World War Two and Atonement

The second World War played a largely influential role in this novel and film  primarily because the novel and the War`s time line cross paths, secondly because Robbie the lead male character is sent to war. From the beginning the characters were all curious about the war, some thought it would happen, some thought it would`t and some were in shock when it did come. World War Two started battle in 1939 and finished 1945 VD. This war was a little more difficult for people to live through then the first because of the holocaust and Hitler, in the novel we read that Robbie is in the war and he is on the beach in Dunkirk waiting to be transferred home. The story is in so much depth that we can actually visualize being on the beach and going through it all with him. The story of war in the novel is key because it was a lifestyle that people were accustomed too. The nurses were accustomed to treating wounded soldiers everyday with limbs half blown off, just like in the film and the novel; and the soldiers got comfortable travelling everyday trying to find a safe haven. In the novel we are told a story of a soldier, and in the film we see the soldier. We are not only seeing our loved character Robbie, we are actually seeing the young men of the 1930`s and 1940`s who were actually there and lived it. When we see Briony`s character at the hospital tending to the soldiers,  it is the story of thousands of women who were there and did it in real life, not only the fictional characters. The theme of war was highly relevant in this novel and film because usually when war movies are made it is all about the battle, and the loses and victories on the field, but not the loses and victories at home and from the heart. This story gives another outlook on young people living through the war and was very realistic of the situations that happened in the war, it brings to the attention that not everything comes to a closing chapter with a happy ending.

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