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‘There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you: The term catharsis which originates from the Greek kathairein meaning ‘to cleanse or purge’was first used by Aristotle to describe the freeing of emotional tension that spectators encountered while viewing dramatic tragedy. Nowadays, ‘catharsis’ may refer to any experience which results in cleansing or emotional release created by a work of art. This can be demonstrated in Ian McEwan’s Atonement and Khalid Hosseinis The Kite Runner. In both novels, storytelling functions as a catalyst to enable the narrators to recover from psychological traumas. The premise behind both novels is simple: both protagonists make a crucial decision and spend the rest of the plot trying to atone for their mistake. In both, the protagonists witness sexual assault and then use storytelling to rewrite history, to apologise and to seek redemption. McEwan states he wanted to play with the notion of story-telling as a form of self-justification, of how much courage is involved in telling the truth to oneself yet both protagonists, at least initially, lack this courage and instead of telling the truth, fabulate and obfuscate to conceal their mistakes. [1: Angelou, M. Quotes, [online] Available at: [Accessed 12 Nov. 2018]] [2: Scopa, S. (2017) Catharsis.’ LitCharts LLC, [online] May 5, 2017. Retrieved December 19, 2018. Available at: https://www.litcharts.com/literary-devices-and-terms/catharsis. [Accessed 1 Dec. 2018].] [3: Nayebpour, K. (2018) The Uses of Storytelling in Khaled Hosseinis The Kite Runner, EFD/JFL/Cilt/[online] Volume 35 (1) p. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327920203_The_Uses_of_Storytelling_in_Khaled_Hosseini’s_The_Kite_Runner [Accessed 1 Dec. 2018]. ] [4: Noakes, J. And Reynolds, M. (2002) The Child in Time, Vintage, p. 20.]
In Atonement, McEwan reveals the power of storytelling – how one event can be interpreted very differently by each observer. Initially, the fountain sequence is observed from Cecilias – Brionys free-spirited elder sisters perspective: Cecilia rejects Robbies help in filling a vase with water. Robbie, the son of a servant working for the aristocratic Tallis family, persists and the vase breaks causing fragments to fall into the fountain. There is underlying sexual tension between Robbie and Cecilia; however, both try to conceal it with superficial dislike. In an attempt to show that she does not need Robbies help, Cecilia silently undresses and plunges into the chilling water to recover the pieces of the vase: Denying his help, any possibility of making amends, was his punishment. The unexpectedly freezing water that caused her to gasp was his punishment. She held her breath, and sank, leaving her hair fanned out across the surface. Drowning herself would be his punishment. Here McEwan uses the rhetorical technique – epistrophe – for emphasis and dramatic effect. In Cecilias narration she explains, The accumulated inactivity of the summer weeks since finals also hurried her along; since coming home, her life had stood still, and a fine day like this made her impatient& Cecilias narration is extensively descriptive and entwined with sibilance making the chapter more sensual and move slowly contributing to the lethargic air of the summer day. Although the vase was both beautiful and valuable, it was actually admired more because it had been given to Cecilias uncle by the inhabitants of a French town which he had helped liberate during WWI. The breaking the vase by Cecilia and Robbie on the day they come together, foreshadows that their love is broken almost before it starts and that war will be a vital cause. The image of the Tallis fountain itself is also symbolic as it is a replica of the Triton fountain in Piazza Barberini, Rome which has a dark history – until the late eighteenth century, unidentified corpses were displayed in front of the fountain, and the people of Rome were asked to identify them. This also foreshadows tragedy and death in Robbie and Cecilias love story. [5: Rooney, A. (2009). Atonement, Ian McEwan. Harlow: Longman, p.17.] [6: Shmoop Editorial Team. (2008, November 11). The Vase And The Fountain in Atonement. Retrieved December 20, 2018, from https://www.shmoop.com/atonement/vase-fountain-symbol.html] [7: Rooney, A. (2009). Atonement, Ian McEwan. Harlow: Longman, p.87.]
