Atonement

Well, I'm going to start with Briony. Do I feel sympathetic? Yes, of course. She was a young girl who was confused with what she was seeing first hand. She wanted so much to feel these adult emotions, but was unable to translate what she was seeing. Did she make an awful mistake? Yes, she made a mistake that haunted her throughout the novel. She was trying to atone for her mistake as she was able to comprehend the resulting actions while she was truly becoming an adult. Of course, we soon see that it is too late. I don't think she was able to atone for her mistakes, but I believe her adding the fictitous sections of her "final" novel, helped her in a way to cope with what she had done. She truly wanted her sister and Robbie to have a great life together.

I think that Lola could have atoned for what she has hidden inside her. She was laying there after it happened knowing who had done this to her, but she still was able to stay quiet when the heroic Robbie returned to the estate. He was always treated as a lower class servant, while the powerful Mr. Marshall laid back and took a nap.

Because of Robbie's tragic death, him and Cecilia were unable to atone for their actions that night. They should have had a chance to prove that their love was real.

Looking Deeper

I am not the best of readers. I haven't had much interest in reading in the past. It has been very interesting how some of the writers this semester have used symbolism in their works. It isn't always easy for me to uncover the hidden meanings. In one of our recent classes, we discussed Boyle's "The Decent of Man". The title for starters relates back to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. In the short story, Boyle has satired the notion of evolution, in other words taking a slight jab to the famous philosopher. Through some of the many symbolic moments throughout his writting, we saw Boyle creating a notion of the human race to almost be de-evolving. Jane values the ape's opinion more, because he is a genious. Through historical norms, woman are thought to have a goal of attracting a mate; many times just in order to survive. We see Jane going against this as she returns home to her "roomate" dirty and smelling like animal feces, and she continues to experiment with Master Konrad.

Through our discussions, I have been able to better understand some of these creative writers. Through the use of their symbolic meanings, these authors have help me gain a better understanding of creative contemporary literature.

My Try at Barthelme's Style

My mind is racing. Around and around the track it goes. I sit here wondering. Wondering what I could have done differently; how I could have prevented this. Maybe a better question, could I have prevented this? I knew something was wrong when the suit asked me to see him in his office with that straight-forward tone. The tone that let me know this wasn't a normal meeting. All I remember is him saying something along the lines of we're better off without you. And just like that I'm jobless.

"Oh everything will be fine," my Mother says, "it is just fate, you will find a better place, where you can..." My mind started to wander at that point. What is fate? I think the word she was looking for was life. It is just life. Sure, it may work out for the best. But fate isn't going to guide me. I could sit on my ass and wait for fate to take over. But, that's not going to work. This is life. This is an ordinary occurrence, and it is now in my hands to make changes and improve the way I perform my assigned duties. Fate, hah. Life throws many curve balls; this is one of them, and I am going to hit it out of the park. Fate is going to stay on the bench watching and waiting.