Atonement

Question 1

Briony’s Part 3 comments re power of the novelist?

Answer 1

how can a novelist achieve atonement, when, with her absolute power of deciding outcomes, she is also God? There is no one, no entity or higher power that she can appeal to (..) there is nothing outside of her.

Question 2

Eerie part 1 foreshadowing of reader revealtion

Answer 2

‘The Trials of Arabella…with the author’s arm around her shoulder the whole time’

Question 3

The narrative difference in 1st 2 parts of Atonement to the final part?

Answer 3

Briony has authorial control- it is her testimony

Question 4

How does Briony find solace?

Answer 4

She finds solace in the fantasy of the couple- but it is a mere fantasy…superficial

Question 5

How is Atonement post-modernist?

Answer 5

Fragmentary; highlighted throughout that it is fiction; we can no longer trust the omniscent point of view (exposes realism); no closure in final section

Question 6

Part 3 section technical name?

Answer 6

McEwan’s metanarrative

Question 7

What the metanarrative forces the reader to do?

Answer 7

We have to reevaluate our relationship to the implied author (we have assumed it is McEwan, but it is actually Briony)

Question 8

Atonement goal?

Answer 8

To explore the power an author has over a reader- Briony, our narrator, is a construct of the author as much as the whole world that she has created is.

Question 9

Atonement third part narrative style?

Answer 9

1ST PERSON