"Atonement" questions in reading session chapters 11-12

1) How would the book be different if Briony were a boy (and later a man) rather than a girl(and later woman)?

The book would be totally different, because the main conflict, or better said what created the main conflict for Robbie was created because Briony saw the letter that he wrote to Briony sister, Cecilia, in that letter (by mistake) it was written the word “cunt”, that made an impact on Briony that cause that she found Robbie as a sex maniac, with that Robbie's destiny and the hole story development started. So if Briony were a boy “she” wouldn't care about that it would be like “cool” or something like that, or maybe “she” wouldn't care a about the letter and wouldn't see it, such as she did.

2) Is Atonment a war novel? Why or not?

Atonement is not a war novel, because the conflict is not about the war, just the context of the book is during the war, this can be easily seen on the consequences on the conflict, related with the meaning of the war for the conflict and novel.

The consequences of the conflict are the following, the novel it self is a representation of how just saying one wrong thing you can modify reality, and destroy and change the whole life of a person; in this case Cecilia, Briony and, most of all,Robbie; this last one is the one who suffer the most, he was send to war; so the war is depicting how mess up and the level of destruction in Robbie's life.

That's way Atonment is not a war novel, at all.

3) Ian McEwan has sometimes been nicknamed Ian Macabre - macabre, meaning horrifying, disturbing, or weird. McEwan dislikes the nickname – but are there parts of Atonement that are macabre? What are they, and do you think they're necessary to the novel?

I do think they are parts that are macabre in the novel Atonement, for example I can mention the part where Lola is assaulted (and later she marries the guy that did that to her), the tragic destiny of Robbie and Cecilia, their deaths and Brionys, apparently loneliness, future (how she is going to die).

I think they are necessary for the novel if we have in mind the main idea, and story, of the novel that, I think, is that there are things you can make and have terrible consequences; if we consider this novel, a sort of modern tragedy they absolutely necessary.

4) Attonement shows you the world from many different characters' point of view. How would the novel be different if it was all from Cecilia's perspective? Robbie's? Briony's? Lola's?

The novel would've absolutely different if it was only from one character, because the real and important point of the novel is how perspective change and how the consequences of our acts affect us, so if we would see it form Cecilia's perspective we wouldn't know what actually happen with Lola and we would never know this almost ironic/tragic destiny of Briony, and moreover why she said that Robbie assaulted Lola, when he didn't. For Robbie's point of view would be exactly the same, with the exception that Cecilia death and destiny would be unknown for us. For Briony's part we would actually see a distorted vision of reality, as it can be seen in different in different parts of the first part in the novel, she actually creates more than what she sees. And last if it's only Lola's side we would see how actually attacked her and we would never know why she actually lie and said that Robbie did the assault to Lola, and what at least for me would be a “good thing” we would only see the mind of a shocked girl and how, probably, modify her memories of what happen and created a sort of complex towards the aggressor (the reason of why she married him)[those things are just suppositions about what happen to Lola in relation of my psychological knowledges].

Atonment - Discussion Questions

3) Why does Briony denounce Robbie so forcefully and maintain that position with such determination?

Briony denounces Robbie so forcefully because she thought he was a thread for society, in a sexual way, because she read the letter that Robbie wrote to Cecilia, in wich the word "cunt" was written, that's way she thiugt he was a sexual maniac, and when she saw that someone attacked Lola (even though she saw who really attacked) she inmideatly thought, and made false memories, of what she saw.


8)Did the ending surprise you? In what ways?

It did surprise me because I never tjought that the novel we were reading was actually, almost, astory within a story, the story of Briony Tallis (the main character) that she herself wrote. Also I found this, almost, plot twist prettey interrsting, is the first time I've read a book were the story is about a story the main character wrote, I think it's a cool concept (and very difficult to predict).

Written task assesment sample

• Criterion A - Rationale (2/2)

The work word count is between the words limit. It, clearly, show that the work had a thought process;eg. It present an intended audience, source of publication. As well the overall purpose on the intended audience is presented. In relation of the formal aspect a justify paragraph is not presented, not deduction of points though.

• Criterion B - Task and content (5/8)

In relation of the text content itself there are clues of knowledge related with the part 1 of the course, and furthermore of other parts of the course there are mentions of language and mass media, in the Coca Cola and Pepsi campaigns examples. There is an attempt of reaching to one conclusion of how language works, it show some ideas related with the constant change in language. There is an opinion present in both indirect and direct way, this last one is a mistake, because on of the characteristics of the editorial, by excellence, is to not present and "I..." statement, because is the opinion of a newspaper, not of an individual. The last thing to reference is that the text makes reference to another texts and works, that, in it's principle, is not a bad thing,by the contrary is a good option to prove a point and persuade the reader, but the mistake in this case is that it mention another newspaper and news networks. It's very rare, for not saying impossible, that one of the networks mentions another for articles and news that they present to prove a point they are trying to make (it's a business after all).

