From The Young Girl To The New Woman

                Briony. The very name strikes anger and outrage into the minds of those who have read Atonement. Although the urge to hate little Briony is inevitable, she happens to do a lot of growing up in Part 3 and is able to reflect on the error of her ways in 1999, when she has become an old woman. Briony’s character has led a charmed life, silver spoon and all. Briony was, as a result of her family’s wealth, very sheltered from the ways of the world.  No wonder she was oblivious to the fountain scene and especially that of the library. It is Briony’s sheltered, Victorian upbringing which has led to her fatal mistake, the mistake that has made Briony such an unlikable character. Briony cannot be judged purely based on her past mistakes alone. It is not the mistakes you’ve made, but what you do about it that defines you. Since that day, many years ago, Briony has done all she can to show how sorry and how wrong she was. For this, Briony should not be hated, but revered. Briony has turned down her spot at university to become a nurse, has become excommunicated with her family by choice and has written a book purely for the sake of Cecelia and Robbie’s happiness.

                Briony, like any young woman during the war, has been allowed to taste freedom. Men, ever the dominant gender, have mostly been the only ones allowed to procure a job, support the family, and attend university. The war has opened doors for women and has allowed them to procure jobs, support their families and attend university.  A very lucky, Briony Tallis, has been accepted to Cambridge University. Cambridge, being the elitist university that it is, is the opportunity of a lifetime for a girl like Briony. Briony’s talent for writing could grow and mature in an environment such as this. Only one thing stands in Briony’s way, Briony herself. Guilt stricken by a terrible mistake, Briony has turned down her once in a lifetime opportunity to serve penance as a nurse; “The first surprise is that Briony isn’t at Cambridge. She didn’t go up last autumn, she didn’t take her place/ But I get the impression she’s taken on nursing as a sort of penance” (McEwan 199). Briony seeks redemption and forgiveness, but knows very well nothing can be done to persuade Cee and Robbie to forgive her. Instead, Briony seeks out nursing as a way to forgive herself. The life of a nurse is gruelling. The blistered hands, the stench, and the long hours make for a very uncomfortable life; “Between tasks, perhaps a dozen times a day, the students scrubbed their cracked and bleeding chilblained hands under freezing water” (McEwan 256). Briony has turned away from a privileged life at Cambridge, in order to redeem herself through the life of a nurse for the awful mistake she made years ago. Briony is not the self-centered girl that she once was, but rather, a selfless woman who seeks forgiveness.

                Briony has become a young woman and is now living away from home. Every young girl in the nursing program has sent or received mail to or from loved ones, all except Briony. It is hard to believe, given Briony’s silver spooned upbringing.  Briony was coddled as a child, so use to being praised and well-loved. It becomes increasingly hard to believe that she has chosen to cut herself off from her family on a personal and financial level; “She was the one who had cut herself off from home” (McEwan 263). Briony is, for the first time in her life, alone. Though, this route would not have been her first choice. Briony, after years, has become accustomed to a certain way of life and now, as a gift to Cee and in a way herself, she has cut herself off from her family. Briony’s family wished to believe the 13 year old rather than the 18 year old Briony. They wished to put the messy mistakes in the past instead of uncovering the truth and admitting they were wrong. Briony sacrificed her relationship with her family and her financial security in search of truth. Briony is no longer a spoiled, sheltered rich kid, but an independent and morally sound young woman.

                In her old age, Briony found the courage and strength to write about her fatal mistake whether it has been embellished or a complete web of lies spun off one truth, she did it. Atonement was a novel she had been trying to write for years but just hadn’t had the motivation until now. Briony’s illness and slow loss of memory have prompted her to get the story down on paper and out in the open. Briony’s last wish was to tell the story of Cecelia and Robbie. To give the lovers what they did not have in life, time. Time was stolen from Robbie and Cee by Briony and death; “Robbie Turner died of septicemia at Bay Dunes on 1 June 1940/Cecelia was killed in September of the same year by the bomb that destroyed Balham Underground Station” (McEwan 350). Briony, using her book, was able to unite the two and allow their love to live on through the ages; “I like to think that it isn’t a weakness or evasion, but a final act of kindness, a stand against oblivion and despair, to let my lovers live and unite them at the end” (McEwan 351).

                Briony. A name which should invoke admiration and respect. Briony made her mistakes, but haven’t we all. Can we judge her based on a simple mistake made by a young, sheltered girl at the age of only 13? Or do we lift ourselves above all that and see Briony for who she really is? Briony turned down her acceptance to Cambridge, excommunicated herself from her family, and wrote a story about Robbie and Cee forever preserving their love in the pages of her book. Briony is a selfless, loving, and respectable woman who has come a long way from the girl she once was.

Comment on Riley's Blog:

I believe that Riley has a very valid point. Whether I would like to admit it or not, I can see bits of myself in Briony. Her need for organization and her longing to have a more exciting life than the one she does now. Making up stories and scenarios in your head is something every young child does. Taking those thoughts and trying to make them real is where it all starts to get a little bit messy. Riley's third paragraph made me think a little deeper about what we learned earlier on in the semester. The human mind wants to read and watch stories that are horrific and ironic because at the end of the day we want to be able to say that someone's life is worse than ours. Even if that person isn't real, we appreciate the fact that someone out there has a harder life than we do. Riley's point is pure genius and very exposing and I agree with it 100%.