way she sees things, she is still quick to go back to her childish ways. She is half-right though; seeing such horrors does steal one's innocence, and that change, at least in my opinion, is immediate. However, one's experience and ability to handle 'adult' problems is something that takes years, not hours, to develop.
When we watched the movie, I had a hard time being truly mad at Briony, and after reading this chapter, that stance has not changed. For one thing, she looks up to Lola, and that makes her quicker to believe whatever her cousin says. And building off of what Jackie said on her comment above, Briony's main crime was that she misunderstood that the people she was manipulating (for the sake of her story?) were real people, not that she consciously tried to hurt anyone. I do really like Robbie, and I think it was terrible that he was convicted unfairly. And I can see how it was selfish of her to just want to start drama and play the hero, but I think she also did that because she had the misunderstanding that she had to be 'accepted' into the 'adult' world that she thought she was a part of. But overall, Briony's lack of true malign intent makes it hard for me to hate her.
Briony... Really? Really? Just because you "got" a letter from Robbie talking about dirty things, and you walked in on him and your sister... DOESN'T MEAN THAT HE IS THE ONE ASSAULTING LOLA! Briony is really starting to get on my nerves and I kind of just want to hit her.. With a pan.. Hanging from a cow.. I really don't understand why no one in the family stands up for Robbie. Why Lola went along with what Briony said could be for multiple reasons. She could either have actually been attacked and really not seen anything, had it been consensual, thought that she was wrong with who she thought did it, or who knows how many other choices she could have thought of. Also Cecilia only said that they shouldn't trust everything briony says... THAT IS NOT STANDING UP FOR THE MAN YOU LOVE!!! That is just as bad as saying yeah it was him.... Stupid people.. I feel so bad for Robbie's mother.. She seems to be the only person who even tries to stand up for Robbie. Freaking ridiculous...
I think that in this chapter, Briony's excitement and feelings of heroism wear off, and she is starting to feel more lost and childish; this feeds into her need for control and thus her urge to perpetrate her crime. The emotionless policemen intimidate her, and she is also a little disturbed by Leon's change in temperament. The severity of the conflict is worse than anything she has ever experienced before, and I think that bringing the letter to the adults was her way of trying to alleviate the tension around her. However, she also gets sort of knocked down in this chapter and treated like a child, and that makes her childish preconceptions more prominent. Overall, I think her need for attention is subconsciously a need for control.
Briony's judgment of Robbie when he comes back with the boys really made me think. On the one hand, she is childish in thinking that Robbie's intentions couldn't have been pure, because she still sort of sees Robbie as a character in one of her stories, and it therefore never occurs to her that he can be both good and bad. But on the other hand, her statement about evil is true, that it is "complicated and misleading" (171). It's hard to say that her assumption is totally childish, because it's true that people who do nice things can sometimes have ulterior motives. Could it not also be argued that taking peoples' actions at face value all the time is also naive? (Haha, wow, the way I just worded that sentence makes me feel like I'm being Briony's lawyer here or something.) I think that Briony has the right idea about some things; she just needs to learn that there's a time and a place for everything. Furthermore, this assessment of Robbie proves that Briony knows that the situation as a whole is very complicated.
And finally, some end comments: I felt a little bad for Cecelia in this chapter; she was angry that her lover was being convicted, and I think that maybe part of the reason she didn't defend Robbie was that she was also sort of being treated like a child during the whole dilemma. And she was justified in complaining that Briony's taking her letter was an invasion of her privacy. Also, the scene at the end with Grace was just plain sad; it really kiind of emphasized the fact that the Turners really have so little, and both Grace and Robbie are pretty much losing their other halves.
Now I really hate Briony. It is one of my biggest fears to be found guilty of something I did not do and got to prison. I also despise people that lie about a person’s actions to get them arrested. In the book there is less of an ambiguity to the alleged rape of Lola. There does not seem to be as kernel of doubt that the movie has, but we’ll see. There is a red herring of Paul Marshall being nervous. Of course Briony uses Robbie’s letter to try to frame him. Briony even tells the police that Robbie attacked Cecilia in the library. We see how great Robbie actually as he is the one that finds the twins over anyone else and even convinces them to come back. Briony has made her twisted fantasy a reality, and loves it.