• Criterion C – Organization (4/5)

In an overall the organization is pretty good, its coherent and make sense. It follows the editorial structure well (except of what is mention on Criterion B). The major mistake is in the starting ideas of paragraphs 5 and 6, they start with a question this brakes, a little bit, the sense of coherence; they are related with the topic, but are planted out of nowhere.

• Criterion D – Language and style (5/5)

It present an appropriate language to the nature of the selected text, as well it does not present a complex language; the most complex terms are explain, and it's in a formal way, this in coherence with the idea of an editorial, the opinion of the newspaper. As well there is presence of sophisticated language , such as “jargon” or “English-biased”, this goes in hand with the intended audience, a highly literate reader.

Rationale Written task

Rationale:

I wrote about why men and women talk and act in different ways, relating it with the role that stereotypes play on both of them. I chose this topic because it is related with one of the units in the course: Language and Gender, another reason for selecting this subject is that I'm motivated by everything that is related with gender and / or stereotypes

My target audience are teenagers, because they are the ones that are shaping there identity; they need to be in knowledge of the role that stereotypes play on them, also since they are the future of the world they need to know and be conscious about the effects of stereotypes in gender identity and language so, in the future, they can change that effect and the generations that are coming con grow “free”, with out the limitation of stereotypes in there lives.

Because the intended audience are teenagers I wrote this text as a blog, I think that, since they use lot social media is a good way to approach them. Also this type of text allow me to be more personal with them; like when I used “I'll tell you” or “we”, and I think that being more personal (saying “I'm also part of you”) helps the reception to the message, I believe emphasizing with the reader is very crucial and important.

For this work I used a neutral language (I didn't use “internet slang” or complex words) because the whole point of the text is to make the reader reflect and be conscious about how stereotypes affect him, and I believe that texts that are made to make you (as a reader) think need to be dense but simple; because if you don't understand what you are reading you can't think about it.

Educreations Atonement analysis recording

https://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/atonment/34662456/?ref=app

Narrative Techniques Practice

Narrative Techniques Practice

Practice 1:

The extract of “The Gods My Be Crazy” is written in a third-person point of view because we can appreciate how the narrator is not referring to an story that is happening to him neither the reader of the story is the narrator so that leave us with the idea that the narrator is an outsider of it, this can be seen when he says things like “Humans avoid” or “they lived” with this the narrator is leaving him as an outsider of the story,the things he is telling. With this type of point of view it generates in the reader a sensation of confidence, because the narrator tells what he is observing and it should not have any feeling or “incompleteness” of the situation, is (in a way) more objective. For the other part, the narration of this text is the indirect narration, because the narrator is not talking to us directly (direct narration) neither is telling the story in first person (frame narration) and it can be appreciate how a story is being tell (a characteristic of this type of narration). The effect that this technique makes in the reader is that, as well as the idea of objectiveness, what is being tell is a mere description of things, it has no space for subjective and not true ideas. In the other technique we have the type of speech in this case there are not dialogues of characters and there are not specific ones so that leave us with the free indirect speech, the narrator is just describing things. The effect that free indirect speech makes is a one of (again) objectiveness, he is not rewriting thoughts he is just “writing” (saying exactly what they thought) thoughts. Finally, the tense in which this text is written is present, he is telling exactly what is happening, “They live”, with this type of tense is (as all the others) generating the idea of objectiveness. In summary all the techniques presented in the text are pointed to make the felling that the tell is reliable.

Practice 3 With Angelo Menchise:

Today, as every other day in the city, there were scenes of crime around the city. There must be, there need to be a protector for the people, there has to be a guardian for the humans and there is not other being more qualified than us, the so called “humans best friends”, dogs - Doge said to his fellow dog comrades.

We must not trust their safety their own, they are the ones that damage themselves, they are the ones that can not help each other, they are the ones that are destroying their own raze. That’s why we, comrades, shall go tonight and save the world, save the humans from their own destruction. - As long as the speech went each dog claim Doge with barks.

After the speech, one of the bravest and most respect dogs, Rocco came on front of the leader and others, then he said - Dear friends, as you know I’m in charge of our operations tonight and I’ll assign the roles that each of you will do, but I would like to remind you why we decide to fight against crime and why Doge is our leader. I’m sure I talk for all of us when I say that we love our owners, they are our lives, they are our reason for living, they are our reason for fighting. I don’t have to remember you the pain Doge passed when his owner died because of one of the godawful humans, I don’t have to remember you how he, even with all the pain it conveys that, stood up and help all of us. He did not succumb in front of that and decide to fight against it. And so we wanted to, and so we want and so we will! He decided to be strong, to don´t give up, and to fight back!!.

