Preview

Voice In Atonement

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
736 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Voice In Atonement
Successful writers create a voice with which we can identify.

The novel Atonement by Ian McEwan is about a girl named Briony Tallis and the false accusation she made against Robbie Turner. It then follows the consequences to all their lives that this accusation had. I partially agree with the statement ‘Successful writers create a voice with which we can identify.’ Partially, because we can’t identify with Briony after what she does, but we can identify with Robbie and Cecilia Tallis as we respond sympathetically to their suffering. And even then the text is still very successful.

The main character in this novel is thirteen year old Briony Tallis. Briony who loves to be in charge and tell people what to do, thinks she is always right. That
…show more content…
Robbie is the maid’s son who has been well looked after by Jack Tallis and is Cecilia Tallis’ lover. On that hot summers night in 1940 when Robbie ‘left the house by himself, his life changed forever.’ after Briony accused Robbie of the rape and he went to jail, and then to war which ultimately lead to his death. Robbie was never apologised to or redeemed of the false accusation, therefore us as readers feel very sympathetic towards him. This is because he never got to live a proper life the way he wanted to with Cecilia. In the second part of the book, set during the war, Robbie longs for it to be over so he can be with Cecilia again. That’s all he cares about and is his only reason for living. We also identify with him because he has a hatred towards Briony, like the reader. He understands that she was a ‘thirteen year old girl’ and she didn't realise ‘the full consequences’ of her actions back then. But it doesn’t excuse the fact that even the detectives believed the statement of one girl that was unreliable as she was the only one who saw the crime being committed. We can identify with Robbie’s hatred towards …show more content…
In Part One of the book Cecilia discovers her feelings towards Robbie. So when he is taken away from her the very same night, she is devastated. As they never got to have their time together. She tells him ‘I’ll wait’ and for him to ‘come back to me’. She spends her whole life waiting for him only for them both to be killed in the war. We identify with her as the reader wanted them together and for Cecilia to get her happy ending. Ian McEwan’s purpose was to make us feel sorry for her and be sympathetic to her situation. This way our attention is always drawn to the book as we want to know what is going to happen between Cecilia and Robbie.

In conclusion, in the novel Atonement by Ian McEwan it is only partially true that successful writers create a voice with which we can identify. I think this because the main character Briony in the novel is someone with which we cannot identify, however there are other characters with which we can. And even though this is the case the piece of writing was still very

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Robbie is depicted as a sort of hopeless romantic, while Marie is written as being a character whose past relationships have hurt her and caged her as if she wasn’t a wild bird. Kraar reveals limited information about Marie and her past life, which leaves the reader guessing and wondering what…

    • 749 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Writer's Responsibility

    • 261 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In The Writer’s Responsibility, author Margaret Atwood asks; what responsibility do writers have to the society in which they live in? Atwood urges that writers take moral responsibility and use their voice.…

    • 261 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Book Report

    • 630 Words
    • 3 Pages

    |This is probably the best book I have ever read. It is about a ten year old girl who feels she is not important enough. She wants to prove|…

    • 630 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is perceived throughout literature that characters within a novel are solely prompted by personal interests. Yet, we learn that they are sometimes driven throughout the work ascertaining a purpose larger than themselves. Whether it is an author’s use of literary elements (such as dialogue, characterization, or conflict) or even in their craft alone, it is inevitable in the two classic works: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck and The Crucible by Arthur Miller. In The Grapes of Wrath, we discover an unavoidable change in the character Rose of Sharon. When we are first introduced to Rose of Sharon, she is exceedingly dependent on her husband and primarily concerned about the well-being of her child. Yet as the novel progresses, Steinbeck innovates Rose of Sharon into a seemingly new character. This is also present with The Crucible’s John Proctor. He begins absent-minded, careless, and only uneasy about keeping his affairs with Abigail Williams silent. However, Arthur Miller worked to evolve Proctor’s character with his use of conflict, irony, and a creative mind-set. Both characters, Rose of Sharon and John Proctor, progress into nearly entirely new people all from the endeavor of the authors. The focus though, is how the authors are able to do it.…

    • 1125 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    At first its believed that Robert could be a homosexual by the way he described captain Taffler at the prairie. He described Taffler by “his mouth his eyes and his nipples looked as if someone had been sculpting him and had left their thumbprints behind”. Insinuating Robert had a little crush on Taffler but he was just someone who Robert perceived to be a role model. Roberts reaction to what he saw at the whore house made him very angry and act out in violence, foreshadowing violence to come. At first Robert doesn’t want to accept what he is seeing and is angry that someone he looked up to could do such a thing. Robert knowing the strict laws about homosexuality had developed a homophobia leading him to cease any thoughts regarding Taffler as a role mode. This book took place in a time where homosexuals were not allowed to join the army or even exist as it was an act of crime to be gay and Taffler was a national hero and was supposed to endorse moral characteristics. Robert is also scared that this might also happen to him, as the whore house is representing how much someone can be affected by war and how what they experience can change them completely. Aboard the SS Masanabie Roberts makes a friend named Harris, who like robert has a beautiful sole and cares for animals deeply. Seeing as Robert never…