Briony seems to have an excuse for every lie she tells. She ultimately convinces herself that she really did see Robbie rape her cousin, Lola. It irked me that everyone was so willing to accuse Robbie of being a maniac, after he had grown up with this family and was well respected by Jack. I also wished that Cecilia would have done something in Robbie's defense.
This is the big one. This is the part I've been waiting for since I read the back cover. This is the part in the movie trailer where dramatic music accompanies quick cuts between the library and Briony's interview.
And it didn't disappoint. McEwan, who made me fell numb a reading ago, suddenly filled me with anger, questions, and an urge to simultaneously punch Briony and force truth serum down her throat. Briony believes that Robbie was the raper and manipulates evidence to prove her point. As time passes, she becomes more certain, more vocal, more self-assured. She begins to believe her lie. Throughout the section there are lines showing Briony's growing indifference to the truth. The only thing that matters was the story. Briony never questions, she speaks in statements. I know that Briony is only a child, but her actions disgust me.
I am not a fan of Lola's cowardliness in this section. She is guilty by omission. Lola is Briony's accomplice - an equal factor in hiding the truth. But we don't really know what the truth is, and Lola seizes the opportunity to hid behind Briony's truth. Because the real truth might not have painted Lola in such a nice light. Lola might have know her attacker, and maybe the attack wasn't even an attack, but consetentual - something that would ruin Lola. In Briony's story Lola is the blameless victim, the hurt child. How could Lola pass that up? She can't - and everything changes.
It seem like Briony is trying to grow up too fast. Besides the twins, Briony is the youngest one in the house and seems to feel pressured into behaving as an adult. However, Briony is naive and does not understand why adults do the things they do. When she sees her cousin after she is raped, Briony relies on her imagination convince herself and everyone else that it was Robbie who raped Lola. Briony believes that she is helping her sister by getting Robbie away from her and into jail. Briony is too young to realize that her sister and Robbie are in love. However, Briony thinks that she is a grown up who can make mature decisions because she thinks she knows why the adults around her do the things they do. Everyone believes Briony because it is easy to blame the servant's son.
I like all the nighttime imagery McEwan uses at the beginning of Chapter 13, especially his descriptions of darkness. Darkness is especially powerful in this book because it affects so much more than just the setting or mood. Darkness hides things from view, leaving blanks to be filled in by the viewer’s imagination. When I was reading this, I actually thought of something I learned in neurobiology (wow- never thought I’d say that in a blog post, or in conversation, or ever…), the concept of completion. Basically (I’ll spare you of scientific terminology), because your eyes can’t possibly absorb all the stimuli around you at any given time, your brain supplements the visual image with prior knowledge. This subconscious process combined with Briony’s wild imagination and vision obscured by darkness is a recipe for disaster. What she believes becomes what she sees; she “knows” what she “saw”.
It’s an understatement to say that Briony has “become a participant in the drama of the life beyond the nursery,” (150). She’s not a mere participant; she’s the playwright, the director, the casting agent, and the protagonist. The dark provides her with a black-box theater, in which any sound can be a maniac’s footsteps and any person can be a villain or a hero. Robbie was precast in his villainous role, as Briony believes that “real life, her life now beginning, had sent her a villain in the form of an old family friend,” (148).
Though I certainly do not condone Briony’s original lie (or creative definition of “saw” or whatever), I can understand the inevitability of its repetition. Once Briony has given her testimony, there is no turning back. If she changes anything (clarifies, rationalizes, or tells the actual truth), she risks incriminating herself. The extended metaphor comparing Briony to a bride with cold feet is quite effective, in my opinion. Right now, Briony is the celebrated, beautiful bride, the hero that identified the criminal. While this position comes with high doses of guilt, confusion, and shame, the alternative is far worse than her private suffering; she would have to answer to the enraged congregation. She would be “unforgivable.”
