9.1.1

The Summer of 1935

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The Summer of 1935: The War Ministry & Marshall's Business

Part One is set in the summer of 1935, just four years before the outbreak of the Second World War.

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Jack Tallis & the War Ministry

  • While the prospect of war is not uppermost in characters’ minds, we learn that Jack Tallis is busy at the War Ministry making preparations for a possible future conflict: “exchange controls, rationing, the mass evacuation of large towns, the conscription of labour…” (p149).
  • The Ministry anticipates a bombing campaign resulting in “five million casualties”, foreshadowing Cecilia’s death five years later at the tube station in Balham.
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Rise of Hitler and Mussolini

  • The rise to power of the fascist dictators Adolf Hitler (who became Chancellor of Germany in 1933) and Benito Mussolini, the ‘Duce’ (leader) of Italy led to rising tensions across Europe.
  • Hitler’s policy of German rearmament led to the growing militarisation of major European powers whose societies were still recovering from the trauma of the First World War between 1914 and 1918.
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Paul Marshall's exploitation

  • Paul Marshall aims to exploit this momentum towards military escalation by marketing his new Army Amo bar on the premise that “if Mr Hitler did not pipe down, there was even a chance that the bar could become part of the standard-issue ration-pack” (p50).
  • Marshall tells the Tallises that he has even been accused of being a “warmonger”, such is his excitement at the thought of having to build five new factories to meet demand if war becomes a reality and general conscription is implemented.

The Summer of 1935: Jarrow March & Country Estates

Britain was still suffering from the traumatic effects of the Great Depression in 1935, with its working-class population continuing to experience high levels of poverty and unemployment.

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The Jarrow March

  • In the following year, 200 men would march from Jarrow in the north-east of England to London, a distance of 300 miles, to deliver a petition demanding urgent government action to bring jobs to their community.
  • The Jarrow March would come to symbolise the era - although there is little sign of the poverty and desperation experienced by the marchers in the Surrey country house setting of Part One of Atonement.
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Decline in English fortunes

  • Part One of the novel is set in a privileged world of wealth and status which was about to disappear.
  • There had been a steady decline in the fortunes of the English country estate since the end of the nineteenth century.
  • This became more severe with the onset of World War 1 (1914-18) when members of the huge staff required to run a country house left to fight or find higher wages in towns and cities.
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Impact of WW2 on country estates

  • The final blow for the English country estate was the outbreak of the Second World War (1939-45).
  • Many country houses were requisitioned by the government during the war and were often returned to their owners in poor condition. With the addition of higher taxes and lower incomes from agriculture, country estates became unaffordable for all but the very richest in society: an upper-middle-class family such as the Tallises could not hope to afford the maintenance costs of such a grand house.

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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