A second sequence depicting the same event is then narrated from Brionys point of view. Briony, the protagonist, is a thirteen-year-old girl, who watches from a window unable to hear what transpires leading her to misinterpret the events. She believes that Robbie forced Cecilia to undress and swim in the fountain. Briony states that she will ‘recast’ the scene, ‘through Cecilia’s eyes and then Robbies,’ which is exactly what happens in the book. She saw the world surrounding her as a foundation for her stories whilst the people in it as characters. ]Childs says: she creates a story around Robbie and Cecilia, but fails to distinguish her make believe from reality. It later transpires the novel is the account Briony wrote and the reader is engaged in the reflexive, distorted memory. McEwan explains that he referred to Atonement as his Jane Austen novel, particularly Northanger Abbey where the protagonist was a girl so full of delights of Gothic fiction that she causes havoc around her when she imagines a perfectly innocent man to be capable of the most terrible things. He further stated that he has wanted to devise a hero or heroine who could echo that process& but then go a step further and look at not the crime, but the process of atonement, and do it through writing do it through storytelling. [8: Shmoop Editorial Team. (2008, November 11). The Vase And The Fountain in Atonement. Retrieved January 4, 2019, from https://www.shmoop.com/atonement/vase-fountain-symbol.html] [9: Sernham, C. (2019). Briony Through Her Own Eyes; a Discussion of the Three Brionys in Ian McEwans Atonement. [online] Lund University. Available at: https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/lup/publication/1414949 [Accessed 2 Jan. 2019]. pg.2] [10: Childs, P. and Tredell, N. (2006). The fiction of Ian McEwan. Houndmills, Basingstoke [England]: Palgrave Macmillan, p.135.] [11: Giles, J. (2002). A NOVEL OF [BAD] MANNERS.]
Later on, Briony unwittingly observes and also misinterprets Robbie and Cecilias passionate act of love-making as sexual assault: Briony stared past Robbies shoulder into the terrified eyes of her sister&he held her forearm which was raised in protest or self-defence. Her childlike perception, coupled with a desire for drama in her life, causes her to distort a loving act with devastating consequences. McEwan uses different points of views to emphasise how different interpretations can be constructed and then twisted; Briony creates Cecilias thoughts and pretends they are original.
As Briony says, they would soon all be forgotten anyway, without the book, and then what difference would it make what ‘really happened? (McEwan,2001:371)
The trigger for catharsis is usually a traumatic event and, in both novels, sexual assault real and supposed – are the catalyst for the catharsis that follows. In Atonement, Briony believes she has witnessed the rape of her sister, whereas the protagonist of The Kite Runner, Amir, witnesses his servant, Hassan, being brutally raped by Aseef, as an act of revenge for previous humiliation. Nünning and Sommer, state that Amirs storytelling acts as an important means of characterisation, and helps characters to overcome traumatic experiences. Changes in the writers structure and style mirror the effect of the trauma. The chapters leading up to Hassans rape, are stated simply and stories unfold chronologically. Yet the linear structure is then abandoned. The narrator strays towards a different story, reflecting Amirs desire to avoid dealing with the painful reality. The story is a memory representing the nature of Amirs and Hassans relationship. He speaks of the ritual slaughter of a sheep during the festival of Eid-Al-Adha, where he is troubled by the look of acceptance in the sheeps eye – the same look he recognises in Hassan. Amirs style of writing mirrors the physical and psychological consequences of the traumatic event – his sentence structures change, becoming more hesitant and broken, mirroring the fragmentation of his mind. Leading up to the attack on Hassan, he uses simple sentences and vocabulary such as they clapped for a long time, and he never told on me. In contrast, the trauma of this moment coincides with the loss of the childlike tone. Upon realising he was a coward because of his decision to hide and betray Hassan, Amir informs us that he actually aspired to cowardice. This is an adult idea expressed in an adult manner. The assonance perhaps mimics an internal cry for redemption. [12: Nünning, Ansgar and Roy Sommer. (2011). The performative power of narrative in drama: On the forms and functions of dramatic storytelling in Shakespeares plays. In G. Olson (Ed.), Current Trends in Narratology (pp. 200-231). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.] [13: Kerr, C. (2012). The kite runner, Khaled Hosseini. Harlow: Longman, p.105.] [14: Kerr, C. (2012). The kite runner, Khaled Hosseini. Harlow: Longman, p.103.]
