Atonement is a 2001 novel written by Ian McEwan concerning the need for individual atonement. This novel takes place in three periods: England in 1935, England and France during the Second World War, and England today. It involves a young upper-class girl whose lives are ruined by a single lie, her adulthood in the shadow of that mistake, and a reflection. on the nature of writing. The novel mainly focuses on Briony Tallis as she alone accused Robbie of raping his cousin Lola and became the cause of Robbie and Cecilia's deaths by breaking up the Tallis family. In this novel, the intensity of imagination is seen as a means of both recovery and dishonor. Even though imagination is good to a certain extent because it influences thoughts and is a way to give hope, there are many risks of confusing imagination with the real world because not accepting reality puts oneself at risk. in the vicious circle of isolation from others. destroys many lives and provides grounds for manipulation of facts and thoughts. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay To begin with, when Briony was thirteen, she was too young, which prevented her from fully mastering adults. world, but mature enough to assume she understood her social condition on an adult level. This uncertain and short-term situation in her mental development, combined with the situations she saw, caused a diversion of feelings such that Briony watched the episode between Cecilia and Robbie at the fountain where she cannot listen to them. “There was something quite formal in the way he stood, his feet apart, his head held back. A marriage proposal. Briony wouldn't have been surprised. She herself had written a tale in which a humble woodcutter saved a princess from drowning and ended up marrying her. Briony thought Robbie was proposing to Cecilia and she found it quite romantic and connected this scene to her own story she had written about the woodcutter and the princess, which described her sense of imagination and level of immaturity. She assumed Robbie had absolute authority over her sister and was forcing her to strip and drown herself. She took her imagination to another level and thought that Robbie was blackmailing or threatening her sister and that he had some power over her. Another episode where his imagination ran wild about a lot of things. “He looked so huge and wild, and Cecilia with her bare shoulders and skinny arms so frail that Bryony had no idea what she could accomplish when she started moving towards them.” She saw Cecilia and Robbie making love in the library and considered it an attack on her sister. Briony, seeing things she doesn't properly understand, developed a backstory in which Robbie was seen as a monster who tried to contain his delicate and weak sister. She managed to turn all the romantic love into an attack on her sister. This showed her sense of unconsciousness and we can perceive her as an imaginative little girl. However, according to the insight of the two lovers, it was an act of love that they exchanged. Briony imagined Robbie as a "maniac" as Lola put it because of the letter Briony had given her from Robbie for Cecilia which contained the word "cunt". Briony saw Lola being attacked, but she can't observe anything because it was boring. All this forced her to believe that it was Robbie who was responsible for raping Lola, which ruined Robbie's life and he lost his reputation because of the.