What's there not to Love

What's there not to Love

By: Erin Harper

The novel introduces us to a character full of imagination, with a strong passion for writing. In the beginning she is a young naive character with a very creative mind which keeps our attention as the readers on her.

Briony was young and naive when she came across Cecilia and Robbie by the fountain, so even though she misinterpreted the situation we still consider the fact that she is a young imaginative child who has not been exposed to sensuality. Although Briony made a mistake which affects her family in the future we still enjoy her innocence of her not understanding everything action that occurs in the adult world. This novel starts out as a Victorian novel with a modest feel so Briony's reaction to the situation between Robbie and Cecilia was appropriate. Seeing Briony's point of view from her as a child and an adult allows us to fully understand how her whole view on life has changed from when she was a child. Although Briony's innocence of thought gets her into trouble, she still learns throughout the novel that what she has done is wrong. "There was our crime-Lola's, Marshall's, mine-and from the second version onward, I set out to describe it. I've regarded it as my duty to disguise nothing-the names, the places, the exact circumstances-I put it all there as a matter of historical record" (McEwan 349). Briony seems to struggle for forgiveness throughout the rest of the novel showing that she has acknowledged what she has done wrong. In this line she is describing how she wants to confess the truth. If she was a horrible character she would not have put herself through all of this pain and grieving over this many years.

In the first three sections of the novel it is spoken in third person, and the last section is spoken in first person which is an example of postmodern writing. This shift change in the writing also reflects on the narrators change in their point of view (Briony's point of view). We realize that Briony has been the narrator all along. Through her writing we discover that she along with the other characters do not want to forgive her. Briony never intended to ruin her family's lives, she was young and did not know how to properly deal with such a large situation. "Here she was, offering a possibility of absolution...It was for herself, for her own crime which her conscience could no longer bear... of course, she was a child" (McEwan 215). Briony was just a young girl when this whole situation occurred, and the reason why she did all of this was because she cared about her sister Cecilia and wanted her to be safe. It was out of an act of love for her family, which makes her a good and thoughtful person, by putting others before herself. Briony did not intend for so many bad things to happen to her family. 

Briony is not a despicable character because she is desperate for forgiveness even when she knows that no one will forgive her. She lives her whole entire life with guilt, and doesn't even try to remove the feeling of guilt because she feels that she deserves it. As Briony writes the last part of the novel she changes the ending to the way she wished the situation would have ended. Some people may look at this and say it is rude to ignore what really happened, but she did this as an act of kindness to give the novel a sense of relief. Briony gave her readers a sense of happiness that she never got to experience. "It is only in this last version that my lovers end well, standing side by side on a South London pavement as I walk away. All preceding drafts were pitiless" (McEwan 350). Briony gave the readers this made up story because she did not want anyone to share the same pain as her. "Who would want to believe that they never met again, never fulfilled their love?...I couldn't do it to them" (McEwan 350). Briony doesn't want her readers to feel hopeless so she says this line because she cares about us as readers.

Overall Briony is not a despicable character she just wants to make up for everything she has done to her family. She doesn't want the other characters to forgive her, she feels the need to suffer in her life just as her family did in order to be able to live with herself. She is a caring character, in a desperate attempt to make everything right again.

Comments From Riley's Post:
I agree that Briony made this piece of work for her readers to make us as readers glad to be ourselves because as the reader you want to learn from this novel, and never feel that you would get into this bad of a situation. I also agree with the fact that Briony did write the book to help herself grieve but I feel that she also wrote it to remind herself and others about what she did wrong because it almost seems like she doesn't even want to forgive herself. One thing I have to disagree with is that I don't think Briony is selfish. What Briony may have done which seemed selfish was not intended to be selfish. Briony didn't want to accuse Robbie to seem like the hero, I believe she did that because she was concerned for her sisters safety.