How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph) or (Part.Paragraph)
Quote #1
The play—for which Briony had designed the posters, programs and tickets, constructed the sales booth out of a folding screen tipped on its side, and lined the collection box in red crepe paper—was written by her in a two-day tempest of composition, causing her to miss breakfast and lunch. (1.1.1)
The very first sentence of the novel is about Briony writing her play—which is itself a symbol of the novel (it says so in the "Symbols" section, so it must be true). So the first thing we do is to write about writing a novel about writing. It's a wonder Ian McEwan didn't get so dizzy that he had to stop right there.
Quote #2
At the age of eleven she wrote her first story—a foolish affair, imitative of half a dozen folktales and lacking, she realized later, that vital knowingness about the ways of the world which compels a reader's respect. But this first clumsy attempt showed her that the imagination itself was a source of secrets: once she had begun a story, no one could be told. Pretending in words was too tentative, too vulnerable, too embarrassing to let anyone know. (1.1.7)
Briony thinks writing is a kind of secret, in part because it comes from inside you—you're making a private world public. Are there secrets in the novel Briony writes? Well, yeah (though she tells you most of them if you read closely).
Quote #3
The play she had written for Leon's homecoming was her first excursion into drama, and she had found the transition quite effortless. […] A universe reduced to what was said in it was tidiness indeed, almost to the point of nullity, and to compensate, every utterance was delivered at the extremity of some feeling or other, in the service of which the exclamation mark was indispensable. The Trials of Arabella may have been a melodrama, but its author had yet to hear the term. The piece was intended to inspire not laughter, but terror, relief and instruction, in that order, and the innocent intensity with which Briony set about the project—the posters, tickets, sales booth—made her particularly vulnerable to failure. (1.1.10)
Is Atonement meant to inspire terror, relief, and instruction? Not exactly… but it does have some elements of melodrama. There's a big old tragedy at the center of it—and a certain amount of horrifying gruesome bits. Note also how dreams lead to failure. See the "Dreams" theme for more on that.