An Analysis Of The Features Of Bildungsroman In Atonement

Ian MacEwan,a great temporary writer in English,bears the name of "gloomy MacEwan".Since the first publication of In Between the Sheets(1978),MacEwan has published thirteen full-length novels up to now.Atonement is firstly published in 2001,which is regarded as one of his most successful works.The novel has been nominated by lots of prizes and Blooker Prize is also included.Finally Atonement won W·H Smith Prize and it was listed into the greatest hundred novels in the history of the world by the Times.The main content of the story can be shown as follows: because of being naive,a 13-year-old young girl's misunderstanding leads to the separation of her sister Cecilia and Robbie,who have already been in love with each other.And with the experience of epiphany and self-reflection in the course of growing up,she loses her innocence by making atonement.Finally Briony makes confession about everything and completes her lifelong growth in the end of the novel.There is no denying the fact that it is a typical Bildungsroman,but just a few amount of works have studied the novel from that perspective.Growth is not only an eternal subject of literary works,but also a big center of attention in modern English literature.Bildungsroman is the one that narrates the process of adolescence's growing up and makes descriptions of their growing experiences.This thesis enriches the exploration of Bildungsroman theory as well as the works of MacEwan.Based on the Bildungsroman to analyze the novel,the writer of this thesis hopes to make up the situation that our country is in short of researches on such theory,and also wants to increase the charm of the work.The writer of this thesis analyzes the features of Bildungsroman in Atonement in five parts.The introduction section gives a brief introduction about the writer Ian MacEwan,main content of Atonement,literature reviews as well as the structure of the whole thesis.The first chapter is theoretical foundation.It introduces the Bildungsroman from its origin,development and definition and main features.Three aspects,the plot pattern,the characters of protagonist and initiation guides,are discussed in detail in this chapter.The next three chapters are the body part of the thesis,which also make analysis about the novel around the Bildungsroman theory.The second chapter proposes that the novel is in accordance with the feature of formulized plot development.Based on the timeline of her growth,all of her life experiences in growing up are illustrated step by step in this chapter.Next,Three typical changes will be presented in the third chapter,which conducts an analysis of a feature from the perspective of Briony's character changes,and specifically delivers three typical changes that from naive and extrovert to introvert and mature,from aggressive and rebel to obedient and tractable,from a self-centered girl to a generous woman.In the forth chapter,Briony's positive and negative initiation mentors and their influences on her are discussed.Her sister Cecelia and Robbie all bring good influence for her life,and they teach her to become mature and righteous.On the other hand,her father and mother in her young age,together with the Sister she meets in the adulthood,all have negative impacts on her growth,which leads her become cold,selfish and rigid.The last chapter is the concluding part.The novel is fully in accordance with the features of Bildungsroman.From the beginning of making mistakes to the end of finishing novel as her atonement,every experience she has and every people she meets all play a significant part in her life,because these all help her become more mature and get incredible spiritual growth.MacEwan's reflections towards the theme of growth is embodied in the novel,and a reference of solving growth problems is also presented.