Lastly, I have to make note of the scene in which Grace Turner yells “’Liars! Liars! Liars!” (174) as the police take her son away. It’s tragic on so many levels, her helplessness, his innocence, the ultimate betrayal. The false accusation is bad enough, but the revelation of falsity in the Tallis’ love and loyalty hurts more. Families protect each other, go up against the world for each other, but it’s clear now that Grace and Robbie were never really part of the family, and they never will be.
Things start to pick up in these chapters. A little more drama ensues. Briony commits her big crime. Needless to say, she is not my favorite person. Especially not now. I'm still not sure if she actually convinced herself that Robbie attacked Lola, or if she just accused him out of immature, uncontrolled anger. I feel bad that I have such strong feelings against a 13 year old fictional girl portrayed by an older man, but I really can't help it; especially after what she did to the lovable Robbie. Briony is at that age where she still has a very active imagination. On top of that, she is very interested in writing so her reality can easily be bent infront of her very eyes.
In this reading Briony swings the whole story in the direction it needs to go to make a story at all. Everyone says shes a little brat and is the worst person in the world. But, even though I believe she is a self centered person naturally I believe that she thought it was the only choice. Or she actually believed what she said. If we look at everything, all the evidence, everyone didn't really trust her in the beginning. No one gave her a chance to do anything else or be someone else. Because of where everyone put her she was confined to a certain void space between adult or semi adult and child. I believe this is why she really does commit her crime. Lola lies to her about being abused by Marshall and tells her it is the twins because of Lola's own self concerned reasons. As well as Robbie and Cecilia don't talk to her or help her understand anything after she catches them in the library. They both just assume that she purposely barged in on them to break a moment instead of her maybe accidentally walking in and misunderstanding because Robbies letter gave her a reason to. All of these actions push Briony into a corner of being a child and not being able to understand. So when presented with a situation that allows her to be an adult and make an adult decision she jumps at the chance. But because she is a child, she doesn't see the consequences that come with this adult decision.
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These final two chapters in Part One is the set up for Briony’s crime.
In Chapter 13, the opening sentence informs the readers that this is the chapter where Briony will commit her crime. As Briony takes in what she sees, from Lola's attack, Lola – without saying it clearly – sobs to Briony that she was in the process of being raped. When Briony repeatedly asks her cousin who was the man who attacked her, it suddenly comes to Briony’s realization that Lola isn’t certain who her attacker was, and Briony takes this opportunity to plant the notion that it was Robbie the “maniac” who was Lola’s attacker. However, Lola continues to be unsure if it was Robbie who was the attacker, yet Briony holds her ground and confesses to Lola the scene she witnessed in the library of Robbie “attacking” her sister. At once, Briony is now determined that the rapist must have been Robbie. “ . . . she knew was not literally, or not only based on the visible. It was not simply the eyes that told her the truth. It was too dark for that. . . . But nor was this figure invisible, and its size and manner of moving were familiar to her. Her eyes confirmed the sum of all she knew and has recently experienced. The truth was in the symmetry, which was to say, it was founded on common sense. So when she said, over and again, I saw him, she meant it and was perfectly honest, as well as passionate.” (Pages 158 – 159). Another common theme that occurs throughout Atonement, is the theme of misunderstanding or misinterpreting a sensory experience. What Briony ‘sees‘ by the lake isn’t enough to overcome what she ‘imagines‘ to be true. Briony’s own fatal flaw, is that she trusts her literary instincts more than visual data. Briony’s crime then, is not that she blatantly lies, but that she confuses fact for fiction through her talent for artistic creation.
