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...