Likewise, Brionys writing style changes after she witnesses the fountain incident which is a moment of imaginative awakening and a passage to more sophisticated writing. Initially, Brionys stories reflect her youth; thus, up until the fountain scene, they are simple, naïve and somewhat moralistic. However, afterwards, Briony realises her writing could no longer be fairy-tale castles and princesses, all icons of childhood innocence, but about ordinary everyday experiences. This is compounded when she reads the letter Robbie accidentally sent to Cecilia. Yet, paradoxically, her belief that she is entering an arena of adulthood from which her writing was bound to benefit is belied by her immature understanding of the world. The term arena connotes dramatic imagery of a Roman colosseum where games are enacted. Although Briony is agitated by the letters content she realises it is an opportunity for her to grow as an author, so she hurries to her room to note down the story she assumes to be occurring around her. [15: Rooney, A. (2009). Atonement, Ian McEwan. Harlow: Longman, p.111.] [16: Sernham, C. (2019). Briony Through Her Own Eyes; a Discussion of the Three Brionys in Ian McEwans Atonement. [online] Lund University. Available at: https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/lup/publication/1414949 [Accessed 2 Jan. 2019]. pg.1] [17: Sernham, C. (2019). Briony Through Her Own Eyes; a Discussion of the Three Brionys in Ian McEwans Atonement. [online] Lund University. Available at: https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/lup/publication/1414949 [Accessed 2 Jan. 2019]. pg.1]
Both protagonists, use their stories as catharsis to assuage their personal guilt, and attempt to redeem themselves by drawing attention to the plight of the powerless. Both novels depict the persecution of people from lower social classes or ethnic groups whose stories are disregarded and used against them. Atonement reflects the rigid class system in England in the early twentieth century, before WWII shattered these conventions. Robbie is the son of a servant, and although Jack Tallis, Brionys father, noticed Robbies intellectual ability and so sponsored his education at Cambridge University, his wife, Emily, held the traditional view that the lower classes should be kept in their place. Thus, when it is reported that Robbie has raped Lola, Emily believes this behaviour is entirely possible due to his social position. On the other hand, the actual rapist, Paul Marshall is an affluent chocolatier so he is beyond suspicion. The use of the French term for such an occupation chocolatier connotes luxury. The presence of Amo Bars, the candy manufactured by Paul Marshalls family company, on the battlefield of World War II acts as a reminder of Marshalls power and influence over the unfortunate Robbie. The name Amo Bars, is a tasteless marketing gimmick arguably in appropriate in a time of war. Amo is Latin for I love and serves as a pun on love versus ammunition, which implies total contrast like love and hate. [18: Sobel, Ben. ‘Atonement Symbols: Amo Bars.’ LitCharts LLC, August 11, 2014. Retrieved December 18, 2018. https://www.litcharts.com/lit/atonement/symbols/amo-bars.] [19: Rooney, A. (2009). Atonement, Ian McEwan. Harlow: Longman, p.23.]
Similarly, in The Kite Runner, Amirs fathers loyal servants, Hassan and his father, Ali, are part of the Hazara ethnic group, a lower caste in Afghanistan. As such, their opinions and views on politics and other matters are dismissed. Hazaras had been persecuted throughout history; up until as late as the 19th century they were sold as slaves. Even in the 20th century Taliban commander, Maulawi Mohammed Hanif , reportedly told a crowd, that Hazaras are not Muslims, you can kill them. Amir admits, I never thought of Hassan and me as friends either& Because history isnt easy to overcome. Neither is religion. In the end, I was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara, I was Sunni and he was Shia, and nothing was ever going to change that. Nothing. Once again Amir blames history refusing to take personal responsibly for his actions. Similarly, Aseef explains Afghanistan is the land of Pashtuns. It always will be. We are the true Afghans, the pure Afghans, not this Flat-Nose here. His people pollute our homeland, our watan. They dirty our blood. When Amir, reads Hassan his first novel, Hassan is enthralled; however, he identifies a loop hole which infuriates Amir, causing him to exclaim, what does he know, the illiterate Hazara? Hell never be anything but a cook. Hassans intellectual ability is meaningless due to the burden of his caste. Later when Aseef and the other bullies pin Hassan to the ground to commence the rape, Wali states his father considers what they are contemplating doing to Hassan is sinful, but Assef says he is only a Hazara. Hassans rape is perhaps symbolic of the rape of Afghanistans powerless by those who have power. Later in the novel, Amir finds records of the persecution of the Hazaras by the Pashtuns in his mothers books and reflects on his own poor treatment of Hassan. Yet when he tries to discuss this with his teacher, the man dismisses his questions, demonstrating how those in authority perpetuate the status quo. [20: Hucal, S. and Hucal, S. (2019). Afghanistan: Who are the Hazaras?. [online] Aljazeera.com. Available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/06/afghanistan-hazaras-160623093601127.html [Accessed 2 Jan. 2019].] [21: Sparknotes.com. (2019). SparkNotes: The Kite Runner: Chapters 67. [online] Available at: https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/the-kite-runner/section3/ [Accessed 5 Jan. 2019].]
