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The novel Atonement deals with many cases of postmodernism. Atonement relates with postmodernism because it deals with mature matter, and serious subjects. Atonement relates with postmodernism because it changes the point of view of the narrator throughout the novel, rape is a big part of this novel; also family issues are displayed in Atonement, death is also twisted into the puzzle of Atonement. The narrator’s point of view changes throughout the novel.
In the first three sections the narrator writes in third person, and then decides to change to first person in the last section. This is an unreliable point of view because at the start of the story it is highly favoring Bryony in third person but it’s not until the end where you learn that Bryony is the narrator. There is also the fact of Bryony and her false reality, she constructs a world of her own where what actually happens throughout the story is changed to what she wants in her mind.
This is another case of the novel and point of view being difficult to understand. Throughout the beginning of the novel, the reader witnesses a handful of cases in which rape occurs. Rape is one of the main themes dealing with family issues ND relationships. As the story goes along the reader is magnified to the number of cases of rape. It begins with a false accusation of Cecilia, Britons older sister being raped by her boyfriend Robbie.
He ends up going to jail and serving a number of years in the war for something that was seen in the wrong way. Later, a case of rape actually occurs where no one witnesses it or even hears it. With a false accusation, someone who is not guilty is caught and someone who is guilty gets away without any consequences. This novel displays death in a very odd way, it does not display death in the first art of the book but when Bryony is in the war she witnesses all the soldiers dying around her also bystanders.
She first feels loss when the French soldier she falls in love with dies from a wound. Robbie also witnesses soldiers dying around him in war, and bystanders. A twist to death is when the book changes into first person Bryony reveals that Robbie and Cecilia actually died during the war. Postmodernism is displayed in many ways but three of the big ones are point of views, rape and family issues, and death. Postmodernism happens all around us today that it sometimes goes by unnoticed.