I absolutely loved McEwan's description of Briony and her rage with the weeds. At one point, Briony thought to herself that she had almost wasted her life becoming a playwright, even though her fantasy was to be significant through her plays. I think that, at the end, her fantasies make *her* significant.
Oh, Robbie - weren't you taught to proofread? I think this careless mistake of his will shame Cecilia, further repulsing her from him.
Chapter 7 begins with Briony at the temple that rests on an island in the middle of the manmade lake of the Tallis property. Here, the readers join Briony in her temperamental state at the temple, in which she sympathizes with the structure and loneliness of the island itself. “The temple was the orphan of a grand society lady, and now, with no one to care for it, no one to look up to, the child had grown old before its time, and let itself go.” (Page 69). The personification of the temple presents the idea that not only can religion and refuge avoid the tragedy that will soon hit Europe hard with the upcoming war. While at the the temple, Briony slashes away at the ‘nettles,’ imagining hurting and executing Lola, who had ruined her play. While taking out her anger on the ‘nettles,’ Briony daydreams that she is a fencing champion of the world, and has given up writing all together. This shows the difficulty of Briony distinguishing myth from reality. She is caught up in her obvious daydreams, but it is during this transit where Briony loses her grip on reality: “ . . . part of a daydream’s enticement was the illusion that she was helpless before its logic.” (Page 72). Unable to differentiate between the two realms will cause Briony to confuse what she ‘sees’ and what she ‘believes’ when convicting Robbie Turner of rape. Chapter 8, is entirely devoted to Robbie’s point of view. The chapter starts off with Robbie in his bathtub daydreaming about what he saw earlier in the day – Cecilia disrobing, diving into the fountain and then standing before Robbie soaking wet in her underwear. What I found most interesting about this chapter, was the recognition Robbie comes across from his social class as well as the literature reference that describe the fate of his character. First, Robbie is aware of his position in the hierarchy of the social class – he is after all the son of a washwomen and Jack Tallis paid for Robbie’s education. More so, Robbie’s character is humble, in the way that he doesn’t care what other people have to say about his social class. “He liked people to know he didn’t care – There goes my mother’s employer’s daughter, he once said to a friend. He had his politics to protect him, and his scientifically based theories of class, and his own rather forced self–certainty. I am what I am.” (Page 74). Robbie’s character demonstrates both humility and that he doesn’t discriminate against other’s and their own social classes. Second, when the readers first meet Robbie, he is lost in search for purpose in his life. He has already earned a degree in literature from Cambridge and is now working as landscape artist for the Tallis family. But Robbie figures out that from what he has learned at Cambridge is that only literature and religion have the power to reflect and teach humankind’s most valuable lessons. “ . . . he would press the enfeebled pulse, hear the expiring breath, feel the fevered hand begin to cool and reflect, in the manner that only literature and religion teach, on the puniness and nobility of mankind . . .” (Page 87). Here, Robbie is thinking of himself in the future. He wonders what kind of man he will be and seems to appreciate that all the knowledge he knows (medicine and literature) will not be enough to face the real world. Also, I agree. Robbie really needs to proofread his letters before he hands it off to a wild and imagitive thirteen–year–old girl who will interpret anything that Robbie does as being bad.
In Shalimar the Clown I loved the rich detail, the never ending sentences, the tangets. But in Atonement, I find these same elements off putting. For me, these elements in Rushdie's novel add some to the novel, while I can't say I feel the same about McEwan's book. I must confess that I skimmed the part about the island temple because I so wanted to get to part of the story where something new happens, not seeing the same action through someone else's eyes. But there is something about Atonement's story that I can't let go of. After watching the movie it haunted me in a weird way. All these little actions and misconceptions lead to a broken family and ruined lives. Atonement's plot itself is captivating and far reaching, by as for me, I wish McEwan spent more time on the plot itself.
I enjoyed Briony's anger during this section. How quick we can abandon our plans when a roadblock appears? Not only does Briony abandon her plans and dreams, she suddenly hates everything about them. The first 68 pages set up how much Briony loves writing, but here she describes playwriting as "shallow and wasted time." According to her "it was a weed and had to die." What Briony is really reacting to is the messiness of having to include other people in her perfectly planned life. As the youngest child in a big, lonely house, Briony has lived an almost adult life of control. When young children, something she doesn't often deal with, show up, she can't deal and takes her anger out on the poor weeds.
Despite the fact that this chapter was so short, I genuinely enjoyed the whole scene. The first page or so did drag on a bit too long for me; I wasn’t very interested in what the church looked like. But again, I was very understanding of Briony’s means of anger management; once again, it reminded me how I acted when I was maybe eight or nine. Although her method was morbid, bizarre, and maybe a little mean, I remembered doing similar things when people did things that made me mad, particularly when they were things that were actually reasonable from the adults’ perspective—in other words, like Briony, I sometimes tried to get attention from the adults when they were busy, and when I got pushed away I would go off and sulk for a while, inventing my own world in which all these imaginary people loved me and indulging in said world until I was refreshed.
However, Briony’s need for attention seems to be more extreme than mine was; towards the end, when she “climbed the steep grassy slope to the bridge, and…decided she would stay there and wait until something significant happened to her” (72), I was starting to lose my sympathy for her a bit, and it made her seem really melodramatic. Also, I was confused about why she pushed Leon away when she heard him coming—wasn’t he the one whose attention she wanted in the first place? I can understand why she would be annoyed about her daydream being interrupted, but just like with her contemplation about her hands in Chapter 3, I was confused about exactly what she wants. She clearly doesn’t want to be protected and coddled so much, which also makes sense—now that she is getting her first taste of the real world, she feels stupid for having lived such a sheltered life, and is kind of thrown by her realization that others’ actions don’t always adhere to her fantasy world, and furthermore that she’s not actually the center of attention. That’s definitely something that I felt when I was thirteen.
