As the saying goes: seeing is believing, hearing is false. But what the eye sees must be true?
It is said that now that society is open, love is the first in marriage, but the door is not right love, can you accept it?
The book "Atonement" is about a 13-year-old child who, because of self-righteousness and belief in seeing is believing, commits a sin that cannot be repaired in his lifetime, because of one of her mistakes, he rewrote the fate of three people.
But we often only see the end of the development of things, based on the matter itself, carefully investigated, a child's mistakes, is it just her personal mistakes? Her upbringing environment and family education are also inseparable. But who's going to pursue those deep-seated causes?
After all, most people are superficial and look at problems one-sidedly.
After reading the book "Atonement", it is about that there is a reason behind every mistake.
One
The protagonist of the story is called Brioni, who was only 13 years old in 1935 and was born into a well-off family in Britain.
She loves literature, has a delicate mind, and is sensitive and thoughtful. During the summer of that year, she wrote her first play, Arabella's Ordeal, and she had her brother Leon studying outside the home and her sister Cecilia at home on vacation.
Brioni's aunt has a twin cousin and a 15-year-old cousin Lola, but because of the change in the aunt's family, the twin cousin and cousin have to come to Brioni's house to borrow for a while.
This summer was swelteringly hot, and the idle Brioni saw a strange phenomenon in front of the window on the second floor, the sister Cecilia and the servant's son Robbie were at the pool, Robbie seemed to be giving orders to her sister, and then the sister took off her clothes and jumped into the pool, and then soon, the sister climbed out of the pool again.
The wet clothes showed the sister's intact figure to be exquisite, but the sister did not speak to Robbie, and hurried back to the house.
From Brioni's 13-year-old perspective, she thinks that it must be abnormal for her sister to undress in front of Robbie, she does not understand her sister's actions, although she wants to know why, but she did not consult her sister and began her own interpretation.
Robbie was the son of their servant, his father had run away from home at a very young age, his mother was a humble cleaning lady who was in college with Cecilia, and all the books he had read had been funded by Brioni's father.
Brioni believes that there is a closer relationship between Robbie and Cecilia than usual, and she guesses that as Robbie's servant, she must have an intention for her sister.
And the truth is that the brother Leon is going to come back at night, the sister is ready to wash the vase, Robbie sees that he wants to come over to help, but the sister does not need help, so the two people began to pull and pull, the corner of the vase was broken and fell into the pool, and the angry sister took off her coat and jumped into the pool, looking for the lock of the vase.
There is the realest reason behind anything that seems absurd, and if you think it's absurd, it's probably because you don't understand it.
It's just that adolescent children are conceited and stubborn, she doesn't understand these truths, and she doesn't bother to consult her people, laying the groundwork for the big mistakes she made.
Two
In the evening, his brother Leon returned home and brought back his rich man friend Paul.
At the evening party, the brother invited Robbie. Robbie wanted to apologize to Cecilia, in the form of writing an apology letter, but the adult Robbie had been circling Cecilia's beautiful figure in his head, so he playfully wrote a letter of obscene praise for Cecilia, but he thought it was inappropriate, so he wrote a polite and decent letter by hand.
Robbie asked Brioni to relay it on her behalf. Only then did he realize that he had taken the wrong letter. Driven by curiosity about the morning incident, Brioni opened it and read the letter.
Such thoughts and language deeply shocked Brioni, who completely changed her original impression of Robbie, thinking that Robbie was dirty and a big adulterer.
She gave the letter to her sister, but the sister asked her if she had read it, and she did not answer.
What happens, it doesn't matter, what matters is the truth of the matter and how it feels inside.
Every adolescent child's mind is enlightening, good learning and good questioning is the attitude that should be at this age, but the self-righteous Brioni has no desire to verify, and will only interpret the facts from her own perspective and easily set her own conclusions.
The adult Cecilia and Robbie were already secretly in love, Robbie explained the reason for the letter to Cecilia, and the two naturally did something shameful in the library, but things always happened coincidentally, and Brioni, who was wandering out, found that there was movement in the library, so she found robbie and her sister's secret again.
This time she fully confirmed the fact that Robbie was a big adulterer, and she thought that her sister must have been bullied by him.
In her heart came the idea of avenging her sister and protecting the woman of the family.
13 years old, still in adolescence, do not understand the thoughts and desires of adults, and will only look at this matter with paranoia. She wouldn't understand that her sister Cecilia was actually willing, and her sister didn't explain anything to her, so she sorted out her clothes and left.
Three
With the foreshadowing of these two things, the last thing directly pushed everyone into the abyss.
The 9-year-old twin cousin did not want to send someone under the fence, leaving a parting letter and running away from home. The banquet was suspended, and everyone split up in search of the missing twins.
Brioni was wandering alone, when suddenly she heard movement by the river, and when she approached, she found that someone was raping her cousin Lola, and the man had escaped in the night.
Lola said she didn't see clearly who the man was. But Brioni thought that the man must be Robbie, because in the afternoon he had done the same thing to his sister.
So Brioni chose to call the police, and when confronted by the police, she firmly identified the person as Robbie. And she also took out Robbie's lewd letter to Cecilia, dispelling everyone's doubts.
Although Cecilia did not believe it, there was no evidence or reason to refute it.
In this way, Robbie was sent to prison.
Brioni defines Robbie in her mind with her own imagination and speculation, and corrects his "crime" with practical actions.
In fact, it was Lola who raped her brother's friend, the chocolate rich man Paul.
There is a saying that goes like this: the prejudice in people's hearts is: a kind of groundless speculation, a selective acceptance, under the colored glasses, the lack of objective justice, partial generalization, preconceptions, everything is distorted.
This tragedy should not have happened, Robbie grew up in Brioni's parents, should have known quite well, and how in the same day, changed all his perceptions of him, but also sent him to prison.
Robbie in prison recalls again and again what exactly offended Brioni, the only possibility is that when Brioni was 10 years old, she told Robbie that she liked him.
Maybe when he saw Robbie's actions towards his sister, he shattered the dream in the girl's heart?
The evil of human nature can sometimes be reflected by a small child, and the evil of a child is always invincible.
And looking for problems from the deeper roots, for an adolescent child, with her own strength, is not enough to accuse an adult of the facts of crime. The person who lures the wolf into the house is the eldest brother, the one who connived at the rich businessman's crime is the cousin, and it is everyone who ignores the matter. Most importantly, Robbie is the son of a servant, and in the eyes of the world, the wrong love is not recognized by everyone, so the whole family condones Brioni's testimony. Moreover, in the years of war, the law naturally became the umbrella of the strong.
Four
After Robbie was taken away, Cecilia severed ties with her family.
Four years later, World War II broke out, and Robbie chose to join the army.
On June 1, 1940, Robbie died of sepsis in the war, and Cecilia died in a bombing of a subway station in September of the same year, and they never saw each other again.
Brioni gave up going to Cambridge to study, and also became a military medical worker, she spent the rest of her life to redeem the mistakes she made, but exhausted her life, did not atone for her sins, and her soul was constantly tested and tortured by conscience.
The others who condoned this crime were not punished in any way, and even the cousin who indulged the real rapist gained a happy life.
Everyone is selfish, living their own life is the most essential need and ultimate meaning, and do not underestimate anyone, including children. To have good thoughts and not to harm others is to love oneself.