All the dogs that were in the meeting in the cold street of Detroit were very excited and motivated to fight. Then Rocco and Doge started dividing the dogs on groups. The function of this groups where to patrol certain parts of the city, that they previously marked during the day.

Doge wanted to deal with one of the godawful humans alone, he desired to avenge his owner, he couldn’t protect her when she got attacked. That is the reason he was alone or so he thought. Secretly Rocco asked his best friend Buster to follow Doge, because (not only Rocco) all of the comrades were worried about him, they believed that he could do something stupid in order to fulfill his role as avenger of his owner.

Suddenly there was a scream of a woman, Doge went as fast as he could go into the direction of the scream. When he got to the place, he saw a woman crying on the floor and a man running with a handbag. This was a big shock for him. - What should I do? Help the woman or chase the bad guy? I don’t know. - he thought.  His instinct was telling him to go and chase the guy and he decided to ran into the man, but in the last second he saw his owner touching the woman arm, that broke his heart (a tear was spilled) and he started running into the woman while thinking - There was no point in avenge her, there was nothing to avenge because that would only create a vicious circle, chaos bring chaos, so killing the man will only make suffering to others and that will create the same thing over and over - When Doge started comforting the woman Buster ran past them and shouted- I’ll catch him. Thanks to Buster help and Doge decision the man was captured and Doge learnt a lesson for life, as well as obtaining a new owner.

In other sector of the city, one of the bigger groups composed by nine dogs was in charge of the crimes that involve big groups of humans, the ones that are dedicated to make big disasters. The nine dogs were: Two puppies, Tris and Bella, that were new in the group, where there in order to learn how the others acted in this kind of situation, and the other were adult dogs, Tobias, Emma, Oliver, Abby, Jake, Koneko and Cassie. Even though they were in charge of big groups they witnessed the robbery of a car, made by a single man. The puppies were away of the action so they couldn’t be damaged. The others ran into the theft and when he saw that he did something the dogs were not expecting, he went directly into the puppies direction. The group panic and started running with all their might. For their relief the theft notice the puppies and made an attempt to avoid them, making the car overturned. With this the thief was captured.

Another group, was composed by the strongest dogs of the herd, Rocco and Oscar. They were always anxious for dealing with big guys. While they were walking through the center of the city they saw one Mini Market, named “Rule 34”, that had a lot of commotion, so they went to appreciate what was happening, it was an assault. They entered through the back door and jumped into the paying desk to surprise the two thieves. They were strong enough and aggressive to drive them away the store...

Suddenly you feel a ticklish sensation on your hand and wake up. You see to your left your fellow dog Doge... Wait a second? - You think of what you dream. What was it? It was too real to be true, it didn't appear to be a dream. The words “not a dream” flow through your head. Was it a dream? Was it real? You'll never know.

Poem Analysis

I'm going to analyse the poem “Come down, O maid” made by Lord Alfred Tennyson, he was British  and Poet Laureate. He wrote during Queen Victoria's reign. Lord Tennyson was called the poet of the ear, because the sounds are very important in his poems. The main themes of his works are in the lines of war and love.

This poem, “Come down, O maid”, it's about two persons, a woman (that's called maid)  and a shepherd. The speaker appear as a “third character”, he is observing how the shepherd is calling the maid to come down the mountain, where she is, after that the speaker start telling her to go down and find love with the shepherd.

In terms of structure the poem has one stanza that can be divided in three parts, the first one when the shepherd sang to the maid (first two verses), the second when the speaker is telling the maid to come down to find the shepherd (verse 3 to 27) and the last one when the identity of the speaker is revealed, this one being a shepherd pipe (from verse 27 to the end of the poem).

Other important characteristic of the structure is that it presents ten syllables in each verse, but it has no rhyme pattern. This is very significant, because this depicts the situation that the speaker is showing. For one part the maid is the lack of the rhyming patter, she is with out love in a risky place, the mountain,(as I'm going to explain it more in detail later), she's not in a calm, she is in a “chaos” and not in peaceful state. While the shepherd is in a valley, in a calm place, so he is in a “constant” and “structure” place, representing the ten syllables per verse.

The structure of the poem presents and represent the tone and theme of the poem. For one part, the tone is a romantic one, the speaker is calling the maid in order to make her go to the valley and find peace and love with the shepherd (the peace/”chaos”). For the other part, the theme is “The calling to the maid to find love”, this is completely related with the way the tone of the speaker and the way he conveys the idea of peace and “chaos”, because they are displayed trough nature and the way each place is shown  adds to this over all idea of calling the maid to find love in this peaceful place.

