Ian McEwan portrays a theme of architectural detail throughout his novel Atonement. Through the use of these descriptions, McEwan builds the theme of guilt and the quest to find atonement, which he follows through his main character, Briony Tallis. Briony, who is a writer, writes these architectural details in an attempt to purge herself of guilt and find atonement for the misunderstanding that ruins the lives of her sister, Cecilia Tallis, and Robbie Turner, Cecilia's lover and accused rapist . McEwan creates a novel of distorted reality as he weaves together the creative acts of literature and architecture. The mix of literary creative acts and architectural details serve as a guide for Briony as she begins to understand the crime she committed. Ultimately, Briony's novel distorts the reality of her life events in an attempt to gain the forgiveness she desires. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay McEwan makes Briony's attempt to find atonement evident in Part II through her references to the French countryside, where Robbie is taking refuge while fighting in the war. Upon arriving in the countryside, Robbie and Nettle, a companion, took refuge in 'a bombed-out house whose cellar was half-open to the sky and had the appearance of a gigantic cave. Grabbing him by the jacket, Nettle pulled him down from a pile of broken bricks. Carefully, she guided him across the cellar floor into the darkness' (McEwan 244). McEwan shows that these lines are a manuscript of Briony's attempted atonement. Through this description, McEwan was able to use allusion when he transformed Robbie into someone who resembles Jesus. When Briony sacrificed Robbie to the police due to her naivety and selfishness as a child, this led to her ultimate destruction in this basement. To further symbolize Robbie's innocence, Nettle places Robbie in her rock tomb in a coastal village in France, just as Joseph did with Jesus. This reflects Briony's realization that distorting the reality of Robbie's role brings no redemption to existence of his daily life. In the third part of the novel, McEwan demonstrates Briony's guilt towards Cecilia and shows her attempt at forgiveness with her sister through Briony's descriptions. uses in the details of his sister's waiting room. Since Briony never gets the chance to visit her sister, McEwan uses this opportunity to portray the scene from the perspective and imagination of a guilty conscience. When McEwan stated, "The walls were papered with a pattern of light vertical stripes, like the boys' pajamas, which added to the sense of confinement," this confinement symbolizes the confinement that Robbie is forced to face in prison, as well as the prison that Briony created for her sister and for herself. Because she has built a wall of lies that separates Cecilia from the man she loves, this causes Briony to separate from both Cecilia and Robbie. McEwan portrays guilt in this way to set up Briony's attempt to receive atonement by taking action. McEwan allows Briony to take action to gain redress, giving the imaginative writer she is a path to redemption. By offering her this path, Briony will be able to write her sister and Robbie the happy ending they deserved at the end of her novel. The thought of the two lovers reuniting reinforces the "happily ever after" and simplicity of a life that Briony could have offered her sister and Robbie if only she had told the truth, but is now only possible through her novel. Please note: This is just an example. Get one now, 2001.