Pages 214-226: Key Events
English Lit: AQA A Level Atonement - Specification B, topic 3.3.1
Key Events in Pages 214- 226: The Attack
Robbie leads Mace and Nettle northwards and they join a road filled with army vehicles heading to Dunkirk. They survive an attack by a German plane.
Robbie reflects on suffering
- Robbie reflects on the suffering he sees as they make their way northwards.
- He relates his own personal experience to the experiences of those he sees around him.
Quotation: "dead civilisation"
- A dead civilisation. First his own life ruined, then everybody else’s.” (p217).
- Robbie’s thoughts move from the personal to the universal.
- Just as he has suffered for a crime he did not commit, he sees the whole world as suffering from another crime – war – a crime against humanity.
- The thought that “civilisation” is dead suggests that humanity has regressed to a primitive state.
Test yourself on Pages 214-226: Key Events
What kind of attack do Robbie, Mace and Nettle survive in pages 214-226?