Briony_Cannot_Atone

1. Briony cannot atone because she is the novelist . To what extend is this true' Briony failed to atone because she is the novelist of Atonement. She manipulates the truth and creates fantasies in her world. As Briony grows up, she realise her fantasies are misleading her, however, she is still in her fantasy world when she is writing the novel. Readers may find it unrealistic and not trust worthy as Briony hinted realistic is also fantasy. The link of fantasy and truth frustrates readers of the truth. Briony lives in her fantasy when she was young and it shows her desire to grow up and the desire of control. Both of the desires lead her to have mysterious and secretive side. ‘but all facing one way- towards their own’ it shows her seeking control and power from the dolls in her room. ‘one way’ shows that Briony is the attention of all the dolls. However, dolls are not human so she is once again in her fantasy world seeking power. She creates her fantasy as a mysterious as ‘in a toy safe opened by six secret numbers she stored letter and postcards’ shows that she keeps her things in a really secretive place. The word ‘six’ reveals how important her properties are since it is a large number and uneasy to find out. However, we notice all her action seems secretive and mysterious but all of them are useless. She stores letters and postcards inside her drawer and locked them which is meaningless because those are unimportant things for a little girl. ‘ But hidden drawers, lockable diaries and cryptographic systems could not conceal from Briony the simple truth: she had no secrets’ It is revealed that Briony is only creating her own fantasy world and manipulating readers of her secrets. As we can see, her point of view is not trust worthy because of her lies and actions in her fantasy world. Briony has a desire to write which is also a way for her to seek attention and maturity. She wrote the play The Trials of Arabella. It shows her thoughts on moral order and she Is the God when she writes. ‘Unapologetically demanding her family’s total attention as she cast her narrative spell’ shows her desire of seeking attention of the adults. Throughout the play, she finds power over her cousins when they were deciding what role. She ‘jammed her rump into an ancient baby’s high-chair’ which creates an imagery of her giving a speech in front of her cousins. The position of their standing shows that Briony is superior then the others and her power and control to her cousins. In Briony’s fantasy world. She has the right to change and decide the ending. As she believes ‘A love of order also shaped the principles of justice, with death and marriage the main engines of housekeeping, the former being set aside exclusively for the morally dubious, the latter a reward withheld until the final page’ good character will have a happy ending. ‘Former’ to ‘latter and ‘death’ to ‘marriage’ creates a contrast image of both situations and shapes our understanding of Briony’s thoughts on moral orders. Briony also pushes herself to grow up while she is still immature and makes wrong assumptions. ‘ the very complexity of her feelings confirmed Briony in her view that she was entering an arena of adult emotion…..’ By invading Cecilia’s privacy, Briony sees herself to grow up and benefit her because she wants to know how adult response and react. She also feels that an adult has different emotions as she has’ very complexity of her feelings’. It leads her to confirm that she is growing up. As Briony grows up, she regrets her past immature decision and seeks atonement by writing Atonement. Unfortunately, she continues to live in her little fantasy world and made up part of the story. ‘how could that constitute an ending' What sense or hope or satisfaction could a reader draw from such an account'’ All these rhetoric questions shows her perspective on fantasy is a way to seek forgiveness since she has create a reunite for Cecilia and Robbie. ‘we will only exist as my inventions. Briony will be as much of a fantasy as the lovers who shared a bed events and which individuals were mispresented to make a novel’ we immediately question the truth of the story and reliability since it became confusing and messy. The word ‘fantasy’ once again appeared which leads us doubt her writing and her narrative is unreliable. Even though, Briony is seeking atonement and she regrets her past, she is still living in a fantasy world and thinks it is the only method to seek forgiveness. Once again, we sense her immaturity and unchanging thoughts. She may change her thoughts but not her fantasies which eventually lead us to doubt her story and she will not be able to find atonement as a novelists which lives in a fantasy world and misleads her life.