Overall, this chapter was short but still worth a lot of thought.
In this chapter, we get Robbie's side of the story for once. I will admit that at first I misjudged him; I thought he was kind of obsessive and pathetic in his thoughts about Cecelia, and I thought he was thinking way too hard about certain things, like the punctuation in the letter. Still, it was interesting to read about his background and childhood, and he came off as a fairly well-meaning person, just as Emily did. It was also easier to feel sorry for him, as he was just a kid whose parents had little money and whose father had walked out on him. We also learn that part of Robbie's devotion to Cecelia is due to the fact that she and Leon were his childhood friends, and seemingly some of the few people who could make his days better. Although Mr. Tallis seems to have little if any relevance to this story, I had respect for him, and he seemed fairly nice if he could put his neighbor's son through college.
The letter scene was interesting--it took me a while to figure out what was going on (I had done this reading over the break), but once I did, I was almost amused. It was pretty much like a bad sitcom, with the misunderstanding with the letter and Robbie's feeling like an idiot. At the same time though...could it not also be argued that his decision to give Cecelia the letter through Briony was an act of cowardice? I wonder. And if he had done that, then even if he had given the wrong letter to Cecelia, Briony would not have been in the mess that she is for the rest of the book. I don't know though, that was just something that literally popped into my head just now.
Finally, some short comments about other things that I noticed about this chapter: First, I found it interesting that while he most often uses long sentences to write, McEwan briefly switches to a series of short sentences when Robbie describes his thoughts on the letter incident: "A drop of water on her upper arm. Wet. An embroidered flower...sewn between the cups of her bra. Her breasts wide apart and small" (74). Second, Robbie's fantasy of Cecelia "pound[ing] against his lapels before yielding...to the safe enclosure of his arms and letting herself be kissed" (75) reminds me of how Briony also has similar fantasies about getting what she wants when she is angry, such as when she is hacking nettles in Chapter 7. Finally, I thought that Robbie's mother was also fairly likable; I wonder why she was cut out of the movie.
Also, I just wanted to say that in terms of writing style, there were a lot of descriptions of things and landscapes in this reading that were really just distracting.
For the most part, I zoned out of chapter seven. I couldn't get into it; there was nothing interesting me, no dialogue or character revelations. Nothing moved the plot forward, it just seemed to circle around in the same place for a few pages. I really liked at the end, though, when Briony pondered the magic of daydreams and the world we go into when we're daydreaming. My favorite line was "Was that really all there was in life, indoors or out? Wasn't there somewhere else for people to go?" And then there's the chapter with Robbie. About 75% of it was just him thinking, which bored me to tears. But whenever the letter(s) were discussed, I perked up. And those final pages when Robbie realized he had sent the wrong letter with Briony - priceless.
Briony’s idea of wasted versus well spent time is comical to me. Playwriting is a “weed” in the garden of arts, but running around the forest attacking nettles is worthy of “a lifetime’s dedication” and recognition as an Olympic sport. It’s ironic that she does away with childhood by means of make believe. I liked when she made voodoo dolls of Lola, and killed them multiple times. Luckily, her wicked ideas are executed on twigs, not people. She is at an awkward stage after all, between childhood and adulthood. It’s kind of like when “she was weary of being outdoors, but she was not ready to go in,” (72). Everyone can appreciate that- being stuck in an in-between.
Okay. Robbie is at another awkward stage, but I’m not going into that. Aside from his taste for Freudian psychology and choice of language referring to female anatomy, I have to give the guy some credit. He and his mother are pretty strong people. They’re lucky the Tallis family was so accommodating when Earnest walked out, but they managed to lose a husband/father and still maintain an optimistic, sociable attitude. A lot of people would just shut down, but Robbie is clearly self-confident; “I am what I am,” (74). He could have turned to alcohol, but he invested his energy in education. Mr. Tallis facilitated that financially, but Robbie is the one who did the work. The idea of “scientifically based theories of class,” (74) is kind of confusing to me, but its better than stratifying people by wealth or race.
McEwen uses Robbie’s deliberation of his studies to present an idea of wasted versus well spent time more sophisticated than Briony’s. While landscape gardening is rejected as a “bohemian fantasy” and “lame ambition,” (oh, and according to Freud, a result of daddy problems) literature is treated with more respect, although Robbie ultimately chooses medicine. It seems to me that McEwen is analyzing (not promoting or degrading) his own career choices. I’m personally impressed that McEwen’s fondness for literature (as he is, of course, a writer) doesn’t blind him to its pitfalls and impracticalities. Literature isn’t “the core,” but no one subject is. I like that Robbie believes “he would be a better doctor for having read literature” (87). That’s one of the main reasons I want to be an English major in college. Literature strengthens every aspect of education and opens doors to the pursuit of so many different subjects. I want the same “freedom” Robbie does.
I think I’ll retract my statement that Cecilia and Robbie are sure to end up together. Maybe they’re the doomed love referred to on the first page of the novel. I don’t think Robbie is actually in love, I think he has developed a fetish/obsession. Multiple examples of foreshadowing (“the boot had vanished, like everything would in the end,” (69), “soon she [Cecilia] would be gone,” (75)) suggest an upcoming unfortunate turn of events, but that letter Robbie wrote will surely create a comical, embarrassing dinnertime scene before things turn dark.
