Part Two of Atonement, by Ian McEwan,
is told from the perspective of Robbie Turner, a soldier during World War II. It is
1940, and the British soldiers are retreating after a defeat; they are making their way
across France, dodging persistent attacks from German fighter
planes.
In the beginning, "before the sight of a corpse
became a banality," Robbie travels uneasily with two other men, both of whom outrank
him. He is wounded, though he does not tell the others, and this wound is the cause of
some delirium. On their journey, the trio sees many grotesque and horrific things,
including civilian casualties of war. Turner is often delirious and reveals things about
his unusual past; the other two men are never quite sure if what he is saying is
true.
They finally arrive at Dunkirk, on the English
Channel, but they are forced to wait, as there are more than twenty thousand other
soldiers waiting for the same thing. The three men are in a back alley and ask an old
woman for some water. She is suspicious and insists that they must first catch her pig.
Though the other two are reluctant, Turner (in his delirium) somehow believes that she
has a kind of control over his fate, and he does as she asks. After he traps and returns
the pig to her, the woman gives the men food and drink. His colleagues find his behavior
odd, but since it ends well their suspicions are
allayed.
This is a rather insignificant incident in the
scope of this complicated novel; however, there is a significance to this episode.
Because this entire section is told from Turner's perspective, the reader is not certain
whether he is suffering from delirium or not. Neither are his companions. Their reaction
to Turner's rather odd behavior reminds us that we cannot take everything Turner says in
his narrative as complete or accurate truth--a consistent theme in this
novel.
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