Blog #3

"If the answer was yes, then the world, the social world, was unbearably 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. One could drown in irrelevance" (McEwan 34).

These lines are powerful and contemplative, and calls the reader's attention to the idea of existence.  The main idea of these sentence is to question the concept of individuality and uniqueness.  With so many people in the world and everyone's belief that they are important, singularity is lost.  The description of "drowning in irrelevance" adds imagery to writing and adds a layer of intensity to Briony's introspection.  It also gives insight into her thoughts and emotions.  She is having a kind of internal monologue: asking herself questions that she doesn't know the answer to, which is a relatable thing that many people do.  I found this line a bit ironic, since Briony is so young to be having a kind of existential crisis and thinking about the concept of humanity's existence and social relationships.  It's not often that people think of the scale of humanity and the social interaction that occurs on a global scale between this many people, yet Briony is doing this at a fairly young age.  It shows the depth of her intellectuality and curiosity, and it will be interesting to see if this personality trait will prove to be beneficial or damaging to her or others throughout the story.