I am starting to become impressed by McEwan’s writing skills, he somehow managed to write 5 pages about a girl slashing nettles and actually make it rather interesting. Briony has a very elaborate imagination and kept thinking the nettles were Lola. I especially liked the part when Briony imagined going to the Berlin Olympics to win a gold medal in nettle slashing. Although I wish something would finally happen in this book I am enjoying the writing style. In the next chapter we get a more in depth look at Robbie. Robbie comes off as a very careful perfectionist, much like Cecilia later on in the story. He keeps retyping his letter to Cecilia over and over so that it portrays just the right message. He also comes off as a total creep towards Cecilia. I actually felt bad for Robbie in this chapter. I think he means the best and is trying his hardest to make the best of being born to a servant, yet he just has really bad luck and nothing goes quite right for him.
What I like about this chapter with Briony is the fact that in an instant she is able to make her own reality. For example on page 71 she makes herself seem like she is at the olympics and the best athlete at swishing around a nettle. I like that her character is able to create her own reality but then in the end her own reality causes problems for Cecila and Robbie. One mataphor that I really enjoyed was on page 72 where she sees the insects bobbing: "In front of her, illuminated by the lowering sun, was a cloud of insects, each one bobbing randomly, as though fixed on an invisible elastic string-a mysterious courtship dance, or sheer insect exuberance that defied her to find a meaning." The insects can stand for Robbie and Cecilia and with Briony watching them not really understanding their courtship.
When reading the chapter about Robbie I couldn't help say : awe he realized he loved her. As he keep thinking about it and ways to try to tell I couldn't help laugh as he didn't seem to know the right way to tell her. When he wrote the letter that ruins his life I felt he should have burned it to make sure no one would read it. What I liked a lot about this chapter that there are some clues that foreshadow what is to happen next.
I was surprised in this chapter to find out just how huge the Tallis' estate really is. The fact that Briony could just run off into this huge field with a freaking church shows how truly "well-off" her family is. Despite my complaints about how unbelievable I find Briony's thought process I do appreciate Ian McEwan's writing abilities. He sometimes seems to ramble on and on about boring things but he really is just explaining very complex ideas and situations. I realized that he takes so long because he needs to and he has a purpose. He really shows this with his introduction of Robbie. McEwan paints this complex character who lives in both the upper and lower class of 20th century England and has high hopes of reaching beyond his class and proving himself.
I forgot to mention this in the last section but when Paul Marshall tells Lola to bite the candy bar, I kid you not chills ran down my spine he is so creepy-gross.
In this section it was interesting to here the day's events from Robbie's point of view. The politeness in his thoughts was odd but endearing. He says at one point how he tried to not think about Cecelia as she escaped the fountain thoroughly drenched. About how revealing her soaked clothes were. My initial thought was you can totally think about her, Robbie, you are totally alone, the only person to judge you is me and you are not aware of my existence. Also I was amazed at how perfectly McEwan captured the concept of a person, such as Robbie, severely over thinking things. One page 75 it says "he groaned again...at the memory of how she had taken off her clothes in front of him-so indifferently, as though he were an infant. Of course. He saw it clearly now. the idea was to humiliate him. There it stood, the undeniable fact. Humiliation." I am not sure how true this is from Cecelia's perspective but I know for sure that at this point he is riling himself up into a frenzy. I am quite familiar with this method of thinking and no good comes of it. And then of course he writes that letter (that Laird keeps calling vile) which I think is funny. I don't think the letter is as vile as it is crudely worded, I mean the sentiment is true. He most certainly would like to have sex with Cecelia. Perhaps it is only a second draft. And the fact that he gave Briony the wrong letter was obvious the moment the words flowed from his brain out of his fingertips on to the paper. Of course that was going to happen. What does he expect when he doesn't immediately destroy the letter or at least put it in an extremely hidden safe secret place?. He is a grown man. Grown men should know how to hide secrets. He totally had that coming.
Briony really needs an outlet to just breath. this is why she runs off to be alone and ends up hitting the nettles. this ends up being a way for briony to channel her anger. i think this problem of hers leads to what she does later.
robbie is almost as conflicted as cecilia. they both need to either grow a pair and make a decision or stop doing things half heartedly. when hes writing the letter it takes him about three tries to get something close to right then ruins it by doing something stupid. because he does this stupid thing it leads to him accidentally sending a version of the letter thats really not something anyone should be reading. another mistake he makes is even writing a letter. something that hes feeling shouldnt be put into a formal sort of format on a piece of paper. the next mistake he makes is letting briony take the letter to cecilia. anyone around her should know that briony is not someone to be private or allow someone to have privacy. even though the letter works out in his favor and gets him cecilia it makes problems for him with briony because shes young and because of her overactive imagination she makes it into something its not. which is the begining of everything going down hill.
In this section of reading, we start with Briony venting her anger at poor nettles. Her imagination was at work again, with this one being Lola, these being the twins... The author paints a realistic view of a young spoiled girl learning for the first time that she doesn't always get her way. It also shows how she feels she needs to shed the identity of a young girl. I feel that this is particularly negative, because she doesn't realize that her actions have consequences, and that not every story is neatly wrapped up. Also, hitting nettles isn't the best way to vent your anger...just saying.
