Atonement: Quote 10

July 18, 2011
Pages 350 & 351

"How can a novelist achieve atonement when, with her absolute power of deciding outcomes, she is also God? There is no one, no entity or higher form that she can appeal to, or be reconciled with, or that can forgive her. There is nothing outside her. In her imagination she has set the limits and the terms. No atonement for God, or novelists, even if they are atheists. It was always an impossible task, and that was precisely the point. The attempt was all."

   This passage just proves to me that Briony never fully got atonement. She said it herself that it is impossible to achieve atonement if you are God, and Briony definitely considers herself a godly figure. It also shows that Briony is static and although she thinks she has changed, I don't think she has. I don't understand how writing a happy ending can be considered atonement, because I bet Cecilia and Robbie (if they were still alive) still do not forgive Briony for what she did.
  In Briony's eyes though she felt she did reach atonement. Briony is so used to lying and storytelling that she can not can not come out of her imaginative world. She can not distinguish between imaginary and reality. This was her ultimate flaw, throughout the book. In her imaginary world, her metaphor she uses of her and god  is correct because she can manipulate whatever outcome she wants.