The Journey Of Spiritual Redemption

Ian Mc Ewan is one of the most influential British writers.He wrote many works during his lifetime,most of which are short stories,which are bizarre and absurd,and known as black comedies.His representative works include First Love,Last Rite and The Child in Time and so on.Atonement is also one of his representative works.This novel was nominated for several awards,including the Booker Prize,and won several literary awards,such as the Smith Literary Award(2002)and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Literature(2003).The novel focuses on the story of the young Briony’s perjury,so that Robbie was unjustly imprisoned.The action changed the fate of Briony,Cecilia and Robbie.When she realized the truth,Briony needed to spend lifetime atoning for her mistakes.Kelly believes that a person’s behavior can attribute to three perspectives: personal attribution,stimulus attribution,and circumstance attribution.While the specific attribution depends on the analysis of the degree of consistency,consensus and distinctiveness of the event.The thesis analyses Briony’s progression from crime,repentance,and successful redemption based on Kelly’s covariation attribution theory,so as to show the process of spiritual redemption and the reasons for successful redemption.This dissertation consists of six chapters.The first chapter focuses on the author’s biography and his major works.The second chapter systematically introduces the framework and main connotations of Kelly’s attribution theory.And the third chapter analyzes the attributions of Briony’s mistakes in the novel.The occurrence of the “The Two Figures by a Fountain” and the “Library Incident” makes Briony misunderstand Robbie and sets the stage for her subsequent mistakes,while the former incident attributes to Briony,while the latter to the circumstance.The fourth chapter shows that Briony’s guilt is mainly about stimulus attribution and circumstance attribution.“The Accident about Lola” and “The Incident of Robbie’s Incarceration” lead Briony to commit perjury.She makes a mistake that will take a lifetime to redeem.From the fifth chapter,we know that Briony’s success in redeeming is due to her efforts and objective stimuli.“Becoming a nurse” and “Building a happy ending in the novel” allow Briony to overcome guilt and make her redeem herself.Chapter six summarizes the process of Briony’s redemption,which took her lifetime.Although Robbie and Cecilia are both dead,the truth will be revealed when all the parties involved passed away.At that moment,Briony will feel released thoroughly.The purpose of this thesis is to analyze Briony’s attribution journey from crime,confession to atonement,and ultimately to achieve the purpose of spiritual purification in the process of unremitting efforts to atone for her mistakes.It warns us that we need to be cautious whatever we do in our daily life and should not jump to conclusions based on our subjective inferences so as not to cause lifelong regrets.