Also, Robbie, get your shit together. You shouldn't write an incriminating letter, and NOT mark it clearly as a draft. It doesn't help that you are in no mans land (pardon the pun) in a relationship with the person who both employs you and pays for your college education. Bad idea. And if you are going to send a letter, deliver it yourself. That way, you don't look like a complete sap, and two, you can see their reaction to the letter first hand.
All in all, this section is frustrating because relationships are forming, and this is where most of the problems form. If they only communicated, there wouldn't be a problem, and Robbie wouldn't die...
Briony is angry that the rehearsals for her play did not go as smoothly as she expected them to go. Briony’s imagination consumes her. She slashes nettles pretending they are her cousins. She was expecting to receive love and attention from her brother for writing and acting in the play however, her cousins are preventing her from receiving this attention by not doing what she wants them to do. “She disposed of her old self year by year in thirteen strokes. She severed the sickly dependency of infancy and early childhood, and the schoolgirl eager to show off and be praised [and] the eleven-year-old’s silly pride in her first stories” (70). She wants to retreat from reality because she does not have control over other people and therefore cannot get attention. Briony crates her own reality, a world where she can kill all the people preventing her from putting on a production of her play. She does not want to think of her writing, she will not get her brother’s undivided attention for her play because the play would not happen. Instead, she imagines herself at the Olympics, her brother starving for her attention. Her brother wanting her.
I found that having a whole nettle slashing chapter was completely unnecessary. I thought it was important to show that Briony was mad at Lola and the weed whacking was a way to show Briony’s creativity. But to have a five page chapter about it just seemed to be utterly pointless. This is one of the points where Ian McEwan goes way father than he needed to. The next chapter was about Robbie Writing his numerous drafts of letters for Cecilia trying to let her know how he feels about her. One of his drafts he writes in a very sexual manner in an almost therapeutic way letting the more explicit truth come out. (He never plans on anyone seeing it.) He then writes a letter that explains his reasons for acting strange around Cecilia and tells her that he loves her. Later in the chapter he tries to give the legitimate letter to Briony to deliver to Cecilia but he ends up giving Briony the explicit letter instead. He is terrified by his mistake and is worried what the consequences will be.
Wait so this family has a temple on an island inside a lake on their property? How rich are these people?! What family owns a temple?! Why would they ever need a temple, unless they were some kind of weird Cthulhu cultists or something? This, now that I think about it, would be way more interesting than what has been happening in the book so far. But I have to give McEwan credit for making the next parts a bit more interesting with the letter. I wonder what the author had in mind to what Robbie wrote, but I do like the letter in the movie. The confusion and misunderstandings would be hilarious if I didn’t know that they were going to lead to Robbie being convicted as a rapist. It’s like an episode of Three’s Company, except if Janet got raped by Mr. Ferley and Larry got blamed for it. Man, this blog post just got way dark…
Nettle slashing... Why.. I mean I get it's to get her anger and frustration out, but.. Eight pages of just... Her.. HItting things.. I like how the temple is written about and described, but I definitely had a different idea of what it would like from what we saw in the movie. I feel really bad from Robbie, but what was his logic in writing the ermm interesting letter to begin with? Oh I'm funny and want to write this thing that if it gets sent it will be the end of me! Such great logic... When he realizes that the letter in the envelope he gave to Briony was the wrong letter was just sad.. But I also feel like he kind of deserved it in a way. Not because I don't like him, but because he was stupid enough to write it.. Paul Marshall... Ew... Creeper. Bite it... Not creepy at all....
It is very creepy how Briony wants to make Lola suffer and kill her. If you hadn’t already found Briony as this kind of person, you would definitely now. This shows you how she can be so non-empathetic and unethical in her actions throughout the rest of the book. It furthered my fear of children, they look and act innocent but they do not have the filters of most adults yet. Next we have a chapter through Robbie’s point of view. I really liked how Robbie sat in the tub and went over the events of the day in his head. I do this often. I love to contemplate the world in the shower, sometimes forgetting what I am doing. Even without seeing the moving you know once he starts writing the sexual letter, that letter will be seen by Cecilia.
This reading begins with Briony taking her anger out on the nettles surrounding some kind of damaged temple. Briony imagines the nettles to be people she is jealous of; or anything in her life that is causing her frustration.
The description of Briony slashing the nettles was somewhat entertaining. I liked how when she first started hitting the nettles she was angry and was imagining the nettles as people, but then it became a sport to her, and that she was perfect at the art of slashing the grass. You could really see the evolution of her thoughts, and how accurate they are to a thirteen year old girl.
We then get inside the head of Robbie. Robbie is so upset with himself about breaking Cecilia's vase that he decides to write a letter of apology. At first the letter is very sweet but then it becomes very sexual and awkward.
I'm not really sure what to think of Robbie. He definitely has ambition towards being a doctor, but he also seems way too focused on Cecilia to the point where he sounds creepy. His overall mind set is interesting though. He talks a lot about his future, and it's interesting that he never pictures Cecilia in his future. Overall i liked getting to know Robbie a little bit better.
At this point in the reading, I was still having trouble paying attention. It's definitely taking a while to pick up. Atonement is an extremely slow read this early on in the novel. I get that McEwan is trying to tackle the internal stuggles that we face on a daily basis: the uncertainties, the limitations, the shyness and withdrawals that people often face, but without a little action over it, it's just too hard to keep my attention. I mean, we generally keep those to ourselves for a reason. He is a very gifted writer, and i respect his capability to get inside the head and get behind the thought process of a wide range of characters, but it's just missing something to keep a restless teenager hooked.