Briony and Amir do not just make one forgivable mistake, instead they seek to cover up their mistakes or justify them, and in doing so add more lies.In the lowest of all deeds, Amir plants his new wristwatch and a wad of cash under Hassans mattress and informs Baba that his gifts have been stolen. Amir naïvely believes that, if Hassan were to be sent away, he would no longer be tormented by his decision to do nothing while Hassan was raped. As in Atonement, Robbie’s low social status is proof enough of his criminality. Similarly, Robbie accuses Brionys feeling(s) for him as being one of the reasons she accused him. McEwan states how he was in love with Briony and all her mistakes, as the author uses Briony to explore the process of catharsis through her perspective. Later, Amir reflects on this heinous act and admits his jealousy of Hassan, whom he felt enjoyed more than his fair share of his fathers attention wished he let me be the favourite. The guilt of both authors leads them to become professional storytellers as adults. Storytelling enables both protagonists to come to terms with their guilt. At thirteen neither Briony nor Amir are equipped to deal with or understand the events they witnessed, therefore they punish themselves through adolescence for the sins of their childhood; however, storytelling and writing enable the characters to atone through its cathartic effect. [22: Kerr, C. (2012). The kite runner, Khaled Hosseini. Harlow: Longman, p.37.] [23: Kellaway, K. (2018). Interview: Ian McEwan. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/sep/16/fiction.ianmcewan [Accessed 31 Dec. 2018]. (Norrick, 2007, p. 138).]
It is, therefore, no coincidence that both protagonists pursued a career in writing. Through her writing Briony is able to rewrite her past mistakes, identify with the sensitivities of others, and resurrect Robbie and Cecilia. Her novel is her act of atonement for her offence. Likewise, Amir also grows up to be a writer and he tells his own story as a way of redeeming the mistakes he made as a child, reconciling the events in his life, and to rid himself of his guilt. This guilt is exacerbated by his realisation that Hassan was his half-brother, so he tries to give Hassans voice some validity because his prophecy that Amir will become a great writer comes true. He also reads the storybook he teased Hassan with to Hassans son, Sohrab, after he has adopted him and taken him to the United States. Reading to Sohrab can be seen as an attempt to reconnect to Hassan. At the end of the novel Amir explains although his body was broken, from being physically beaten by Aseef, the punishment he believed he deserved for betraying Hassan he felt healed.’ This paradox explains Amirs state of mind and how the truth finally set him free. Similarly, by the end of Atonement, it becomes clear Briony has spent a large portion of her life seeking to atone for her crime – her fifty-nine year assignment. She realises there is no one&to be reconciled with, or that can forgive her except herself. It is probable if Briony had not been able to forgive herself, she would have concealed the truth forever. [24: Sobel, Ben. ‘Atonement Themes: Stories and Literature.’ LitCharts LLC, August 11, 2014. Retrieved December 18, 2018. https://www.litcharts.com/lit/atonement/themes/stories-and-literature.] [25: Lippitt, J 2018, ‘Self-forgiveness and the moral perspective of humility: Ian McEwan’s Atonement’ Philosophy and Literature. p.13 http://researchprofiles.herts.ac.uk/portal/files/13484139/Lippitt_Self_forgiveness_and_the_moral_perspective_of_humility_Final.pdf [Accessed 2 Jan. 2019].] [26: zachifkovitsengl1102. (2019). Brionys Atonement. [online] Available at: https://zachifkovitsengl1102.wordpress.com/2013/02/15/brionys-atonement/ [Accessed 2 Jan. 2019].]