In Chapter 14, Briony gives her interview and statement to the police of what she saw at the lake. While Briony gives her testimony, her sister, Cecilia remains silent and furious at Briony’s accusations. To further ignite Cecilia’s anger, Briony shows the police the letter Robbie had written to Cecilia with the forbidden ‘c’ word. Briony backs up her claim by describing what she had witnessed in the library between her sister and Robbie. Upon the official interview, the lead detective repeatedly asks Briony if she is certain she saw Robbie attacking Lola. Briony confirms that she did. “ ‘You saw him then.’ ‘I know it was him.’ ‘Let’s forget what you know. You’re saying you saw him.’ ‘Yes, I saw him.’ ‘Just as you see me.’ ‘Yes.’ ” (Page 169). By now, Briony changes her phrasing from the sensory: ‘I saw him,’ to the factual and cognitive: ‘I know it was him.’ By the time Briony sees Robbie’s innocence laid out in front of her, she is ‘outraged,’ a sign that she is fully convinced of his guilt.
Chapter thirteen begins with the prospect that something might actually happen in the book with the talk about Briony’s crime. Briony tries to follow her sister to try and protect her from Robbie. She is also not very worried about the twins; she is just wandering around knowing that eventually someone will stumble across them. She is much more worried about her sister. What she does find is Marshall attacking Lola, yet she convinces herself it is Robbie. Briony is such a good writer that she even begins to believe her lie and by the time the police arrest Robbie she honestly seems to believe it was Robbie that she saw. Lola did not need to lie or accuse anyone at all, she just let Briony do all the work.
There were some wonderful lines in these concluding chapters on Part one. The first line of chapter thirteen of course is great,"within the half hour Briony would commit her crime." That line says it all; it's dark, ominous and concise. It sets the mood for these chapters. I want and know something is going to happen and I know who is going to cause it. Another great line is on page 148 when Briony is talking about evil people, "this was exactly what no one would have expected, and of course villains were not announced with hisses or soliloquies, they did not come cloaked in black, with ugly expressions." Something about that line just stuck with me. It is a very grown up thought that Briony is aware of how evil differs in the world than in cinema. It isn't easy to tell who is evil. The most frustrating conversation probably is the one between Briony and Lola right after Lola was "attacked" on pages 155-156. When Briony says "It was him, wasn't it"" my only thought was of course it was him. We know it was a male but that refers to a whole host of people. At that point it seemed that Briony was being vague to she could insert in her mind whomever she thought fit the role best. This section bothered me because there was an air of passivity amongst everyone. Everyone was just letting things happen. The only active ones it seems are Briony and the rapist. And their action are deplorable; people just sit back and allow things to happen. Once Robbie is arrested the only person who actively protests is his mother which is just so sad. She has been betrayed by everyone she trusted and now they are taking her only son away.
My last thought is on the police force. They are bad at their job. Here's an idea: ever heard of timelines? they are great for establishing peoples whereabouts. I'm pretty sure some type of watch device has been invented by now, so really there is no excuse. I'm just saying.
This chapter was so incredibly sad and annoying at the same time. I was so frustrated when Briony witnesses the crime and claims that she clearly saw Robbie when she even admits to herself that she couldn't see anything the entire time. She seems so wrapped up and sure of her lie that even as she realizes it's problems she can't stop herself from digging deeper and deeper into a hole. Somehow I can't really believe someone would actually do this to themselves but I suppose it was a different time so maybe it was easier for Briony to engage in such a destructive chain of events. It also angered me that Cecilia never did anything to stand up for Robbie. She could have told someone at any time that Briony was just a child and making up what she was saying and just say that Robbie was a nice guy. She didn't even have to admit she was in love with him or had sex with him. I mean I understand she's supposed to be an indecisive character but it's just so frustrating to see the moment in which she could actually save Robbie fading away.
UGH, Briony, WHY?! WHY would you sentence someone as yummy as James McAvoy to life in prison?! Don't you know that's a waste of eye candy?
This is the scene where I would've loved to get in Lola's head rather than Briony's. Was in consensual rape? How afraid was she? What did Paul say beforehand, if he said anything at all? Why didn't Lola admit that it was Paul and not Robbie?
I don't understand what was going on in Briony's head when she was accusing Robbie. I know she's angry and all, but...ugh. Can I push her into the lake? Pleeeease?
And Cecilia! SHE COULD'VE DEFENDED HIM! She could've said the letter was a joke! She could've said that what Briony saw in the library was just her hugging Robbie!...With her legs! I see Briony as a very possessive child. She doesn't like all the changes happening around her, so she does whatever she can to get things to go back to normal. She just doesn't understand how serious the consequences of her accusation are.
Of all the sections we have read so far, I do think that this section annoyed me the most. I think part of the reason is the fact that this happens in real life, and part of the fact because I really hate people who consciously lie. From the perspective later in the book, it seems like Briony sees Marshal's face, but that just might be a thing added for the sake of the movie. I don't know.
When Briony finds Lola, and sees a man run off, she instinctively blames Robbie instead of looking at the facts. And once she falls into this rabbit hole, she can't go back. Part of the reason is the fact that she reads so much, and writes. In her stories, there is no undoing an action. Once committed to a path, there is no going back. No room to change. Everything has to be neatly packaged into a clean ending. This dooms Robbie, because in her mind, he can be the only perpetrator of the heinous crime.
Directly before Briony sees Lola and the mysterious Mr. together in the woods, McEwan sets an eerie tone to the environment: “…the trees were not right either…” (p. 154). Nothing is as it seems anymore, and this brings about the pivotal point in the novel. Lola appears too petrified from having been attacked to speak up, thus, Briony immediately assumes that the attacker is Robbie. Although Briony isn’t completely innocent, Lola played a large part in Robbie’s unjust conviction. Whether or not she was terrified or wanted to clear her conscious, she should have spoken up about what Paul Marshall had done to her earlier. Robbie’s letter might have been disregarded as adolescent folly, and Paul Marshall would have been rightfully arrested. Briony confabulates and molds her evidence to produce an assertive accusation against Robbie. When she’s being interrogated, she knows, deep down, that she’s making her claim based on loose evidence; she doesn’t stop. In this way, Briony proves her naiveté.
This is the most exciting part of the book so far because a load of things happened and in only 29 pages! Briony is walking around in the woods thinking about how bad Robbie is and how she needs to help Cecilia out, when she comes across an unknown man (Marshal) attacking Lola. The two things that Briony has seen/heard from Robbie have made her think he is a sex driven freak. This makes it only natural for her to assume Robbie was the one Violating Lola. When Robbie does return to the house with the twins there is a police officer waiting to take him into custody. The most annoying part about this is that Briony never even saw the face of the perpetrator but she automatically assumes it was Robbie. I still don’t understand why nobody stands up for Robbie, not even Cecilia tries to help him she just is upset about it. The saddest part of the book so far was when Robbie’s mother runs out to the police car and just repeatedly yells “Liars! Lairs! Lairs!”(pg. 174)
The whole book is how Briony cimtted a crime. She accused Robbie of being her cousin's rapist, sending him to prison and destroying the love story between him and Cecilia. This book follows the line of a tragic love story with both protagonsits being separated by an evil character meeting an untimely death. The untimely death in this book would be the fact that they never got to be together after the war. They both died tragically. Though, I don't see Cecilia as a victim. She had the ability to clear Robbie's name and she didn't. She could have just explained that they were in a relationship and Briony was just misinterperting everything the wrong way. But no, she didn't speak up and just kept accusing Danny Hardman. When reading this chapter I just wanted so badly to yell at the other characters that Robbie was innocent and the person responsible was the guest that they believed was so respectable.
In this book, Robbie is the victim that is affected the most. Since he is of a lower class he does not have much crediabilty as people like Paul Marshall did.
In the scene where Leon and Marshall are looking at the map of the grounds searching for the culprit I really wanted Marshall to give himself away and Robbie be saved. Then Briony could have been in a lot of trouble for accusing him and then sent to her room forced to apologize to both Cecilia and Robbie. But unfortuantely McEwan descided to make the novel longer and more complicated so there is no possiblity of that happening.
