Blog Post #3 - Atonement

“This was a command on which he tried to confer urgent masculine authority. The effect on Cecilia was to cause her to tighten her grip. She had no time, and certainly no inclination, to explain that plunging vase and flowers into the water would help with the natural look she wanted in the arrangement. She tightened her hold and twisted her body away from him. He was not so easily shaken off. With a sound like a dry twig snapping, a section of the lip of the vase came away in his hand, and split into two triangular pieces which dropped into the water and tumbled to the bottom in a synchronous, seesawing motion, and lay there, several inches apart, writhing in the broken light” (McEwan, 76).

This paragraph details the scene in which Robbie breaks Cecilia's vase, a war trophy given to her uncle, which he has passed down. Having seen the movie before ever reading the book, I came into this reading experience with prior knowledge of the plot and therefore understand the significance of this scene, and it only stood out more to me this time around. The fact that her uncle's vase, which had been given to him as a trophy at the conclusion of the last great war, was broken may well be symbolic of the fact that the book is going to transition into the second world war, as the fact that Robbie breaks it is likely not unrelated to the fact that he enlists in the war later on. Furthermore, it is clearly a scene meant to attract the reader's attention, first of all, this altercation which ultimately ends in the vase being broken is a sudden break in the ideal, flirtatious interaction going on between Cecilia and Robbie, before this point they had been having a wonderful conversation and were truly enjoying each other's company, the sudden change is guaranteed to catch the reader's attention. Alongside this, the scene involves Cecilia stripping down to her underwear, which is even more out of the ordinary considering the time period and her social status, however she does, in an impulsive rage to retrieve the pieces of the shattered vase, this again catches the reader's attention much more than the rest of the chapter. Overall, this paragraph just encapsulates an already noteworthy passage in the novel, which happens to also have a significant foreshadowing effect on the rest of the book.