Detection in Atonement

Question 1

The readers must discern between fact and fiction. They are given clues from Briony. (2)

Answer 1

‘She could write the scene three times over, from three points of view’ p40

‘The truth had become as ghostly as invention’ p41

Question 2

Briony fails to detect effectively. (2)

Answer 2

‘The way was in total blackness’ p159 ch13

‘The vertical mass was a figure, a person who was now backing away from her and beginning to fade into the darker background of the trees. The remaining darker patch on the ground was also a person, changing shape again’ p164 ch13

Question 3

Law enforcement is ineffective in their detection (4)

Answer 3

‘they knew their own minds, they knew what they wanted and how to proceed. She was asked again and again, and as she repeated herself, the burden of consistency was pressed upon her.’ P 169

‘She could not express these nuances. She did not even seriously try. There were no opportunities, no time, no permission.’ P 169

‘The process was moving fast and well beyond her control’ p169

‘There was enough light, it was established, from stars, and from the cloud base reflecting street lights from the nearest town.’ P170

Question 4

Emily’s tendrils (6)

Answer 4

‘Emily, breathing quietly in the darkness, gauged the state of her household by straining to listen’ p65

‘Distilled from this sensitivity a sixth sense, a tentacular awareness that reached out from the dimness and moved through the house, unseen and all-knowing’ p66

‘Only the truth came back to her, for what she knew, she knew.’ P66

‘She lay in the dark and knew everything.’ P66

‘This wealthy young entrepreneur might not be such a bad sort, if he was prepared to pass the time of day entertaining children’ p69

‘She could send her tendrils into every room of the house’ p71

Question 5

Briony is forced to detect from her own narration. We hear Older Briony’s voice continually in part 1. (7)

Answer 5

‘She accepted that she did not understand, and that she must simply watch’ p39

‘Suddenly the scene was empty; the wet patch on the ground where Cecilia had got out of the pond was the only evidence that anything had happened at all’ p39

‘The definition would refine itself over the years’ p40

‘She may have attributed more deliberation that was feasible to her thirteen-year-old-self.’ P40

‘I merged them in my description to concentrate all my experiences into one place. A convenient distortion, and the least of my offences against veracity.’ pg. 356

‘In the later years she regretted not being more factual, not providing herself with a store of raw material. It would have been useful to know what happened, what it looked like, who was there, what was said’ p280.

‘I tried to evoke that hot summer of nineteen thirty-five, when the cousins came down from the north.’ P369