Final Exam, etc.

By way of clarification, the final exam is not on May 5. There is an error on the assignment schedule (thanks to Jessica and Margie for pointing this out). The final exam is on May 3 (next Tuesday), from 10:30 AM to 12:30 PM. This is obviously earlier than we usually meet, so please make arrangements to be there. I will discuss the final exam with you when I see you on Thursday so that you will know what to expect.

I also mentioned the possibility of making up some blogs. For every one of the following poems, stories, or films you read/watch and post a response to, I will make up one missed blog. (I'm putting you on your honor here. If you have already seen one of these films you will need to watch it again in order to post about it.) The responses should be of (at least) normal length, and they should discuss how these works fit in with what we have already read this semester. What themes are the same? How are they treated similarly or differently? What new insight do they offer into the questions we have been asking?

Poems:
1. Philip Levine: "The Simple Truth"
2. Lucille Clifton: "Why Some People Be Mad at Me Sometimes"
3. Emily Dickinson: "Tell All the Truth"
4. Robert Penn Warren: "A Way to Love God"
5. William Shakespeare: Sonnet 138
6. Edward Thomas: "Old Man"

Stories:
1. John Cheever: "The Swimmer"
2. Charlotte Perkins Gilman: "The Yellow Wallpaper"
3. John Updike: "A&P"

Films:
1. Memento
2. Fight Club
3. Big Fish
4. The Usual Suspects
5. The Neverending Story

Self-Forgiveness

Briony is able to atone for her actions, in her mind, by forgiving herself. She says she wanted to give Cecilia and Robbie the happy life they deserved. She convinces herself that by giving them a faux life by means of literature, she has redeemed herself. She was able to bear her mistake, and instead of sulking about it, she did the best thing of which she could think by giving them the happy life they deserved in her novel, albeit a fantasy. It was a grave mistake, and I think she would have found more efficacy by making amends with Cecilia, rather than keeping it all to herself and living in a land as real as Hoth or Tatooine.

Subtlety, Rather Than Blatancy

The ending of Atonement had a unique feel to it, almost as if I already knew the ending; or that I have already accepted it. I do not mean that I knew the exact ending or the events that would occur, but rather I knew the emotion or reaction I would give. Surely enough, I had the feeling of indifference or more appropriately, contentment. In the other books I always had this lingering longing for closure in the endings. The open-ended interpretations kept expanding the boundaries of truth. In, The Things They Carried, there was an obvious contrast between story-truth and happening-truth since O'Brien directly tells you what is fact and fiction. Through this, O'Brien made the reader wonder what is actually considered truth and what is not. In, Life of Pi, Pi describes two ideal stories of which both fully explain what had happened to Pi. The two contrasting stories gave the reader a sense of truth being used in a unique manner. By Pi using animals in his first story, he gave a deeper meaning it rather than giving dry, yeastless facts. In, Lying, Slater presents this idea of lying as being actual truth. Despite her lying about her epilepsy, or her lying about not having epilepsy, she ultimately wrote a memoir about her life by using epilepsy as the main focus. This basically forced the reader into thinking about lies being used as a way to convey truth. However, in, Atonement, the word truth is never really covered. Granted, though, that there is an interesting concept of truth in the book. The idea that what you fully believe may not be true, and the way it is done is elegantly subtle. There isn't this harsh contrast away from the actual story, so the author can explain or deduce what is happening or what they are trying to convey. This book had a more realistic feel to it, straying away from its philosophical brethren. The reason I think of realism is because this concept of truth directly related to a believable tragedy; because of that I believe that it is unique when put against the other books we have read.

Unable to Atone

By the end of the book, I feel that Briony has not completely atoned for her childhood 'crime'. Although I do believe that stories have to power to change things and make bad things right, I also believe that this only extends to a certain point.

I think that Briony's character expresses a great deal of guilt throughout the third part of the book, and I do believe that part of that is alleviated through the fictitious moments of happiness that she creates for her sister and Robbie. I also think that the character's very public admission of her 'crime' in the form of a novel helps to sponge away some of the guilt as well. However, I do not think that her guilt could ever be erased or that her 'crime' could ever be corrected or forgiven. It can be understood, because of her age at the time. Although I just do not believe that even her best efforts to punish herself or correct the past can make the pain that her sister and especially Robbie had to endure. Nothing short of going back in time and making it so that it never happened could fully make up for what she did, but it is endearing that she immortalized the ones she hurt most in her novel, giving them the happy ending that they so deserved, but were denied due to her actions of youthful ignorance.

The Ending of Atonement

I enjoyed the ending of Atonement. It was interesting. Briony, at the end, told the reader that the events that we read may or may not have happen. In this case, her narration is a lot like O'Brien's in that when he talks about killing the star-eyed soldier, the reader really doesn't ever know if he really killed the person or if, to him, it felt like he had. Also, in the book Lying, Lauren Slater definitely takes the reader for a ride when she says she has epilepsy, but then changes the truth, by saying she doesn't. In Life of Pi, Pi gives the interrogators two stories, allowing them to choose. Either story could be true; both stories could be false. Briony is like Pi. She describes in detail her sister and Robbie standing with her as she is about to depart for the train. However, she hints at the fact that Robbie died of septicemia and Cecilia died by a bomb. As a reader, I choose to belief the former. I feel that this book fit in really well with the other readings because it seemed to twist the truth in writing. As I was reading this, I was only thinking that this book relates to this class because of Briony's perception and memory, but because on the last page, she questions her story and thus the reader questions her story.

Atonement - Final Prompts

For tomorrow, please respond to one or more of the following questions:

1. To what extent is Briony able to atone for the mistake she made as a young girl?

2. How is the ending of this book similar to books we have already read, and how is is different?

3. If this book is, ultimately the power and capability of storytelling, what does this book have to say about stories? What can they do? What can they not do?

This is your last chance to blog about the book, so please take advantage of it.

The End

For me the ending had mixed emotions. I still don't know if I liked it or not. It really did not surprise me because we have seen this in other books with some twist. I think the reason I like the ending is because it is not the normal ending to a book and it does make you think about life in a different light. The reason I didn't like it is because I invested myself into the story and thought it was going to end somewhat happy, but it didn't. I would have rather not read it if it was going to end sad. I avoid sad movies because of this very reason. I know some people like these kind of things but for me, I like to think that all bad things can end for some kind of good and maybe this book can or does end that way. I still am not sure if Briony felt some sort of relief from guilt. I am not sure she does and so this book ends sad for me.

This book reminds me of a classic love story that I passionately hate, Romeo and Juliet. This does not mean that I hated the book altogether. There were parts of the writing I thought were good. Obviously not the over use of descriptive words. I still can't get over that it took a whole chapter and more for a little girl to run across a field to deliver a note. Back to what I was saying, I liked the part of the book when Briony talks about how she could write this love story she witnessed outside her window from three points of view in a book. This was when I realized that Briony is writing the story that I am now reading because it was exactly the way the book was written.

The End