In Atonement, Ian McEwan suggests the dangers of confusing our fantasies with reality; that we have become so accustomed to choosing to see what we wish to see rather than reality and this leads to the destruction of our lives. Our refusal to accept or want to see reality creates a cycle in which we alienate ourselves from others, just as Briony, Robbie, and Cecelia did. Briony lives in her stories, Cecelia lives in her mind, and Robbie lives in her memories. In the end they find themselves alone and wish for a happy ending that is never given to them. As human beings we have a fundamental need for an answer. Even when we have limited information and perspective, we use our imagination to fill in the blanks and get an answer. Through Gothic allusions and exchanged points of view, McEwan highlights the harmful effects of getting lost in what we desire or hope to see while searching for an answer and ignoring reality. Imagination is wonderful to a certain extent: we must be able to recognize and accept reality, otherwise we will be disappointed by situations with permanent consequences. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay To begin, McEwan creates gothic allusions, particularly with Briony, in which he reiterates the dangers of denying reality and always expecting a life containing “hidden drawers, lockable diaries and cryptographic systems” or, in this case , a constantly exciting and adventurous lifestyle. Ewan illustrates these dangers through Briony. Briony is apparently very mature and intelligent for her age, with a very wild imagination she pushes these qualities too far. As scholar Brian Finney states, "when she acts out her confusion between life and the life of fiction, the consequences are tragic and irreversible" (Finney, 69). too far beyond his imagination and the reader is shown why this is catastrophic when he accuses Robbie of raping his cousin due to his overactive imagination. This calamitous event illustrates why one cannot depend too much on what one thinks or wants to be real and deny actual reality. As humans it is our innate nature to want answers to everything, so naturally when Briony sees her sister in a strange situation by the fountain, she searches for an answer. Even though Briony states: "This was not a fairy tale, this was the real world, the adult world..." we readers can identify the irony in this statement because Briony allows her imagination to take over her logic ( 37). It is precisely in this scene that McEwan shows readers how easy it is to get caught up in the thrill of a possible adventure or story. Life is not like a story in which a “woodcutter saved a princess from drowning and ended up marrying her” (36). If we constantly allow our imagination and desire for excitement to take over as we search for an answer, we will eventually be disappointed because life doesn't always offer excitement and adventure. Along with Briony, Robbie is a great example of the disappointment that can be felt. if he or she gets too immersed in what they want to happen and ignores other possibilities. When Robbie is sent to war due to Briony's accusations, he spends the entire duration of his journey dreaming of seeing Cecelia again. He travels a long distance to reach the port of Dunkirk, convinced that once he reaches the beach his nightmares will end. This explicitly alludes to gothic themes where there is always a happy ending.Robbie had “presumed that the bloody military spirit… would prevail. Without knowing it, that was the beach he had been walking towards for days” (233). This implies that we expect a happy ending; that as human beings we feel that we deserve to be rewarded with a happy ending for getting through a difficult time. McEwan is not suggesting that we should always expect the worst or look at life through a very negative lens. Instead, he urges the reader to be careful not to rely too much on what we wish and hope for, otherwise we may end up very disappointed like Robbie in the end. Robbie relies on his desires and is ultimately extremely disappointed: “He thought he had no expectations, until he saw the beach” (233). Through these gothic “happy ending” themes shown in both Briony and Robbie, McEwan shows us why we must be careful not to confuse life and fiction based on our desires and need for an answer. The faltering narrators of Atonement give the reader insight into how most of the characters live but do not provide details about all events, which leads the reader to infer certain situations. As scholar Kathleen D'Angelo states, “readers are faced with a multiplicity of interpretations” (D'Angelo, 92). By creating a shifting narrative, McEwan shows his readers how easy it is to infer something when you have limited information. This makes us rely on our imaginations, the very thing that got Briony into trouble. To show the similarities between Briony and the readers, McEwan first uses Lola's “rape”. McEwan never explicitly states that it was Paul Marshall who raped Lola. She never claims that she was raped. We infer that she was raped, and assume that when Paul wakes up “wonderfully excited” after dreaming of his four younger sisters and his strange behavior at dinner, that he must have been the one who raped Lola (57). While McEwan provides the reader with many strange examples that suggest that it was Paul Marshall who raped Lola, the oscillating narrator ensures that the reader never knows exactly which character committed the crime. – McEwan allows the reader to use our imagination to make assumptions. As the reader does this almost without thinking, the reader becomes even more like Briony. In “Part One” of Atonement, Briony is described as a girl who has a “longing for a harmonious and organized world” and “the chaos and destruction were too chaotic for her tastes, and she didn't have the capacity to be cruel.” . (5). Like Briony, most readers do not intend to take for granted and abuse the imagination - this happens subconsciously, like Briony. Briony has a limited perspective, so she uses her imagination to fill in the blanks. She truly believes his version of events, just as the reader truly believes that Paul Marshall was the rapist. McEwan makes us dislike Briony but also shows us that, as readers, we tend to do the same thing as the flawed character. The faltering narrator not only leads the reader to make inferences about Paul Marshall, but the limited information also leads the reader to do exactly what Ian McEwan warns about. As mentioned above, it is human nature to use the imagination to deduce answers when the information is not explicit. At the end of part three, Briony is finally happy because Robbie and Cecelia are together and in love, despite her false accusation. She states that neither she nor "the war destroyed him" (330), a somewhat happily ever after for the couple. However, in the epilogue the narrator is a much older Briony and the reader learns that instead of having a happy ending, "Robbie Turner died of septicemia in Bray Dunes..." and "Cecelia was killed in. 290-305.