Atonement

Atonement: 

1. Satisfaction or reparation for a wrongdoing or injury, amends (dictionary.reference.com) 

2. Reconciliation. Reparation for an offense or injury. (merriam-webster.com)

3. Repayment, compensation, or reparation made for a wrongdoing or mistake (vocabulary-vocabulary.com)

"Atonement" by Ian McEwan

2002 National Book Critics Circle Award Winner

Ian McEwan's symphonic novel of love and war, childhood and class, guilt and forgiveness provides all the satisfaction of a brilliant narrative and the provocation we have come to expect from this master of English prose.

On a hot summer day in 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis witnesses a moment's flirtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, the son of a servant and Cecilia's childhood friend. But Briony's incomplete grasp of adult motives - together with her precocious literary gifts - brings about a crime that will change all their lives. As it follows that crime's repercussions through the chaos and carnage of the Second World War and into the close of the twentieth century, Atonement engages the reader on every conceivable level, with an ease and authority that mark it as a genuine masterpiece

(review and plot retrieved from <http://www.randomhouse.com/highschool/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385721790>)

Atonement ‎(2007)‎

TASK:

Watch the first half of the 2007 movie adaptation of "Atonement". While you watch, take notes and answer the following questions:

1. What sort of social and cultural setting does the Tallis House create? What emotions and impulses are being acted upon or repressed by its inhabitants?

2. A passion for order, a lively imagination, and a desire for attention seem to be Briony's strongest traits. In what ways is she still a child? Is her narcissism - her inability to see things from any point of view but her own - unusual in a thirteen-year-old? 

3. Why does Briony stick to her "version of the story" with such unwavering commitment? Does she act entirely in error in a situation she is not old enough to understand, or does she act, in part, on an impulse of malice, revenge, or self-importance? 

4. As she grows older, Briony develops the empathy to realise what she has done to Cecilia and Robbie. How and why do you think she does this? 

(adapted from <http://readinggroupguides.com/guides3/atonement1.asp>)

DUNKIRK EVACUATION

In "Atonement", we find out that the lie which Briony tells regarding the crime committed in her house, ends up separating her sister Cecilia from her enduring love, Robbie, who in turn is sent to fight for Great Britain during the Second World War. 

A key historical element that shapes the destinies of the main characters is the evacuation of the British troops from Dunkirk, France. 

Dunkirk Evacuation

• 2nd Clip from the movie "Atonement" (2007): Dunkirk
• Reading Task 1: CC p. 291

Based on the extract from the novel "Atonement", answer the following questions:

1. What is happening?

2. What ideas or feelings are being suggested?

3. Who is the narrator?

4. Who is speaking in the passage?

5. Who is seeing the events taking place?

6. What is the setting?

7. What do you know about what is going on?

REFLECTION

8. Do you think that the passage about the evacuation of Dunkirk would fulfill McEwan's desire to write about the war? Whose vision of the war is depicted: Robbie's, Briony's, McEwan's, or those of his sources?

Glossary

- Tommies: Colloquial word to refer to "British soldiers"

- Maginot: "Maginot Line" - a line of concrete fortifications and war defenses built around the borders of France with Germany and Italy.

- Poilus: Colloquial word to refer to "French soldiers"

- RAF: Royal AIr Force: The Air Force of the United Kingdom

- Frogs: Another colloquial word to refer to "French soldiers", due to their camouflage

• 3rd Clip from the movie "Atonement" (2007) - Closure
• Reading Task 2: "Historical Truth" CC p. 295

ONLINE ASSIGNMENT for the week (also to be posted in your BLOG)

FInd examples (at least two) of men writing as women, and women writing as men. Many critics have pointed out that Jane Austen rarely presented a male character with a private internal monologue, or in a scene that wasn't told from the point of view of a female observer, due to her extremely limited social circumstances, and a desire to retain a sense of authenticity in her writing. 

What are the benefits and limitations of this approach?

Why do other authors, like McEwan, take the opposite approach?