In a very meta way, Atonement repeatedly emphasizes and raises questions about the importance and role of the writer in literature. By ultimately revealing that Briony is the one who wrote the story all along, readers doubt almost everything they have read before. The Briony/McEwan comparisons between Robbie and Briony simultaneously portray Briony as a manipulative character influenced by class differences and a character who was genuinely trying to atone. Although the role of the writer is constantly of underlying importance, the overriding issue concerns class differences. This overarching theme is largely visible through Robbie and Briony's parallel experiences and the symbols they share. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Robbie Turner is a character who is never granted freedom. He is still repressed in many ways: he has to serve a family during his youth, he is strangled by his love for Cecilia, he is imprisoned because of his love for Cecilia and released on the grounds that he is potentially - and later , literally – to give one's life for one's country. This damnation is entirely caused by the grave Briony digs for him. Eventually, during his tenure as a soldier, a piece of the war lodges within him in the form of shrapnel. Later, during Briony's section, she removes shrapnel from many soldiers, who are often in worse condition than Robbie's. This is symbolic of Briony trying to redeem herself, especially since she briefly mentions that she hoped Robbie would be one of the soldiers she would care for. Even though she indirectly put Robbie in the line of fire, by saving the men in front of her, she is still indirectly trying to save Robbie. She removes shrapnel from all the bodies that she wishes belonged to Robbie - knowing that they are pieces of war that she has essentially lodged in his body, thus trying to atone for her sins. While this might bring up the theme of the role of the writer, it ultimately speaks to the role of class differences in England, particularly between Briony and Robbie. Briony's eternal inability to see past class differences is something that makes her character irredeemable. In this case, her placing Robbie in the war zone while saving the men from the consequences of war is symbolic of the pervasive control the upper class has over the lives of the lower class. This is also embodied in the role of Paul Marshall, who uses Robbie as a pawn to escape his own consequences and guilt. Because Paul and Briony are members of the upper class, it is infinitely easier for them to be able to manipulate the role that people like Robbie will play. Robbie never had a say in whether or not he was sent to prison or to war (the lack of trial made that clear). Instead, it was Paul and Briony who decided his fate for him. The fact that it is Briony who saves people like him and Paul who feeds people like him reinforces the idea that the lives of soldiers and other lowly people are entirely managed by the elite. They have a choice: feed themselves, starve; Save, kill; Blame, listen. The value of a life is no longer an abstract, inspiring thing, but a unit assigned a dollar sign or a prison sentence. Even though she tried to save people like Robbie, it was people like Briony who put him there in the first place. Whether or not Briony learned anything important or developed substantially throughout the novel, taking care of theFrench has particularly changed it. vision of war. His death is also significant and seemingly symbolic for Robbie. At this point, Robbie was already dead. However, throughout the war - and probably from the moment Briony condemned him - Robbie was forever marked as a man incapable of being fully helped. Briony knew this even in the fabricated story she wrote "for him and Cee." Coming clean about his lies would not do justice to a man married to his victim. Robbie will never receive adequate reparations. Likewise, when she addresses the Frenchman, she is unable to help him and even “cannot help feeling offended” because it would be wasting her services elsewhere (287). While it would be easy for Briony to leave him, find other patients who could be saved, and single-handedly create a better world, a man who would soon die orders her to stay. Spending time with him did nothing to concretely create her legacy or perfect her idealizations of herself. It was – of course – a waste of time that could have been better spent saving the soldiers who had a chance, no matter how immoral it was. May she spend her last moments with him; however, it reflects the harsh realities of her life and her interactions with Robbie. For all intents and purposes, Robbie can't be helped. However, she is distressed thinking about him and what she did. She sits and listens to the Frenchman who may not deserve her time when he needed her the most. If she had sat down and listened to Robbie (who she felt wasn't worth her time) when he needed her the most, she might not have damned him. She creates a peaceful ending for the Frenchman's life, and although she tries to achieve this by writing their story, she has never been able to truly reverse time and do that with Robbie. The parallel experiences that Briony and Robbie have are meant to further mimic the major story. reason for class differences. The two characters are so universally different, and yet we see them both end their journeys in similar ways with similar symbols. Reiterating the importance and role of the author, pairing Briony and Robbie facing similar difficulties creates a level of understanding between the two of them. While we learn more about Cecilia, Robbie and Briony are the only two minds we can fully enter into. In this way, the two are a pair and this creates space to compare and contrast the two characters and their experiences. When they both suffer from thirst and blisters, we see Robbie grappling with the idea of ​​how much destruction and harm humans can inflict on each other. It deals with the harshness and casualness with which war is approached. Briony also gets a glimpse of this through her experiences as a nurse. Both realize that no one can be spared from war. They are also compared by their persistent pain. Robbie constantly, but silently, comments on the pain caused by his gunshot wound. Meanwhile, when the convoy of wounded soldiers arrives at Briony's hospital, she describes the pain of being transported on one of the stretchers. While both instances are significantly shorter in the time they occupy – both for the characters and the readers – this contrasts the two characters' endurance. While Briony almost immediately feels that “her left wrist could not hold on…her fingers were loosening…[and her] fingers went slack” (274-275). Although she describes herself as someone who went to great lengths to bring the soldier to safety, it is clear that "the moment the war touched her life, the first moment of.