Innocent Until Proven Innocent (Louwyn Besa)

While reading Atonement, I had trouble understanding why everyone held such a negative opinion on Briony, as my thoughts on her for the majority of the book stayed relatively optimistic. I can’t help but empathize for her naive, child-like mindset. Therefore, I believe that there is one key factor that is rapidly overlooked; if one were to put themselves in her shoes, taking into account the time period, the different morals, and the setting, most of us would have probably done the exact same things she did. As readers, we are quick to nit-pick the faults of each character, and we easily dismiss any idea of what the individual's perception of the situation may be. Unfortunately, Briony’s fault just so happened to be her innocence.

An important factor we must understand at the beginning of the story is that Briony is still a child when she accuses Robbie for attacking Lola. We have learned that she has just acknowledged the existence of herself, and particularly during these early stages of life, she has not yet been completely educated about the repercussions of her own actions. Every normal human being makes mistakes throughout their entire life, especially during the key years of being a young adolescent. Besides, up to this point, Briony isn't even completely sure if it was Robbie or not who had attacked Lola, so it wasn't as if she was hiding the fact that she knew it was Paul the entire time. If anyone is to be blamed in this position, it should be Lola and Paul. And although her small mistake made much more of an impact on someone else’s life, we cannot ignore the fact that as children, owning up to your mistakes is never an easy thing to do. Briony most likely understands that what she is doing is wrong, but that does not mean she is going to do anything about it because she is undoubtedly afraid of getting in trouble. How many times can you say you confessed all your wrong doings when growing up?

           One must also take a step back and analyze the situation. Initially, Briony is only trying to help Lola to identify her attacker, not deliberately ruin anyone’s life. It wasn't as if she intentionally blames Robbie knowing that he was going to go to jail, fight in the war and eventually ruin what was left of her family. I think another one of her goal's was not only to try and protect Lola, but future victims that the attacker could have potentially targeted next. You could almost categorize her actions as heroic depending on how you perceive it, because from her point of view, she assumed that what she was doing was right.

In the first chapter, Briony's strong leadership personality portrays her as being full of herself. This characteristic is immediately distinguished by the reader as an unfavorable trait. As a result, for the remainder of the book, a preconceived notion of Briony being this stereotypical full-of-herself character is formed. This manifestation makes the majority of readers instantly dislike her before any real development to her character is made, whether they are aware of it or not. If you think of it, Briony never once commits any acts consciously knowing that they will have negative effects on a specific person. She is always trying her hardest to help the people she loves. I find that calling Briony out on her immaturity is stating the obvious because evidently she’s going to be a little immature. She is after all, only thirteen. How much more do you expect from a thirteen year old girl growing up in the Victorian era with Victorian values? Later on in the book, when Briony is old enough to assess the situation and come to the realization that what she had done was wrong, it is already too late. She attempts to apologize to Robbie and Cee, but there is not much more she can do, because she isn't given any more options. The damage is already too far, too gone.

A likable trait about Briony is that she is passionate about writing. Some can bring up the point that she is pretentious and self-centered about her writing, but as humans, when we’re told that we’re good at something, we pursue that interest and we praise ourselves and constantly want to be praised by others for it. You cannot blame Briony for being a little prideful for something she’s obviously very good at. She grew up writing, fueling that passion for the thing that she loved, throughout her adulthood and well into her old age. She used it as an outlet when she had nowhere else to turn, and became a successful author because of this talent. We can assume that Briony changes her values and continues to grow as a person throughout the years, but one thing that never faltered is her passion for the craft of writing. She even tries giving Robbie and Cee the ending they very much deserve through the only way she knows how, by writing about it. This leads me to believe that she is not seeking forgiveness from anyone when she releases the book, because the act she did is unforgivable and she is aware of that. People can interpret this as being a selfish way of going about things, but I honestly feel like Briony is just trying to get Robbie and Cee’s story out there for everyone to hear and give them the voice that the both of them were never given. “There was a crime. But there were also the lovers. Lovers and their happy ends have been on my mind all night long” (McEwan, 349). I think Briony has already given herself so much slack that in her opinion, this is the only way she can express how she feels about their lives, and their story.

I can relate Briony’s situation to a film called “Mud”. In this movie, two fourteen year old boys encounter a runaway murderer who is trying to avoid the police. In the time given, the boys have multiple opportunities to tell someone that they found the wanted man, but instead, they help him hide, which almost costs them their life countless times. They can be related to Briony in the sense that, as children, although they think they are doing the right thing, they are doing the completely opposite.
   

In the end, Briony really isn’t as bad of a person as everyone in the class made her out to be. She was passionate, compassionate and very intelligent. She was a kid who made mistakes just like we all have, and we have to learn to not be so quick to judge a person for their past. Something that we all don’t need more of is the affirmation of an error we’re already aware of.

In response to Alex’s post…
I agree with what you said in your third point about Briony being put into mature situations, especially when she was still in the process of trying to find herself. I think that these adult encounters mixed in with the fact that she was still technically in the mindset of a child, confused her to the point where she was unable to tell right from wrong. She was caught in some kind of limbo in between wanting so badly to grow up, but also still wanting to stay this innocent little girl. Although I agree with 90% of the points you made, I also have to disagree with the fact that you think she was handling the situation better than the adults were. I honestly think her true downfall was the fact that she was mainly stuck in the “act like a child” mentality, which ultimately, was keeping her back from doing actual commendable “adult things”. (Like tell the truth).