"Was everyone else really alive as she was? For example, did her sister really matter to herself, was she as valuable to her herself as Briony was? Was being Cecilia just as vivid an affair as being Briony?" "If the answer was yes, then the world, the social world, was unbearable complicated with two billion voices, and everyone's thoughts striving in equal importance and everyone's claim on life as intense, and everyone thinking they were unique, when no one was" (McEwan, 34).
This stood out to me because Lola brought out an existential crisis in Briony when Lola gave off the impression of maturity even though she was only a few years off from Briony's age. Briony becomes hyper aware of everyone being just as alive as she is and how full the world is with so many different lives. This leads her to discovering the importance of writing and telling stories. Also, I think it is important to note the shift in Briony after this point. Before she was fixated on putting on a play but when she makes this discovery she becomes too self aware and ditches the play altogether. After this moment she concludes that her childhood is over and even Emily notices it with great sadness that she will no longer have to care for a child (McEwan, 142).
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