Pages 214-226: Key Themes
English Lit: AQA A Level Atonement - Specification B, topic 3.3.2
Key Themes in Pages 214-226
Robbie's wound, exhaustion and the horrors of war dominate this section.
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.
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”.
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”.
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.
Test yourself on Pages 214-226: Key Themes
How is Robbie's wound making him feel by pages 214-226?
Why is Robbie on the verge of punching a driver in this section (p214-226)?
What moments of humanity happen after the German plane attack in p214-226?