ENG-110 Atonement part 3-Atonement...or was it?

I feel fortunate that I am able to blog on Part 3 of Atonement because I can also comment on the entirety of the book while I'm at it.

If McEwan had written Atonement as a parallel book of himself writing about Briony, and in turn Briony writing about herself this would have been a totally different book. But because he did not and Atonement is supposed to be Briony's book, I can say easily that I do not think that Briony really atoned for her actions.

Through the conscienceness of Briony, McEwan asks questions about who controls human destiny. Do we write our own scripts? Like real life, the novel is complicated by multiple viewpoints: Cecilia's, Robbie's, and most importantly Briony's. Each character has a limited perspective. Only the reader has access to the larger picture. McEwan shows life as perspectival, and shows the closest thing to truth is the union of multiple, sometimes conflicting narratives.

When Briony understands the implications of her evil act in the lie she told that ruined Robbie's life, she dedicates her life to making reparation. The dictionary says that atonement is the making of reparation for sin or a mistake. Briony, an upper class girl, skips university to go into nursing during the middle of WWII as atonement for her terrible lie. She obeys hostile superiors, empties bedpans, dresses unimaginable wounds, and brings comfort to young soldiers torn apart physically and emotionally by war. She exchanges self-absorbtion for selfless care of others.
Her selfless work gives solace to others, but not to her sister and Robbie.

Beyond the plot the novel is complicated by its structure. One narration is Briony's life; the other story is Briony's writing. She creates narratives in her imagination, which are played out in real life. She actually writes the story of Cecilia and Robbie, and exposes the true rapist. At first I was aware that this is reality. Then I began to question outcomes. Is Briony writing this, or living it? Where is the boundary between life and art? Briony as a writer, I know that she has the capacity to play God (to control outcomes). But I am unclear about who is in control of destiny.

I don't really believe that Briony atoned for her bad deed because novelists have the ultimate power of deciding outcomes. Another note: In a bittersweet finale, McEwan observes Briony fifty years on, confronting her own mortality and reveals the extent to which he has controlled the outcome of the Tallis family.