20 comments:
I absolutely loved McEwan's description of Briony and her rage with the weeds. At one point, Briony thought to herself that she had almost wasted her life becoming a playwright, even though her fantasy was to be significant through her plays. I think that, at the end, her fantasies make *her* significant.
Oh, Robbie - weren't you taught to proofread? I think this careless mistake of his will shame Cecilia, further repulsing her from him.
Chapter 7 begins with Briony at the temple that rests on an island in the middle of the manmade lake of the Tallis property. Here, the readers join Briony in her temperamental state at the temple, in which she sympathizes with the structure and loneliness of the island itself. “The temple was the orphan of a grand society lady, and now, with no one to care for it, no one to look up to, the child had grown old before its time, and let itself go.” (Page 69). The personification of the temple presents the idea that not only can religion and refuge avoid the tragedy that will soon hit Europe hard with the upcoming war. While at the the temple, Briony slashes away at the ‘nettles,’ imagining hurting and executing Lola, who had ruined her play. While taking out her anger on the ‘nettles,’ Briony daydreams that she is a fencing champion of the world, and has given up writing all together. This shows the difficulty of Briony distinguishing myth from reality. She is caught up in her obvious daydreams, but it is during this transit where Briony loses her grip on reality: “ . . . part of a daydream’s enticement was the illusion that she was helpless before its logic.” (Page 72). Unable to differentiate between the two realms will cause Briony to confuse what she ‘sees’ and what she ‘believes’ when convicting Robbie Turner of rape. Chapter 8, is entirely devoted to Robbie’s point of view. The chapter starts off with Robbie in his bathtub daydreaming about what he saw earlier in the day – Cecilia disrobing, diving into the fountain and then standing before Robbie soaking wet in her underwear. What I found most interesting about this chapter, was the recognition Robbie comes across from his social class as well as the literature reference that describe the fate of his character. First, Robbie is aware of his position in the hierarchy of the social class – he is after all the son of a washwomen and Jack Tallis paid for Robbie’s education. More so, Robbie’s character is humble, in the way that he doesn’t care what other people have to say about his social class. “He liked people to know he didn’t care – There goes my mother’s employer’s daughter, he once said to a friend. He had his politics to protect him, and his scientifically based theories of class, and his own rather forced self–certainty. I am what I am.” (Page 74). Robbie’s character demonstrates both humility and that he doesn’t discriminate against other’s and their own social classes. Second, when the readers first meet Robbie, he is lost in search for purpose in his life. He has already earned a degree in literature from Cambridge and is now working as landscape artist for the Tallis family. But Robbie figures out that from what he has learned at Cambridge is that only literature and religion have the power to reflect and teach humankind’s most valuable lessons. “ . . . he would press the enfeebled pulse, hear the expiring breath, feel the fevered hand begin to cool and reflect, in the manner that only literature and religion teach, on the puniness and nobility of mankind . . .” (Page 87). Here, Robbie is thinking of himself in the future. He wonders what kind of man he will be and seems to appreciate that all the knowledge he knows (medicine and literature) will not be enough to face the real world.
Also, I agree. Robbie really needs to proofread his letters before he hands it off to a wild and imagitive thirteen–year–old girl who will interpret anything that Robbie does as being bad.
In Shalimar the Clown I loved the rich detail, the never ending sentences, the tangets. But in Atonement, I find these same elements off putting. For me, these elements in Rushdie's novel add some to the novel, while I can't say I feel the same about McEwan's book. I must confess that I skimmed the part about the island temple because I so wanted to get to part of the story where something new happens, not seeing the same action through someone else's eyes. But there is something about Atonement's story that I can't let go of. After watching the movie it haunted me in a weird way. All these little actions and misconceptions lead to a broken family and ruined lives. Atonement's plot itself is captivating and far reaching, by as for me, I wish McEwan spent more time on the plot itself.
I enjoyed Briony's anger during this section. How quick we can abandon our plans when a roadblock appears? Not only does Briony abandon her plans and dreams, she suddenly hates everything about them. The first 68 pages set up how much Briony loves writing, but here she describes playwriting as "shallow and wasted time." According to her "it was a weed and had to die." What Briony is really reacting to is the messiness of having to include other people in her perfectly planned life. As the youngest child in a big, lonely house, Briony has lived an almost adult life of control. When young children, something she doesn't often deal with, show up, she can't deal and takes her anger out on the poor weeds.
Chapter 7:
Despite the fact that this chapter was so short, I genuinely enjoyed the whole scene. The first page or so did drag on a bit too long for me; I wasn’t very interested in what the church looked like. But again, I was very understanding of Briony’s means of anger management; once again, it reminded me how I acted when I was maybe eight or nine. Although her method was morbid, bizarre, and maybe a little mean, I remembered doing similar things when people did things that made me mad, particularly when they were things that were actually reasonable from the adults’ perspective—in other words, like Briony, I sometimes tried to get attention from the adults when they were busy, and when I got pushed away I would go off and sulk for a while, inventing my own world in which all these imaginary people loved me and indulging in said world until I was refreshed.
However, Briony’s need for attention seems to be more extreme than mine was; towards the end, when she “climbed the steep grassy slope to the bridge, and…decided she would stay there and wait until something significant happened to her” (72), I was starting to lose my sympathy for her a bit, and it made her seem really melodramatic. Also, I was confused about why she pushed Leon away when she heard him coming—wasn’t he the one whose attention she wanted in the first place? I can understand why she would be annoyed about her daydream being interrupted, but just like with her contemplation about her hands in Chapter 3, I was confused about exactly what she wants. She clearly doesn’t want to be protected and coddled so much, which also makes sense—now that she is getting her first taste of the real world, she feels stupid for having lived such a sheltered life, and is kind of thrown by her realization that others’ actions don’t always adhere to her fantasy world, and furthermore that she’s not actually the center of attention. That’s definitely something that I felt when I was thirteen.
