Can anyone who has read Atonement by Ian McEwan offer some insight?

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  1. Megan Faust profile image68
    Megan Faustposted 10 years ago

    Can anyone who has read Atonement by Ian McEwan offer some insight?

    I'm to the part where the crime is committed and Briony makes her false accusation, and I'm having a hard time stomaching it.  It seems unfair that this novel has garnered such immense popularity and won many awards when we live in a time where rape often goes unreported for fear that the victim will not be believed.  It seems that those accused of such crimes often gain the public's sympathy while the victims are questioned relentlessly and still often doubted. Of course all stories have an equal right to be told, but this feels... irresponsible.  Is this issue reconciled later in the book?

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  2. jjackson786 profile image73
    jjackson786posted 10 years ago

    Are we speaking about what happens to Briony after she makes the accusation or what happens to Robbie as a result of it?

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    1. Megan Faust profile image68
      Megan Faustposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I'm more concerned with the issue of the false rape accusation. My take is that victims of rape have a hard time being believed in the first place. This book only furthers the issue, or so it seems thus far.

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    2. jjackson786 profile image73
      jjackson786posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Gotcha. As far as the false accusation and without trying to give too much away, Briony learns her lesson. It isn't in the way that we might expect, but due to certain circumstances she spends the rest of her life knowing that what she did was wrong.

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