Chapter 5: Key Themes
English Lit: AQA A Level Atonement - Specification B, topic 2.5.2
Key Themes in Chapter 5
Chapter 5 is told from various perspectives.
Lola and Marshall's perspectives
- At times, Lola is the focalizer. Her thoughts and feelings helping to portray an insecure adolescent.
- But we also see from the viewpoints of the cousins and Paul Marshall. The account of Marshall’s dream involving his younger sisters is particularly unsettling and even the twins sense something ‘off’ about Marshall.
Quincey parent divorce
- The Quincey parents are undergoing a divorce. Their status in society makes this a public scandal which is written about in the newspapers.
- Divorce was very uncommon in 1935 and reserved for those rich enough to afford the legal costs, contributing to the sense of scandal. It is clearly a taboo subject among the children who fear it as a stigma, seen in Lola’s furious reaction to the very mention of the word.
Role of parents in Atonement
- When Lola advances on him, Jackson threatens to “tell the Parents”. However, the use of a capital letter perhaps suggests that the parents are more of a symbolic threat than an actual one. They are rarely present to actually tell.
- The possible sexual innuendo made by Marshall to Lola and the suspicion that Marshall is manipulating or grooming Lola makes the absence of an adult authority figure even more damning.
Test yourself on Chapter 5: Key Themes
Whose viewpoint do we NOT see events from in Chapter 5?
What evidence is that that divorce is seen as a taboo subject in Chapter 5?