Overall, this chapter was short but still worth a lot of thought.
(Chapter 8 in next post)
Chapter 8:
In this chapter, we get Robbie's side of the story for once. I will admit that at first I misjudged him; I thought he was kind of obsessive and pathetic in his thoughts about Cecelia, and I thought he was thinking way too hard about certain things, like the punctuation in the letter. Still, it was interesting to read about his background and childhood, and he came off as a fairly well-meaning person, just as Emily did. It was also easier to feel sorry for him, as he was just a kid whose parents had little money and whose father had walked out on him. We also learn that part of Robbie's devotion to Cecelia is due to the fact that she and Leon were his childhood friends, and seemingly some of the few people who could make his days better. Although Mr. Tallis seems to have little if any relevance to this story, I had respect for him, and he seemed fairly nice if he could put his neighbor's son through college.
The letter scene was interesting--it took me a while to figure out what was going on (I had done this reading over the break), but once I did, I was almost amused. It was pretty much like a bad sitcom, with the misunderstanding with the letter and Robbie's feeling like an idiot. At the same time though...could it not also be argued that his decision to give Cecelia the letter through Briony was an act of cowardice? I wonder. And if he had done that, then even if he had given the wrong letter to Cecelia, Briony would not have been in the mess that she is for the rest of the book. I don't know though, that was just something that literally popped into my head just now.
Finally, some short comments about other things that I noticed about this chapter: First, I found it interesting that while he most often uses long sentences to write, McEwan briefly switches to a series of short sentences when Robbie describes his thoughts on the letter incident: "A drop of water on her upper arm. Wet. An embroidered flower...sewn between the cups of her bra. Her breasts wide apart and small" (74). Second, Robbie's fantasy of Cecelia "pound[ing] against his lapels before yielding...to the safe enclosure of his arms and letting herself be kissed" (75) reminds me of how Briony also has similar fantasies about getting what she wants when she is angry, such as when she is hacking nettles in Chapter 7. Finally, I thought that Robbie's mother was also fairly likable; I wonder why she was cut out of the movie.
Also, I just wanted to say that in terms of writing style, there were a lot of descriptions of things and landscapes in this reading that were really just distracting.
For the most part, I zoned out of chapter seven. I couldn't get into it; there was nothing interesting me, no dialogue or character revelations. Nothing moved the plot forward, it just seemed to circle around in the same place for a few pages. I really liked at the end, though, when Briony pondered the magic of daydreams and the world we go into when we're daydreaming. My favorite line was "Was that really all there was in life, indoors or out? Wasn't there somewhere else for people to go?"
And then there's the chapter with Robbie. About 75% of it was just him thinking, which bored me to tears. But whenever the letter(s) were discussed, I perked up. And those final pages when Robbie realized he had sent the wrong letter with Briony - priceless.
Briony’s idea of wasted versus well spent time is comical to me. Playwriting is a “weed” in the garden of arts, but running around the forest attacking nettles is worthy of “a lifetime’s dedication” and recognition as an Olympic sport. It’s ironic that she does away with childhood by means of make believe. I liked when she made voodoo dolls of Lola, and killed them multiple times. Luckily, her wicked ideas are executed on twigs, not people. She is at an awkward stage after all, between childhood and adulthood. It’s kind of like when “she was weary of being outdoors, but she was not ready to go in,” (72). Everyone can appreciate that- being stuck in an in-between.
Okay. Robbie is at another awkward stage, but I’m not going into that. Aside from his taste for Freudian psychology and choice of language referring to female anatomy, I have to give the guy some credit. He and his mother are pretty strong people. They’re lucky the Tallis family was so accommodating when Earnest walked out, but they managed to lose a husband/father and still maintain an optimistic, sociable attitude. A lot of people would just shut down, but Robbie is clearly self-confident; “I am what I am,” (74). He could have turned to alcohol, but he invested his energy in education. Mr. Tallis facilitated that financially, but Robbie is the one who did the work. The idea of “scientifically based theories of class,” (74) is kind of confusing to me, but its better than stratifying people by wealth or race.
McEwen uses Robbie’s deliberation of his studies to present an idea of wasted versus well spent time more sophisticated than Briony’s. While landscape gardening is rejected as a “bohemian fantasy” and “lame ambition,” (oh, and according to Freud, a result of daddy problems) literature is treated with more respect, although Robbie ultimately chooses medicine. It seems to me that McEwen is analyzing (not promoting or degrading) his own career choices. I’m personally impressed that McEwen’s fondness for literature (as he is, of course, a writer) doesn’t blind him to its pitfalls and impracticalities. Literature isn’t “the core,” but no one subject is. I like that Robbie believes “he would be a better doctor for having read literature” (87). That’s one of the main reasons I want to be an English major in college. Literature strengthens every aspect of education and opens doors to the pursuit of so many different subjects. I want the same “freedom” Robbie does.
I think I’ll retract my statement that Cecilia and Robbie are sure to end up together. Maybe they’re the doomed love referred to on the first page of the novel. I don’t think Robbie is actually in love, I think he has developed a fetish/obsession. Multiple examples of foreshadowing (“the boot had vanished, like everything would in the end,” (69), “soon she [Cecilia] would be gone,” (75)) suggest an upcoming unfortunate turn of events, but that letter Robbie wrote will surely create a comical, embarrassing dinnertime scene before things turn dark.
