Compare How Atonement and Spies Explore the Journey from Innocence to Experience.
Compare how Atonement and Spies explore the journey from innocence to experience.
Both Atonement and Spies are bildungsroman where the protagonists are reminiscing about events in their childhoods which impose on them in their adult lives. In Atonement, Briony is narrating throughout the text; however the reader only finds this out at the end and in Spies Stephen is narrating with his older and younger self through duel narration with slippage between the two. Both text were published within a year of each other, Atonement in 2001 and Spies in 2002; however they both focus on the same time in history, during (and after) the Second World War. Spies focuses on one point in time around 1940; whereas Atonement ranges before, throughout and after the war with the view points from different characters throughout unlike Spies where the reader sees only from young or old Stephen.
Both protagonists are naïve and easily influenced in the beginning of the novels and their misinterpretations draw the narrative to a conclusive disaster. In Spies, Stephen misinterprets the Mrs Hayward’s diary’s x’s and exclamation marks for some form of German “code” and believes that she is a spy- “she actually is a German spy”- Similarly in Atonement, where Briony misinterprets what she witnessed in the library which leads her to the conclusion that Robbie raped Lola, which she sticks to with conviction “it was Robbie”. The misinterpretations made by the protagonists reflect the lack of knowledge about the adult world and emphasise their innocence in the beginning of the novels. In Atonement the peak of Briony’s innocence is at the beginning with the “Trials of Arabella” and sulking when she gives up the main part of “Arabella” by killing nettles which foreshadows the impending doom of her actions. I believe at this point Briony triggers a transition to adult knowledge with the letter and therefor conclusively decides the narrative with her intrusion of Robbie and Cecilia’s privacy; however
Both Atonement and Spies are bildungsroman where the protagonists are reminiscing about events in their childhoods which impose on them in their adult lives. In Atonement, Briony is narrating throughout the text; however the reader only finds this out at the end and in Spies Stephen is narrating with his older and younger self through duel narration with slippage between the two. Both text were published within a year of each other, Atonement in 2001 and Spies in 2002; however they both focus on the same time in history, during (and after) the Second World War. Spies focuses on one point in time around 1940; whereas Atonement ranges before, throughout and after the war with the view points from different characters throughout unlike Spies where the reader sees only from young or old Stephen.
Both protagonists are naïve and easily influenced in the beginning of the novels and their misinterpretations draw the narrative to a conclusive disaster. In Spies, Stephen misinterprets the Mrs Hayward’s diary’s x’s and exclamation marks for some form of German “code” and believes that she is a spy- “she actually is a German spy”- Similarly in Atonement, where Briony misinterprets what she witnessed in the library which leads her to the conclusion that Robbie raped Lola, which she sticks to with conviction “it was Robbie”. The misinterpretations made by the protagonists reflect the lack of knowledge about the adult world and emphasise their innocence in the beginning of the novels. In Atonement the peak of Briony’s innocence is at the beginning with the “Trials of Arabella” and sulking when she gives up the main part of “Arabella” by killing nettles which foreshadows the impending doom of her actions. I believe at this point Briony triggers a transition to adult knowledge with the letter and therefor conclusively decides the narrative with her intrusion of Robbie and Cecilia’s privacy; however