Ian Mcewan's Atonement Essay

988 Words2 Pages

“I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany but with pain gathering its things, packing up and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night” A quote literally simple enough and metaphorically capable enough to describe what should be concluded by the end of this thesis. Redemption can be achieved but only, when the need of forgiveness arises.
Repentance is radically more than regret. Regret is a state in which one realizes his or her wrong doings but rather than doing something about it they drown themselves into negative contemplation. To repent is to take a vow to never repeat the action again. Repentance is regret handled in a positive manner. When one experiences repentance they introspect over their negative actions and find an ideal way in which the situation could have been dealt with. They start inculcating these learning in their life. “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death”. The difference between the two types of sorrow is that godly sorrow prioritizes guilt over the sin of offending and hurting god. Worldly sorrow, on the other hand, focuses on how one would be perceived by society and thought of differently. It is the feeling of guilt existing not because of wrong …show more content…

When she realizes what she has done it is too late for her to try and make amends with Cecelia and her lover. She makes these amends through the course of this book, where she reunites Cecelia and her lover, explaining her act of redemption as giving them their time together in her book which they so much longed for in reality. Briony never knew if she was truly forgiven for her sins, just like Amir didn’t but , they had felt as if they had redeemed themselves through their

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