I am starting to become impressed by McEwan’s writing skills, he somehow managed to write 5 pages about a girl slashing nettles and actually make it rather interesting. Briony has a very elaborate imagination and kept thinking the nettles were Lola. I especially liked the part when Briony imagined going to the Berlin Olympics to win a gold medal in nettle slashing. Although I wish something would finally happen in this book I am enjoying the writing style.
In the next chapter we get a more in depth look at Robbie. Robbie comes off as a very careful perfectionist, much like Cecilia later on in the story. He keeps retyping his letter to Cecilia over and over so that it portrays just the right message. He also comes off as a total creep towards Cecilia. I actually felt bad for Robbie in this chapter. I think he means the best and is trying his hardest to make the best of being born to a servant, yet he just has really bad luck and nothing goes quite right for him.
What I like about this chapter with Briony is the fact that in an instant she is able to make her own reality. For example on page 71 she makes herself seem like she is at the olympics and the best athlete at swishing around a nettle. I like that her character is able to create her own reality but then in the end her own reality causes problems for Cecila and Robbie. One mataphor that I really enjoyed was on page 72 where she sees the insects bobbing: "In front of her, illuminated by the lowering sun, was a cloud of insects, each one bobbing randomly, as though fixed on an invisible elastic string-a mysterious courtship dance, or sheer insect exuberance that defied her to find a meaning." The insects can stand for Robbie and Cecilia and with Briony watching them not really understanding their courtship.
When reading the chapter about Robbie I couldn't help say : awe he realized he loved her. As he keep thinking about it and ways to try to tell I couldn't help laugh as he didn't seem to know the right way to tell her. When he wrote the letter that ruins his life I felt he should have burned it to make sure no one would read it. What I liked a lot about this chapter that there are some clues that foreshadow what is to happen next.
I was surprised in this chapter to find out just how huge the Tallis' estate really is. The fact that Briony could just run off into this huge field with a freaking church shows how truly "well-off" her family is. Despite my complaints about how unbelievable I find Briony's thought process I do appreciate Ian McEwan's writing abilities. He sometimes seems to ramble on and on about boring things but he really is just explaining very complex ideas and situations. I realized that he takes so long because he needs to and he has a purpose. He really shows this with his introduction of Robbie. McEwan paints this complex character who lives in both the upper and lower class of 20th century England and has high hopes of reaching beyond his class and proving himself.
I forgot to mention this in the last section but when Paul Marshall tells Lola to bite the candy bar, I kid you not chills ran down my spine he is so creepy-gross.
In this section it was interesting to here the day's events from Robbie's point of view. The politeness in his thoughts was odd but endearing. He says at one point how he tried to not think about Cecelia as she escaped the fountain thoroughly drenched. About how revealing her soaked clothes were. My initial thought was you can totally think about her, Robbie, you are totally alone, the only person to judge you is me and you are not aware of my existence. Also I was amazed at how perfectly McEwan captured the concept of a person, such as Robbie, severely over thinking things. One page 75 it says "he groaned again...at the memory of how she had taken off her clothes in front of him-so indifferently, as though he were an infant. Of course. He saw it clearly now. the idea was to humiliate him. There it stood, the undeniable fact. Humiliation." I am not sure how true this is from Cecelia's perspective but I know for sure that at this point he is riling himself up into a frenzy. I am quite familiar with this method of thinking and no good comes of it. And then of course he writes that letter (that Laird keeps calling vile) which I think is funny. I don't think the letter is as vile as it is crudely worded, I mean the sentiment is true. He most certainly would like to have sex with Cecelia. Perhaps it is only a second draft. And the fact that he gave Briony the wrong letter was obvious the moment the words flowed from his brain out of his fingertips on to the paper. Of course that was going to happen. What does he expect when he doesn't immediately destroy the letter or at least put it in an extremely hidden safe secret place?. He is a grown man. Grown men should know how to hide secrets. He totally had that coming.
Briony really needs an outlet to just breath. this is why she runs off to be alone and ends up hitting the nettles. this ends up being a way for briony to channel her anger. i think this problem of hers leads to what she does later.
robbie is almost as conflicted as cecilia. they both need to either grow a pair and make a decision or stop doing things half heartedly. when hes writing the letter it takes him about three tries to get something close to right then ruins it by doing something stupid. because he does this stupid thing it leads to him accidentally sending a version of the letter thats really not something anyone should be reading. another mistake he makes is even writing a letter. something that hes feeling shouldnt be put into a formal sort of format on a piece of paper. the next mistake he makes is letting briony take the letter to cecilia. anyone around her should know that briony is not someone to be private or allow someone to have privacy. even though the letter works out in his favor and gets him cecilia it makes problems for him with briony because shes young and because of her overactive imagination she makes it into something its not. which is the begining of everything going down hill.
In this section of reading, we start with Briony venting her anger at poor nettles. Her imagination was at work again, with this one being Lola, these being the twins... The author paints a realistic view of a young spoiled girl learning for the first time that she doesn't always get her way. It also shows how she feels she needs to shed the identity of a young girl. I feel that this is particularly negative, because she doesn't realize that her actions have consequences, and that not every story is neatly wrapped up. Also, hitting nettles isn't the best way to vent your anger...just saying.