In this chapter I dispised Briony's character. How dare she think that when her sister is crying seeing Robbie put into the police car that her sister is grateful for Briony telling the "truth". I just hated the line on pg.174: "Cecilia remained where she was, facing down the drive, tranquilly watching the car as it receded, but the tremors along the line of her shoulders confided she was crying and Briony knew she had never loved her sister more than now." If Briony loved her sister she wouldn't have sent the love of her life away by accusing him of rape. and if Briony really loved her sister she would have asked for the truth before jumping to conclusions or have minded her own business.
Briony, I have concluded, is the worst person. Ever. Period. No contest. Okay, maybe I’m hyperbolizing a bit but come on, why would anyone trust the testimony of a highly imaginative thirteen year old girl? And now reading Devin’s blog post I have had the idea that Robbie would probably have been with the twins when Lola was being “raped”. Wouldn’t the twin’s testimony give him an alibi? And why would he rape her in the first place? What about the fact that he has had no history of violence or anything? So what we have is a shaky eye-witness testimony, and the letter, which is at best circumstantial. Definitely not an enough for a conviction methinks. I boil it down to classism, plain and simple. Robbie is easy to blame because he is lower class, and fuck the Tallis family for doing just that. There is nothing that disgusts me more than blind prejudice. He was practically family to them and they betrayed him without giving it a second thought. People like them should be wiped off of the face of the earth. And yes I know they’re fictional but it doesn’t make my indignation any less valid! Briony just wants drama and a play so she can feel like a director and weave an interesting tale regardless of the human consequences. What lack of empathy must be required to turn on someone who was practically your kin at the drop of a hat? The final scene with Grace Turner truly breaks my heart. I can only begin to conceptualize the infuriating hatred, and hopeless tragedy that she must feel as her son is dragged off for a crime he didn’t commit. The emotions surging through her must be indescribable. God, this section was stressful.
Chapter 13:
In this chapter, Briony's black-and-white thinking worsens. Part of the reason she is so quick to accuse Robbie is that it fits with her preconceived notion that he is a maniac; if she had slowed down to think about the situation more, she would have risked realizing that it was someone else, thus disturbing her world view. Although she thinks that between the letter and the library, she has become an adult and changed the way she sees things, she is still quick to go back to her childish ways. She is half-right though; seeing such horrors does steal one's innocence, and that change, at least in my opinion, is immediate. However, one's experience and ability to handle 'adult' problems is something that takes years, not hours, to develop.
When we watched the movie, I had a hard time being truly mad at Briony, and after reading this chapter, that stance has not changed. For one thing, she looks up to Lola, and that makes her quicker to believe whatever her cousin says. And building off of what Jackie said on her comment above, Briony's main crime was that she misunderstood that the people she was manipulating (for the sake of her story?) were real people, not that she consciously tried to hurt anyone. I do really like Robbie, and I think it was terrible that he was convicted unfairly. And I can see how it was selfish of her to just want to start drama and play the hero, but I think she also did that because she had the misunderstanding that she had to be 'accepted' into the 'adult' world that she thought she was a part of. But overall, Briony's lack of true malign intent makes it hard for me to hate her.
Briony... Really? Really? Just because you "got" a letter from Robbie talking about dirty things, and you walked in on him and your sister... DOESN'T MEAN THAT HE IS THE ONE ASSAULTING LOLA! Briony is really starting to get on my nerves and I kind of just want to hit her.. With a pan.. Hanging from a cow.. I really don't understand why no one in the family stands up for Robbie. Why Lola went along with what Briony said could be for multiple reasons. She could either have actually been attacked and really not seen anything, had it been consensual, thought that she was wrong with who she thought did it, or who knows how many other choices she could have thought of. Also Cecilia only said that they shouldn't trust everything briony says... THAT IS NOT STANDING UP FOR THE MAN YOU LOVE!!! That is just as bad as saying yeah it was him.... Stupid people.. I feel so bad for Robbie's mother.. She seems to be the only person who even tries to stand up for Robbie. Freaking ridiculous...