As I said, nature is present throughout all the poem, is a very important element of it and is essential to understand how the theme is presented, as well there are some poetic devices that need to be taken account, as I'm going to explain ahead.

As a starting place, the two first verses of this poem are said by the shepherd. It starts with the word “COME” in capital letters, this is a way of emphasizing the calling that the shepherd (and later in the poem, the speaker) are doing to the maid in order to make her go down the place where she is, a mountain. As well, the shepherd questions the maid about what are the pleasures of the heights, in the third verse speaker does the same thing questioning about “splendour of the hills” and he says “in height and cold”, in this part is where nature starts to appear and have importance, because they start questioning the place where she is and saying that it's not a peaceful warm place it's on it contrast a cold place. The construction of the safe versus risky and having love versus not having love ideas starts in this part of the poem.

Then in verse 6 says the following “to sit a star upon the sparkling spire”, in this verse are present the following devices onomatopoeia, euphony and alliteration, in other words the use of sounds is used (one of the most remarkable characteristics of Lord Tennyson). In this verse the use of the vocal “s” is repeated (alliteration) in order to get a smooth and pleasant sound (euphony), as well the repetition of the “s” sound resembles of the sound that sparkling does(in sparkling wine, for example. This being onomatopoeia).

In the next two verses (7 and 8) the phrase “come, for Love is of the valley” is repeated twice, this part portrays the idea that the valley has Love, it belongs to him (giving to it the characteristics of possession, in other words personification). Also in this case Love has the “L” in capital letter, so “he” is treated like a person, but not any person Love is the shepherd. In this part is where is very powerful the calling that the speaker those to the maid to find love, he is calling her to come for Love, for him. This is reinforced in the end of the eight and all verse nine, where it says “come thou down. And find him; by the happy threshold,he,” in this verse the speaker is calling her to come down and find Love (the shepherd) and adding the previous idea if she does not come down to the valley she will not find love, because it belongs to the valley.

Later, on the final part of the verse 12 and verses 13 to 15, there are two important ideas. The first one is that he doesn't “cares to walk. With Death and Morning on the silver horns,” the meaning of this is that since the shepherd is in a safe place like the valley, he has not problem of walking with Death because he is not in a dangerous place, on the contrary the mountain where the maid is the opposite of the valley, this is also saying that Love is safe, since “love is of the valley” and the shepherd is love. The second idea is in relationship with the fist one, in verses 14 and 15 the following appears “Nor wilt thou snare him in the white ravine, Nor find him dropt upon the firths of ice,”, with this it's said that every dangerous thing that can break the peace or love of the shepherd is not going to affect him, so in the overall the peace is going to continue.

The verses 17 to 19 are very important, because the speaker tell her a way to go down the mountain by saying that she has to follow a torrent. There are two important figures that are essential to understanding the meaning of the poem. The first one is the following “To roll the torrent out of dusky doors:”, the speaker is telling the maid that she has to go out of dusky doors, this is de vivid representation of the mountain being a risky and not safe place, because “dusk” presents the idea of the “colour black” and the connotation that this colour has is a bad one, it represents the bad things and situations. For the other part the second important part is the use of onomatopoeia in “But follow; let the torrent dance thee down.”, the alliteration of the letter “t” and “d” simulates the sound that the torrent does, with this creating the idea of the water flowing, it's not still it's moving.

The next part I want to remark are the verses 27 and 28 when the speaker revels himself (“and I thy shepherd pipe”), this is a big revelation for various things. The first one, the hole poem is told by the personification of the shepherd pipe. For the second part, this tell us that the poem is tell in first person, so the poem is told from the subjectiveness and perspective of one character (he is not saying only what is happening, he is mixing what he thinks and see). That lead to the next idea, the speaker is the shepherd pipe, in other words he is going to tell the things in order to convince the maid and make her go to the valley. And finally, he is “thy shepherd pipe”, in other words he is the shepherd pipe of the maid. That is not a literal thing since the speaker said “come”, but what this mean is that since he is the shepherd pipe and the shepherd wants to be with the maid, he also belongs to her so if she wants to hear him she has to come down.

The last thing I want to explain are verses 28 and 29 an onomatopoeia and euphony are presented with the letter “s” (“...sweet is every sound,. Sweeter thy voice, but every sound is sweet;”), with this the sound of the pipe is made in order to make a relax and calm felling, this making allusion of the safety that the shepherd and the valley has.


In conclusion, this poem made by Lord Alfred Tennyson is presenting the idea of love being a peaceful thing, this being represented by the shepherd and the valley, while  being with out love is depict by the place where the maid is, the mountain. Also, in this poem, Lord Tennyson  shows one of the most characteristic features of his poetry, the use of sound, in this case for the representation of the peacefulness that the valley and the shepherd represent.