Perception/ misunderstanding, innocene and guilt

The book, Atonement, written by Ian McEwan focuses on the story of a girl who is constantly cursed with visions made up in her childlike, curious mind. Briony Tallis, is a thirteen year old visionary, who dreams of the unknown world outside of her secluded home and spends most of her time in her room creating stories and plays in which her ideas of the outside world become realities. Briony’s misconceptions lead to a falling out between her sister, Cecilia, and her lover Robbie. Briony’s misconceptions cause intense feelings of guilt throughout her latter adult life. Throughout the novel, Briony’s childlike mind causes her to often perceive things as untrue even within her own family. …show more content…
Briony, is introduced within the novel as a sheltered child, who wishes to understand the outside world. She frequently used her time to write stories on things she does not yet understand. "A world could be made in five pages, and one that was more pleasing than a model farm. The childhood of a spoiled prince could be framed within half a page, a moonlit dash through sleepy villages was one rhythmically emphatic sentence, falling in love could be achieved in a single word--a glance. The pages of a recently finished story seemed to vibrate in her hand with all the life they contained.” (7) This quote shows the way in which Briony simplifies emotions and experiences, and exemplifies the way that her childlike, curious mannerisms play a role in her writings. Her stories are fueled by imagination and the way that she interprets real world experiences, such as love and power. Within Briony’s writings she is able to micromanage every vision that she has for her characters, their lives’ controlled at the tips of her fingers. She is able to fully control every aspect of their lives. “She was one of those children possessed by a desire to have the world just so.”(reference). She is able to live out her visions on paper and if she feels unhappy with a