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4.5 Paul Marshall9
4.5 Sins Never To Be Atoned10
5 Conclusion...11
Bibliography.12
1 Introduction
The Bible,the classic of Christianity, permeates through the European culture and provides the western literature with exhaustless writing materials.The Adam and Eve Story shows that the concept of Original Sin derives from The Bible. The doctrine of Original Sin is the basis of Christian tenets.
Christianity is the mainstream religion in western countries, so most of western people are familiar with The Bible and its major theme. However, the majority of Chinese people are nullifidians and they have little knowledge about Christianity and the concept of Original Sin. With the development of globalization, the tendency of cultural fusion is increasingly obvious and English has become a global language. As the essential part in English,a large number of idioms and slangs come from The Bible. It is necessary for people to understand each other’s language in culture exchange affairs. Words are the carriers of civilization. Literature is based on words, so it is the symbol of civilization and culture. Studying a culture through its literature is the most effective way to learn the ethnical customs.
Atonement, published in 2001, is widely regarded as the masterpiece of Ian McEwan, one of the most important writers in modern time. It has attracted much attention for its postmodernism writing techniques as well as its theme of atonement. As a matter of fact, in the novel, each character to some extent embodies part of the Seven Deadly Sins. This paper, on the basis of close reading and character analysis, mainly discusses the sins of people represented by different characters in the novel，referring to the Seven Deadly Sins Theory of Christianity as the theoretical basis. It aims to explore the influence of Original Sin in the western literature, and help Chinese readers to understand the novel Atonement better.
2 Atonement
Atonement is written by Ian McEwan and published in 2001 and it is generally regarded as one of McEwan’s best works. It was shortlisted for the 2001 Booker Prize for fiction. Time magazine named Atonement on the list of “All-Time 100 Greatest Novels”. The novel was filmed in 2007 and won an Oscar for Best Original Score at the 80th Academy Awards, and nominated for six others, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress. It also achieved 14 nominations at the 61st British Academy Film Awards, winning both Best Film and Production Design, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture—Drama.
2.1 Writer: Ian McEwan
Ian Russell McEwan is an English novelist and screenwriter. He was born on June 21st,1948. McEwan has been nominated for the Man Booker Prize six times so far. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the Royal Society of Arts and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was awarded the Shakespeare Prize in 1999, a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire(CBE) in 2000. In 2008, he was featured by The Times on the list of “The 50 greatest British writers since 1945”. He is also a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association.
2.2 Main Plots
Briony Tallis is a 13-year-old girl who is full of writing talent and wild imagination. Her elder sister Cecilia Tallis is well educated in Cambridge University and fall in love with Robbie Turner, the son of the Tallis family housekeeper. Briony misunderstands the tense situation between Cecilia and Robbie in front of the fountain. Then she regards the sexual act between them in the study as a rape after she reads the wrong letter which Robbie intends to give to Cecilia. Lola, Briony’s cousin, is raped. She is unable or reluctant to identify the attacker. Briony accuses Robbie as the rapist because she thinks Bobbie is a sex maniac, claiming she has seen his face in the dark. The wrong letter becomes the evidence of Robbie’s ‘crime’. Robbie is put into prison with nobody believes his innocence except Cecilia and his mother. He is released because of the enlistment in the army to fight in the World War II. Cecilia becomes a nurse and cuts off all contact with her family because they didn’t believe Robbie and send him to jail. Briony gradually realizes her mistake and continues to write. In the end , old Briony reveals that all the previous sections is written by her. Although Cecilia and Robbie are reunited in her novel, Unfortunately Robbie and Cecilia all died in the cruel war in reality. Briony wants to give them their happy ending by writing as well as to finds her own atonement. (c.f. Guo Guoliang, 2011 )