Atonement

A mischievous girl accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit, only to find that her words have irrevocably and permanently changed the lives of all involved in a film that re-teams the filmmakers behind Pride & Prejudice to adapt the best-selling 2002 novel by author Ian McEwan. The year is 1935, and as the summer heat takes hold, 13-year-old fledgling writer Briony Tallis watches her older sister, Cecilia, get undressed and go frolicking in the garden fountain on her family's country estate. The housekeeper's son, Robbie, a childhood friend and recent Cambridge graduate, also witnesses the innocent act. When Robbie and Cecilia subsequently cross a particularly sensitive boundary and the scheming Briony accuses Robbie of an unspeakable transgression for which the boy is wholly innocent, the repercussions of her unfounded claim threaten to affect all three for decades to come.

Here are some questions to understand better the novel.

1. What sort of social and cultural setting does the Tallis House create? What emotions and impulses are being acted upon or repressed by its inhabitants?

The Tallis house is a big, old house that show us the power and how rich are the Tallis. Also it seems to be located far away from the city. The impresion that give that huge house is that the people that lived in it, didn't felt as good as they liked.

2. A passion for order, a lively imagination, and a desire for attention seem to be Briony's strongest traits. In what ways is she still a child? Is her narcissism - her inability to see things from any point of view but her own - unusual in a thirteen-year-old?

Briony has a great imagination, and we can clearly see it in the movie, because in the way she changed the reality of what was happening in many situations. I think she iwasn´t conscious of what she was really making.

3. Why does Briony stick to her "version of the story" with such unwavering commitment? Does she act entirely in error in a situation she is not old enough to understand, or does she act, in part, on an impulse of malice, revenge, or self-importance? 

I think is a mixture of all those elements. Briony is still a child so she doesn´t was really conscious of what she was doing and she also didn't understand what was happening, because that she had the impulse of create a version or history of what she thinks that happened.

4. As she grows older, Briony develops the empathy to realise what she has done to Cecilia and Robbie. How and why do you think she does this?

All people, when they grow up, understand better the things that they made in the past. It's something natural, we learn of our mistakes and we don't make them in the future.

INFORMATION: 

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