Atonement Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory

Atonement is self-referential… which is a fancy way of saying that it's a book that likes to talk about itself. You can tell this because the biggest, most honking, I-am-a-symbol symbol in the bo...

So if you check out our discussion of The Trials of Arabella, you'll see we mentioned self-referentiality. In case you haven't checked that part out yet, though, self-referentiality is when a book...

If you see a vase in a book, you can bet it's going to break. And sure enough that's the case here, too.But the vase that Cecilia and Robbie break at the fountain isn't just any broken vase. It's a...

This isn't so much a symbol as a sticky, brown mess stuck onto Paul Marshall. Because Paul Marshall is the kind of guy who should be festooned with sticky brown messes.Paul makes his fortune from c...

While they're waiting to be taken back to England from France along with much of the rest of the British army, Robbie and Nettle run into a gypsy woman who offers them food if they'll capture her e...




































Luc is a French soldier with a massive head wound who dies in Briony's arms.He's not just any soldier with a massive head wound, though. He's also, possibly, a s...