Chapter 14:
I think that in this chapter, Briony's excitement and feelings of heroism wear off, and she is starting to feel more lost and childish; this feeds into her need for control and thus her urge to perpetrate her crime. The emotionless policemen intimidate her, and she is also a little disturbed by Leon's change in temperament. The severity of the conflict is worse than anything she has ever experienced before, and I think that bringing the letter to the adults was her way of trying to alleviate the tension around her. However, she also gets sort of knocked down in this chapter and treated like a child, and that makes her childish preconceptions more prominent. Overall, I think her need for attention is subconsciously a need for control.
Briony's judgment of Robbie when he comes back with the boys really made me think. On the one hand, she is childish in thinking that Robbie's intentions couldn't have been pure, because she still sort of sees Robbie as a character in one of her stories, and it therefore never occurs to her that he can be both good and bad. But on the other hand, her statement about evil is true, that it is "complicated and misleading" (171). It's hard to say that her assumption is totally childish, because it's true that people who do nice things can sometimes have ulterior motives. Could it not also be argued that taking peoples' actions at face value all the time is also naive? (Haha, wow, the way I just worded that sentence makes me feel like I'm being Briony's lawyer here or something.) I think that Briony has the right idea about some things; she just needs to learn that there's a time and a place for everything. Furthermore, this assessment of Robbie proves that Briony knows that the situation as a whole is very complicated.
And finally, some end comments: I felt a little bad for Cecelia in this chapter; she was angry that her lover was being convicted, and I think that maybe part of the reason she didn't defend Robbie was that she was also sort of being treated like a child during the whole dilemma. And she was justified in complaining that Briony's taking her letter was an invasion of her privacy. Also, the scene at the end with Grace was just plain sad; it really kiind of emphasized the fact that the Turners really have so little, and both Grace and Robbie are pretty much losing their other halves.
Now I really hate Briony. It is one of my biggest fears to be found guilty of something I did not do and got to prison. I also despise people that lie about a person’s actions to get them arrested. In the book there is less of an ambiguity to the alleged rape of Lola. There does not seem to be as kernel of doubt that the movie has, but we’ll see. There is a red herring of Paul Marshall being nervous. Of course Briony uses Robbie’s letter to try to frame him. Briony even tells the police that Robbie attacked Cecilia in the library. We see how great Robbie actually as he is the one that finds the twins over anyone else and even convinces them to come back. Briony has made her twisted fantasy a reality, and loves it.
Briony seems to have an excuse for every lie she tells. She ultimately convinces herself that she really did see Robbie rape her cousin, Lola. It irked me that everyone was so willing to accuse Robbie of being a maniac, after he had grown up with this family and was well respected by Jack. I also wished that Cecilia would have done something in Robbie's defense.
This is the big one. This is the part I've been waiting for since I read the back cover. This is the part in the movie trailer where dramatic music accompanies quick cuts between the library and Briony's interview.
And it didn't disappoint. McEwan, who made me fell numb a reading ago, suddenly filled me with anger, questions, and an urge to simultaneously punch Briony and force truth serum down her throat. Briony believes that Robbie was the raper and manipulates evidence to prove her point. As time passes, she becomes more certain, more vocal, more self-assured. She begins to believe her lie. Throughout the section there are lines showing Briony's growing indifference to the truth. The only thing that matters was the story. Briony never questions, she speaks in statements. I know that Briony is only a child, but her actions disgust me.
I am not a fan of Lola's cowardliness in this section. She is guilty by omission. Lola is Briony's accomplice - an equal factor in hiding the truth. But we don't really know what the truth is, and Lola seizes the opportunity to hid behind Briony's truth. Because the real truth might not have painted Lola in such a nice light. Lola might have know her attacker, and maybe the attack wasn't even an attack, but consetentual - something that would ruin Lola. In Briony's story Lola is the blameless victim, the hurt child. How could Lola pass that up? She can't - and everything changes.
It seem like Briony is trying to grow up too fast. Besides the twins, Briony is the youngest one in the house and seems to feel pressured into behaving as an adult. However, Briony is naive and does not understand why adults do the things they do. When she sees her cousin after she is raped, Briony relies on her imagination convince herself and everyone else that it was Robbie who raped Lola. Briony believes that she is helping her sister by getting Robbie away from her and into jail. Briony is too young to realize that her sister and Robbie are in love. However, Briony thinks that she is a grown up who can make mature decisions because she thinks she knows why the adults around her do the things they do. Everyone believes Briony because it is easy to blame the servant's son.