    • 1938 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The rape of joe’s mother, Geraldine, is one of the major focuses of this novel, The Round House. A traumatic experience such as this is sure to change relationship of the family. The subject of rape changes his/her mood and beliefs to help coop or explain what has happened. This in turn effects the people surrounding him/her. In Geraldine’s case, she falls into deep depression, shuts herself from the world, and has minimum contact with her family. This puts a strain on her relationship with her son, Joe. There are many signs showing that Joe’s and Geraldine’s relationship is falling apart.…

    • 294 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    main character, or the protagonist from the book, is an Abnegation 16 year old teenager…

    • 562 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    2011: In a novel by William Styron, a father tells his son that life “is a search for justice.” Choose a character from a novel or play who responds in some significant way to justice or injustice. Then write a well-developed essay in which you analyze the character’s understanding of justice, the degree to which the character’s search for justice is successful, and the significance of this search for the work as a whole. 2010: Palestinian American literary theorist and cultural critic Edward Said has written that “Exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted.” Yet Said has also said that exile can become “a potent, even enriching” experience. Select a novel, play, or epic in which a character experiences such a rift and becomes cut off from “home,” whether that home is the character’s birthplace, family, homeland, or other special place. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the character’s experience with exile is both alienating and enriching, and how this experience illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. 2009: A symbol is an object, action, or event that represents something or that creates a range of associations beyond itself. In literary works a symbol can express an idea, clarify meaning, or enlarge literal meaning. Select a novel or play and, focusing on one symbol, write an essay analyzing how that symbol functions in the work and what it reveals about the characters or themes of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot. 2008: In a literary work, a minor character, often known as a foil, possesses traits that emphasize, by contrast or comparison, the distinctive characteristics and qualities of the main character. For example, the ideas or behavior of the minor character might be used to highlight the…

    • 3419 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    DIstinctive Voices Essay

    • 913 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Distinctive voices provide understanding and emphasise the significant events and aspects of life in relation to the individual and their underlying place in the society. Both John F. Kennedy and Severn Cullis Suzuki provide evidence of this which is evident in the use of contrast, anaphora, imagery, rhetorical questions and allusion but is also perpetuated in The Sharpness of Death by Gwen Harwood. These texts provide understanding and connections within eachother……..…

    • 913 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Distinctive Voices

    • 985 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Compare the ways distinctive voices are created in Burn's poetry and in ONE other related text of your own choosing.…

    • 985 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Distinctive Voices

    • 1379 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Distinctive voices are part of our everyday life and can be expressed in many ways. This is not always projected through speech and language. It can be intrinsic and is inherent in any text. This is particularly helps when reviewing The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender by Marele Day and related film Miss Congeniality directed by Donald Petrie. Both these composers have created a variety of distinctive voices in the texts.…

    • 1379 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    A person once said, "Literature opens a dark window on the soul, revealing more about what is bad in human nature then what is good." In other words, authors unlock an evil portal on the spirit and display more about what is regretful in the human race then what is good. This true is because the writer is free to opinionate and write about their intimate emotions that for the most part are unpleasant. John Steinbeck, author of Mice and Men, said, "It is the responsibility of the writer to expose our many grievous fault and failures and to hold up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams, for the purpose of improvement." What he means is that it is the author's mission to reveal our severe mistakes so that eventually we will learn not to make that same errors. I agree with both quotes. In Author Miller's tragedy, The Crucible, and J. Ronald Oakley's historical essay, "The Great Fear," reveals on how fear can intersect and tear everyone apart.…

    • 728 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    PLOT SUMMERY: Connie at fifteen lives with her parents and elder sister in a family house surrounded by vast farm land which stretches down the country side. She preoccupies her mind with the fantasies of nature; she is obsessed with her beauty and prides her ego. Her mother scolds her to be modest and responsible as her elder sister June, but Connie refuses to make amends. The frustration of being yelled at by her mother makes her sick and angry; she wished she and her mother were dead. Her father works so hard and rarely speaks to them; he plays no role in scolding…

    • 1331 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hsc Speeches

    • 1183 Words
    • 5 Pages

    We Recognise a text as possessing textual integrity when we see form, structure and language producing a unified conceptual whole. The speeches ‘Spotty-Handed Villainesses’ by Margret Atwood and ‘Faith, Hope and Reconciliation’ by Faith Bandler, represent how a combination of structure, form, language as well as exploring the human condition can raise a particular speech to new levels of relevance to future audiences. Both speeches showcase a textual integrity, which has successfully merged structure, form and language with the art of rhetoric. Even though the two speeches vary in their ideas, they address two key facets of the human condition that have challenged mankind for countless centuries; the equality between both race and genders.…

    • 1183 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Atonement

    • 1124 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Cecilia and Briony Tallis both have different views on Robbie Turner, attitudes which are the exact opposite from each other. Cecilia knows Robbie as her “childhood friend”, whilst for Briony, Robbie was a person she looked up to. As the novel develops such attitudes towards Robbie changes and turns into something completely different.…

    • 1124 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics