Another no-holds barred discussion forum, where you prove that you're the most deadly Atonement ninja in the class.
Atonement is, at core, a novel about trying to fix something that’s irretrievably broken. By the time you finish the book, you realize that the whole story is, if not an outright lie, then a very heavily edited piece of Historical Metafiction, in which Briony tries desperately to re-write her life, and those of the people she’s hurt so terribly.

Your blogging mission is to consider the whole novel, but especially the last two sections (“Part Three” and “London 1999") and prove that, ultimately, Briony isn’t a despicable person. In the words of my learned colleague Cox: “Find something about her to like.” And then prove it.

As with the Hamlet blog, make your stand on the issue in an argument of about 500 words, cite textual references, and then make a detailed comment on at least one classmate’s posting, agreeing, disagreeing, or taking the discussion in a different direction. Making references to life, movies, other things you’ve read, etc. are fair game, as long as they’re relevant. (Again, comment right in your blog entry, don't worry about using the comment links beneath your classmates' entries.)

Finally, be sure to clearly place your NAME in the title of your Posting!

Thursday 15 May 2014

Redefining Briony (Or Briony redefining herself)

By: Stefan Soto
Briony is written so inconsistently in comparison between part one and part three that you really need to ask yourself if they really are the same person at all? Briony in part one is selfish, naive, sucked into white and black thinking, and judgemental. Briony in part three is genuinely concerned with other people, remorseful, and caring. If she's changed so much that she's only a shadow of what she used to be, can she really be considered the same person and therefore accountable for her actions in part one? Her actions in part three show her kindness, so after forgiving part one, she is at least a respectable person.
After the court case is through there is a great quote "How guilt refined the methods of self-torture, threading the beads of detail into an eternal loop, a rosary to be fingered for a lifetime" (McEwan 162) which pretty much tells it as it is. Briony fucked up bad. She knows she fucked up and these "methods of self torture" is what causes her transformation. By the time that she is working as a nurse four years later she now cares about people beyond helping herself. The French boy asks her "'Do you love me?' She hesitated. 'Yes.' No other reply was possible. Besides, for that moment, she did" because he's about to die and she loves him because he's far from home and lonely and suffering just like she is. She's not the same person anymore and this transformation and repentance has absolved her of what she did and makes her into the good person she becomes.
Similarly, if a man gets out of prison for a serious crime but takes action to turn his life around for the better than he is in my eyes no longer truly guilty of that crime. What he did has still been done but his debt has been paid and he now deserves a chance to return to society. Briony has paid her debt in remorse as well as the dedication of her entire life to her atonement and for that I feel that she is a redeemed as well as respectable character.
In response to Roman's post, I don't think that Briony is at all a sociopath. Doing something wrong is not sociopathic, being okay with doing something wrong is. And Briony is very not okay with what she did. I'm somewhat confused how Briony feeling victimized and being able to manipulate people makes you like her, but sure if you value that I guess that's cool. Personally I wouldn't pick my friends around that but too each his own I suppose. That being said I agree with your last point about Briony's nihilism at the end how she's realized that her atonement doesn't actually matter that's a good point.
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