Atonement

Atonement is the satisfaction or reparation for a wrong or injury. In my opinion, everyone in this story is guilty of something in one way or another. The degree of their crimes and the amount of guilt vary, but atonement is something that lingers within everyone involved. After that one crazy evening at the Tallis mansion, their lives will never be the same again. After finishing the story and analyzing the characters I have come to the conclusion that no one really achieves atonement. Briony is the main character searching for atonement because of the crime she committed. She expresses the fact that she wants to be atoned by writing a book about Robbie and Cecilia, with an alternate ending. This ending gives Briony the chance to be forgiven by her sister and Robbie, while they get to live happily ever after in love. It also proves that it was not Robbie who raped Lola. By changing these two scenarios in her book she is in someway admitting that she was wrong for what she did, and only feels comfortable admitting it in this form of writing. There were many inferences in the book that prove Briony realizes that she is wrong, and might not know the whole truth about what happened that night. This does not matter though because she tries to put these thoughts out of her head and piece everything together. She is still a child but tries to act as if she is an adult by being a detective with the whole situation going on at the house. I do not think that Cecilia and Robbie have anything to be atoned for in this story. I do think that Cecilia feels she could have done more by helping save Robbie, and proving that her sister fabricated everything. I do feel a little sorry for Briony. I feel as if her age had a great deal to do with the way she acted. She did not know what sex was at the time, so when she walked in on her sister and Robbie it looked as if he was trying to hurt her. Having this image in her head led her to believe that he was also the person to rape Lola. I am not saying what she did was justifiable, but her age did play a big factor on her actions. Being that Briony was the main character of the story, and the things she experienced were the basis of the book, I believe that atonement was a perfect title.

A Streetcar Named Desire

A Streetcar Named Desire was absolutely my favorite piece of literature we have read thus far. There were definitely some characters that I liked more than others, but overall I liked each character in a different way. I thought all of the different backgrounds and personalities of these characters really added something special to the story. Blanche Dubois happened to be my personal favorite. I have wrote two of my blogs about her already, so I will focus on another aspect of the story for this blog. Stella, Blanche's sister who is married to the "crazy" Stanley, was also one of the most intriguing characters to me. Stella possesses the same aristocratic background as Blanche, but she did not follow in the same footsteps as her sister. She was not worried about marrying into money, or keeping up her high class image. She fell in love with a middle class polish man, and was extremely happy and content with her life. Although there were a few instances in the book that made me question their relationship, I think the fact that she is not bothered by his class in a time period like this is absolutely remarkable. After Blanche comes to their home in Mississippi, Stella is completely torn between her sister and her husband, and somewhat put in the middle between the two. In the end, she stands by her husband Stanley, possibly because they were soon going to be having a child together. At the end of the story, after Stanley rapes Blanche, Stella seems to be in some sort of denial. She cannot bring herself to believe her sister, and allows her to be dismissed to a mental institution. I thought that Stella's character faced alot of difficult decisions throughout the story. It was very interesting for me to read the outcome of all the situations she got herself into to. The problems between her husband and sister, the drunk fight with her husband, the baby, and the rape are alot for a woman to deal with. I did not particularly agree with all the decisions she made, but I think she is a very strong woman for being able to come out of all this okay.

It was All My Fault

It was a cold winter night. I was finishing up my hot chocolate, and getting ready to go to bed. This was the only time I did not have to replay the images of what I had done in my head. If only I had been more careful when I was driving. If only I had not been rushing to get to our friends house. If only I had left a few minutes sooner this never would have happened, He would still be here. Nothing will numb this pain, I dont even know myself anymore. Everyone tries to convince me that I should not continue to put the blame on myself, but I cannot accept that. Loud crashing noises, flashes of light, images popping out of nowhere consume my thoughts. The drugs help me to forget these things, but nothing will numb the pain and guilt that I feel inside. It is all my fault!