3.3.2

Pages 214-226: Key Themes

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Key Themes in Pages 214-226

Robbie's wound, exhaustion and the horrors of war dominate this section.

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Reminders of Robbie's wound

  • Ominously, the narrative keeps reminding us of Robbie’s wound which is beginning to make him “irritable”.
  • At one stage, Robbie is on the verge of punching a driver who has sounded his horn at him.
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Robbie's exhaustion

  • The narrative also helps to convey Robbie’s exhaustion.
  • Robbie finds it is possible “to fall asleep walking” and then the narrative breaks down into individual steps: “He walked / across / the land / until / he came / to the sea” (p.219).
  • The section ends with a description of the men’s “silent heads-down trudging”.
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The horrors of war

  • This theme is explored through McEwan’s use of setting. Robbie and the men pass a “field” full of “craters” in which “fragments of flesh, bone and brindled skin had been blasted across a hundred-yard stretch” (p214).
  • Their destination, Dunkirk, is seen for the first time in an almost nightmarish vision as a “black cloud of burning oil that stood above the horizon”.
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Examples of war victims

  • We also see examples of the victims of war from fleeing families to the horses shot because they could not be transported across the English Channel.
  • After the attack, there are some moments of humanity. Robbie tends to the wounded while Mace and Nettle bury the young boy.

Jump to other topics

1Introduction to Atonement

2Chapter Summaries & Analysis: Part One

3Chapter Summaries & Analysis: Part Two

4Chapter Summaries & Analysis: Part Three

5Chapter Summaries & Analysis: Part Four

5.1Epilogue: London, 1999 - Pages 353-371

6Key Character Profiles

7Key Themes

8Writing Techniques

9Context

10Critical Debates

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