Also, Robbie, get your shit together. You shouldn't write an incriminating letter, and NOT mark it clearly as a draft. It doesn't help that you are in no mans land (pardon the pun) in a relationship with the person who both employs you and pays for your college education. Bad idea. And if you are going to send a letter, deliver it yourself. That way, you don't look like a complete sap, and two, you can see their reaction to the letter first hand.
All in all, this section is frustrating because relationships are forming, and this is where most of the problems form. If they only communicated, there wouldn't be a problem, and Robbie wouldn't die...
Briony is angry that the rehearsals for her play did not go as smoothly as she expected them to go. Briony’s imagination consumes her. She slashes nettles pretending they are her cousins. She was expecting to receive love and attention from her brother for writing and acting in the play however, her cousins are preventing her from receiving this attention by not doing what she wants them to do. “She disposed of her old self year by year in thirteen strokes. She severed the sickly dependency of infancy and early childhood, and the schoolgirl eager to show off and be praised [and] the eleven-year-old’s silly pride in her first stories” (70). She wants to retreat from reality because she does not have control over other people and therefore cannot get attention. Briony crates her own reality, a world where she can kill all the people preventing her from putting on a production of her play. She does not want to think of her writing, she will not get her brother’s undivided attention for her play because the play would not happen. Instead, she imagines herself at the Olympics, her brother starving for her attention. Her brother wanting her.
I found that having a whole nettle slashing chapter was completely unnecessary. I thought it was important to show that Briony was mad at Lola and the weed whacking was a way to show Briony’s creativity. But to have a five page chapter about it just seemed to be utterly pointless. This is one of the points where Ian McEwan goes way father than he needed to. The next chapter was about Robbie Writing his numerous drafts of letters for Cecilia trying to let her know how he feels about her. One of his drafts he writes in a very sexual manner in an almost therapeutic way letting the more explicit truth come out. (He never plans on anyone seeing it.) He then writes a letter that explains his reasons for acting strange around Cecilia and tells her that he loves her. Later in the chapter he tries to give the legitimate letter to Briony to deliver to Cecilia but he ends up giving Briony the explicit letter instead. He is terrified by his mistake and is worried what the consequences will be.
Wait so this family has a temple on an island inside a lake on their property? How rich are these people?! What family owns a temple?! Why would they ever need a temple, unless they were some kind of weird Cthulhu cultists or something? This, now that I think about it, would be way more interesting than what has been happening in the book so far. But I have to give McEwan credit for making the next parts a bit more interesting with the letter. I wonder what the author had in mind to what Robbie wrote, but I do like the letter in the movie. The confusion and misunderstandings would be hilarious if I didn’t know that they were going to lead to Robbie being convicted as a rapist. It’s like an episode of Three’s Company, except if Janet got raped by Mr. Ferley and Larry got blamed for it. Man, this blog post just got way dark…
Nettle slashing... Why.. I mean I get it's to get her anger and frustration out, but.. Eight pages of just... Her.. HItting things.. I like how the temple is written about and described, but I definitely had a different idea of what it would like from what we saw in the movie. I feel really bad from Robbie, but what was his logic in writing the ermm interesting letter to begin with? Oh I'm funny and want to write this thing that if it gets sent it will be the end of me! Such great logic... When he realizes that the letter in the envelope he gave to Briony was the wrong letter was just sad.. But I also feel like he kind of deserved it in a way. Not because I don't like him, but because he was stupid enough to write it.. Paul Marshall... Ew... Creeper. Bite it... Not creepy at all....
It is very creepy how Briony wants to make Lola suffer and kill her. If you hadn’t already found Briony as this kind of person, you would definitely now. This shows you how she can be so non-empathetic and unethical in her actions throughout the rest of the book. It furthered my fear of children, they look and act innocent but they do not have the filters of most adults yet. Next we have a chapter through Robbie’s point of view. I really liked how Robbie sat in the tub and went over the events of the day in his head. I do this often. I love to contemplate the world in the shower, sometimes forgetting what I am doing. Even without seeing the moving you know once he starts writing the sexual letter, that letter will be seen by Cecilia.
This reading begins with Briony taking her anger out on the nettles surrounding some kind of damaged temple. Briony imagines the nettles to be people she is jealous of; or anything in her life that is causing her frustration.
The description of Briony slashing the nettles was somewhat entertaining. I liked how when she first started hitting the nettles she was angry and was imagining the nettles as people, but then it became a sport to her, and that she was perfect at the art of slashing the grass. You could really see the evolution of her thoughts, and how accurate they are to a thirteen year old girl.
We then get inside the head of Robbie. Robbie is so upset with himself about breaking Cecilia's vase that he decides to write a letter of apology. At first the letter is very sweet but then it becomes very sexual and awkward.
I'm not really sure what to think of Robbie. He definitely has ambition towards being a doctor, but he also seems way too focused on Cecilia to the point where he sounds creepy. His overall mind set is interesting though. He talks a lot about his future, and it's interesting that he never pictures Cecilia in his future. Overall i liked getting to know Robbie a little bit better.
At this point in the reading, I was still having trouble paying attention. It's definitely taking a while to pick up. Atonement is an extremely slow read this early on in the novel. I get that McEwan is trying to tackle the internal stuggles that we face on a daily basis: the uncertainties, the limitations, the shyness and withdrawals that people often face, but without a little action over it, it's just too hard to keep my attention. I mean, we generally keep those to ourselves for a reason.
He is a very gifted writer, and i respect his capability to get inside the head and get behind the thought process of a wide range of characters, but it's just missing something to keep a restless teenager hooked.
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