Both authors use non linear narratives and flashbacks to reflect the fragmented memories of the protagonists. The Kite Runner commences with Amir juxtaposing his past of unatoned sins in Afghanistan with his present life in the United States. The sighting of a pair of kites transports him back to his memories of Kabul, where kite fighting had been a traditional sport until the Taliban banned it in 1996. Although the story is set initially in December 2001, within the first chapter Hosseini launches the readers back in time – first to a phone call and then to the series of life-altering events which took place in 1975. The flashbacks also enable the narrators to foreshadow events, building dramatic tension: by the following winter, [Hassan’s post-surgery jagged line] was only a faint scar. Which was ironic. Because that was the winter that Hassan stopped smiling, although Hassans smile is symbolic of restitution and healing it is overshadowed by Amirs final comment that this will be Hassans last, thus foreshadowing the dark event that caused Hassan to lose his new perfect smile. Similarly, Briony describes, ‘How guilt refined the methods of self-torture, threading the beads of detail into an eternal loop, a rosary to be fingered for a lifetime.’ Guilt personified and details of shame become a metaphor of rosary beads – the religious allusion and the ‘loop,’ having neither start nor finish, conveys the eternity of Briony’s guilt. [27: Kerr, C. (2012). The kite runner, Khaled Hosseini. Harlow: Longman, p.14.] [28: Kerr, C. (2012). The kite runner, Khaled Hosseini. Harlow: Longman, p.13.] [29: Kerr, C. (2012). The kite runner, Khaled Hosseini. Harlow: Longman, p.26.] [30: Gradesaver.com. (2019). Atonement Quotes and Analysis. [online] Available at: https://www.gradesaver.com/atonement/study-guide/quotes [Accessed 2 Jan. 2019].]
Ironically, although catharsis is defined as a spiritual cleansing via truth telling, both protagonists are unreliable narrators. It is probable that Amirs fragile state of mind affected the way that he narrates the novel and makes him an unreliable narrator- common in postmodern writing. Witnessing Hassans rape leaves him grief stricken and carrying that guilt throughout the novel may lead him to depict himself as immoral. After receiving a phone call from Rahim Khan, his fathers closest friend, Amir reveals to the reader that, I knew it wasnt just Rahim Khan on the line. It was my past of unatoned sins, clearly emphasising his guilty conscience. Rahim Khans words stir in his mind, There is a way to be good again. The inclusion and use of monosyllables imply that Amir must atone for his past.
Relevant? Or not Another language technique employed is pathetic fallacy – the day in 1975- when his life changed is described as a fridid overcast day – reflecting oppressive and chilling emotion he feels.
Atonement is split into three sections, all revolving around different time periods and characters making Briony an unreliable narrator. Initially, until the reader reads the starting epilogue, he or she is led to believe that Robbie survives World War II, Cecilia and Robbies love story continues and that Briony attempts to mend her relationship with the lovers. However, Briony is then revealed as the omniscient narrator, and the meta-narrative epilogue denies past events and instead states that Robbie dies of septicaemia during the war, the bomb that destroyed Balham Underground station killed Cecilia, and Briony never visited the lovers in 1940 to find reconciliation. It is also revealed at the end that Briony has vascular dementia and thus is losing her memory, further evidence of her unreliability. The depth of her manipulation is clear when she includes in her novel, a letter from CC , the famous critic Cyril Connolly, of detailed criticism about an earlier version of the story which was called Two Figures by a Fountain. Briony often comments on the numerous times she has redrafted her novel in order to achieve historical accuracy – yet it calls into question the reliability of her novel and which elements did not meet Connollys standards. Furthermore, Briony states in the epilogue there will always be readers who ask But what really happened? Those particular readers resemble the younger Briony as they are unable to draw the line between fiction and reality. She tells these readers that they [Cecilia and Robbie] lived happily ever after, not because this is what happened in reality, but because that is what she has written. Both narrators struggle to face the truth or even determine what it is, after so much time has passed. Consequently, they seek to unburden themselves in front of a sympathetic audience, which can be controlled and manipulated. [31: En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Atonement (novel). [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atonement_(novel) [Accessed 2 Jan. 2019].]
