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In Atonement,the most apparent traumatic syndrome of Briony is her flight from reality.In the analysis of the reason why Briony endures the traumatic experience,the perjury givenby her is on the top of the list.However,after she makes the false testimony,Briony does notrealize that she has actually set the two beloveds apart.As Cathy Caruth brings up inUnclaimed Experience,people’s response to the traumatic event takes place“in the oftendelayed,uncontrolled repetitive appearance of hallucinations and other intrusive phenomena” (Caruth,1996:11).When Briony tells the policemen and other adults that Robbie is a maniacand the rapist,she feels,rather than regret or guilty but a sense of victory.In her mind,she is aheroine who has saved her sister from being harmed by the villain.When Cecilia speaks toRobbie,Briony views this as a sign of Cecilia’s capacity for forgiveness.Furthermore,Brionybelieves,“this tragedy was bound to bring them closer”(McEwan,185).From her perspective,she is the saver of her sister and what she has done is bound to be appreciated by her sister.

As time goes by,with the growing consciousness,Briony is gradually aware of the crimeshe has committed.What she has done does not protect her sister but destroys the merry lifeof two people in love with each other.No matter how brave and firm she used to be,shecannot bear the fact that she is the one who puts an innocent man into prison.As Hermancontends in Trauma and Recovery,“In the aftermath of traumatic events,as survivors reviewand judge their own conduct,feelings of guilt and inferiority are practically universal”(Herman,53).The incompetence of bearing the truth that Paul Marshall is the rapist casts acloud over Briony.“When a person is completely powerless,and any form of resistance isfutile,she may go into a state of surrender”(Herman,42).What Briony has done is an act ofgiving in to reality.It is hardly possible for her to tell the truth to her family that she gave thefalse testimony that Robbie is the maniac since no one would be willing to look back over thecase several years ago and to announce Robbie as an innocent person.

1.2 Cecilia’s Oblivion of the Past

As Judith Herman puts it in Trauma and Recovery,“traumatic events call into questionbasic human relationships.They breach the attachments of family,friendship,love,andcommunity.They shatter the construction of the self that is formed and sustained in relation toothers”(Herman,51).Similar to what Briony has done when she realizes that she makes hersister and Robbie separate,Cecilia chooses to get far away from home and cuts off theconnection with the Tallis family.However,the reason why Cecilia is determined to stay alooffrom her family members is radically different from Briony.Unlike Briony,who does notrealize the mistake she has made and thus there is a belatedness of her traumatic experience,Cecilia,who is mature enough to know what she has gone through and has a strongself-identity,has a sense of breach between herself and her family members.Not attemptingto forget the experience,it makes Cecilia feel disgusted staying with her siblings and parents,who were on本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。