I like all the nighttime imagery McEwan uses at the beginning of Chapter 13, especially his descriptions of darkness. Darkness is especially powerful in this book because it affects so much more than just the setting or mood. Darkness hides things from view, leaving blanks to be filled in by the viewer’s imagination. When I was reading this, I actually thought of something I learned in neurobiology (wow- never thought I’d say that in a blog post, or in conversation, or ever…), the concept of completion. Basically (I’ll spare you of scientific terminology), because your eyes can’t possibly absorb all the stimuli around you at any given time, your brain supplements the visual image with prior knowledge. This subconscious process combined with Briony’s wild imagination and vision obscured by darkness is a recipe for disaster. What she believes becomes what she sees; she “knows” what she “saw”.
It’s an understatement to say that Briony has “become a participant in the drama of the life beyond the nursery,” (150). She’s not a mere participant; she’s the playwright, the director, the casting agent, and the protagonist. The dark provides her with a black-box theater, in which any sound can be a maniac’s footsteps and any person can be a villain or a hero. Robbie was precast in his villainous role, as Briony believes that “real life, her life now beginning, had sent her a villain in the form of an old family friend,” (148).
Though I certainly do not condone Briony’s original lie (or creative definition of “saw” or whatever), I can understand the inevitability of its repetition. Once Briony has given her testimony, there is no turning back. If she changes anything (clarifies, rationalizes, or tells the actual truth), she risks incriminating herself. The extended metaphor comparing Briony to a bride with cold feet is quite effective, in my opinion. Right now, Briony is the celebrated, beautiful bride, the hero that identified the criminal. While this position comes with high doses of guilt, confusion, and shame, the alternative is far worse than her private suffering; she would have to answer to the enraged congregation. She would be “unforgivable.”
Lastly, I have to make note of the scene in which Grace Turner yells “’Liars! Liars! Liars!” (174) as the police take her son away. It’s tragic on so many levels, her helplessness, his innocence, the ultimate betrayal. The false accusation is bad enough, but the revelation of falsity in the Tallis’ love and loyalty hurts more. Families protect each other, go up against the world for each other, but it’s clear now that Grace and Robbie were never really part of the family, and they never will be.
Things start to pick up in these chapters. A little more drama ensues. Briony commits her big crime. Needless to say, she is not my favorite person. Especially not now. I'm still not sure if she actually convinced herself that Robbie attacked Lola, or if she just accused him out of immature, uncontrolled anger. I feel bad that I have such strong feelings against a 13 year old fictional girl portrayed by an older man, but I really can't help it; especially after what she did to the lovable Robbie.
Briony is at that age where she still has a very active imagination. On top of that, she is very interested in writing so her reality can easily be bent infront of her very eyes.
In this reading Briony swings the whole story in the direction it needs to go to make a story at all. Everyone says shes a little brat and is the worst person in the world. But, even though I believe she is a self centered person naturally I believe that she thought it was the only choice. Or she actually believed what she said. If we look at everything, all the evidence, everyone didn't really trust her in the beginning. No one gave her a chance to do anything else or be someone else. Because of where everyone put her she was confined to a certain void space between adult or semi adult and child. I believe this is why she really does commit her crime. Lola lies to her about being abused by Marshall and tells her it is the twins because of Lola's own self concerned reasons. As well as Robbie and Cecilia don't talk to her or help her understand anything after she catches them in the library. They both just assume that she purposely barged in on them to break a moment instead of her maybe accidentally walking in and misunderstanding because Robbies letter gave her a reason to. All of these actions push Briony into a corner of being a child and not being able to understand. So when presented with a situation that allows her to be an adult and make an adult decision she jumps at the chance. But because she is a child, she doesn't see the consequences that come with this adult decision.
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