I know theres always a certain kind of reader who will be compelled to ask, But what really happened? The answer is simple: the lovers survive and flourish.
Both narrators use historical events and facts, as bedrock for their narratives, thus helping them weave plausible tales and making them appear to be reliable narrators. Amirs narrative recounts the destruction of his native land Afghanistan through two main wars in the 1970s: the Soviet occupation, and the Taliban insurgency. The coup which Amir describes occurred on 17 July 1973 when forces by former PM Mohammed Daoud Khan overthrew King Zhair Shah and Afghanistans monarchy. Aseef becoming a leader of the Taliban, Amirs and Babas treacherous journey as refugees to America, Hassans and his wifes death by the Taliban and Babas confrontation with the Russian soldier who tries to rape a woman, are based on true events or concepts. OBrien states that, Hosseini renders Afghanistans national trauma through Hassans character as he frames Hassans rape and its resultant trauma as an allegory for the turmoil engulfing Afghanistan. Hosseinis commitment to the careful depiction of Afghan history for a Western audience is never more apparent than in his rendering of Afghanistans national trauma, which he translates into Hassans rape an incident witnessed by Amir. [32: En.wikipedia.org. (2019). 1973 Afghan coup d’état. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_Afghan_coup_d’état [Accessed 2 Jan. 2019].] [33: Sarah OBrien. Translating Trauma in Khaled Hosseinis The Kite Runner. Transnational Literature Vol. 10 no. 2, May 2018. http://fhrc.flinders.edu.au/transnational/home.html]
The intertwining of fact and fiction is also a feature of Atonement. Part II and III of the novel are set during World War II, while events which led up to the Second World War are presented in Part I. References are made to the Abyssinia Crisis and Hitler when Paul Marshall, outlines his hope to profit by selling camouflage designed chocolate bars. Throughout the novel, there are references to the destruction caused by the war, when driving they had to get out and drag dead bodies to avoid running them over. This caused great difficulty as many of the bodies were almost cut in half. Furthermore, emotive images of soldiers shooting their horses and of bibles being burnt add to the turmoil and fear within Brionys mind. Robbie sees two men operating a Norton motorcycle one mans bloodied legs dangled uselessly& his pillion passenger, who had heavily bandaged arms, was working the foot pedals. This is based on a personal experience of McEwans father. Soldiers experienced such trauma that they began to normalise horrific sights; seeing a childs limb in a tree was something that ordinary men could ignore. Perhaps the narrators are highlighting the evil of others to make their own crimes seem less severe, but regardless, both protagonists present their life stories so naturally that the novels give the reader an illusion of experiencing actual historical events. [34: Rooney, A. (2009). Atonement, Ian McEwan. Harlow: Longman, p.60.]
In conclusion, storytelling in The Kite Runner and Atonement functions as a catalyst for the recovery process of the narrator from a psychological trauma. Storytelling, acts as a catharsis, enabling both Briony and Amir to reconcile themselves to their unforgettable pasts and find a way to atone for their guilt. Similarly it acts as a form of self justification enabling the protagonists to express their truths/ side of the story. Tim OBrien once stated, Storytelling is the essential human activity. The harder the situation, the more essential it is. In an attempt to understand their pasts, both Briony and Amir record their traumatic memories, thus facilitating their mental healing. By the end of the novels, Amir explains how the truth finally set him free enabling him to recover from his psychological trauma; whilst, Briony realises that forgiveness has to come from within.
McEwan has said that writing fiction is about showing the possibility of what it is like to be someone else. It is the basis of all sympathy, empathy and compassion. Other people are as alive as you are. Cruelty is a failure of imagination.
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