Jane Austen was a well known English novelist that lived from 1775 to 1817. Her novel; Pride and Prejudice is well known in the United States, but it was Jane Austen’s novel Northanger Abbey that had the most influence on Ian McEwan’s book Atonement. If you are familiar with Austen’s work, when you read McEwan’s book Atonement, you can see the influence that not only Austen’s life but also her work on McEwan’s book. Briony Tallis, the main character in Atonement, represents Jane Austen, and they have some similarities between them.
They are both writers, and always wanted to be starting from a young age. Secondly, they both had trouble getting their works published in the beginning of their careers. In Atonement, Briony’s first novel was rejected by a publisher. Austen also faced this in her life when she was trying to publish her book, Sense and Sensibility. Thirdly, Briony didn’t get her novel Atonement published until after she had passed away because her editor wanted to wait until after Lola and Paul had died to publish the book. With Jane Austen, her Persuasion and Northanger Abbey novels weren’t published until after she had passed away. (Carrubba; 2018). Jane Austen’s life wasn’t the only thing that had a huge influence on the book, Atonement, but her books particularly Northanger Abbey have an influence on the book.
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Ian McEwan states in a New York article, A Cool Writer Warms Up; Ian McEwan’s Latest Novel Charts an Emotional Journey; “…’Northanger Abbey’ was on my mind. I loved the idea of Catherine Morland, being so turned by gothic novels. She gets everything wonderfully wrong, and is shamed by the end. There is some relationship between her and Briony.” (Gussow; 2002). In Northanger Abbey, it follows the story of Catherine Morland who is a seventeen year old girl. Catherine and Briony are similar in some ways like McEwan stated.
For example, Catherine is skeptic about General Tilney while Briony is skeptic about Robbie. Catherine thinks that Mr. Tilney got rid of his wife while Briony thinks that Robbie raped Lola. Both girls are wrong in these situations. Robbie didn’t rape Lola, and Mr. Tilney did not get rid of his wife. Thankfully, Catherine realizes this sooner in life than Briony does. Briony’s actions also has a bigger effect than Catherine’s since it was her fault that Robbie was sent to prison that led to him joining the war to get out of prison and later to his death while the real rapist ran free and later earn a fortune with a chocolate factory.
Even though they are both similar in certain ways, they are also different. Firstly, there is an age difference between Briony and Catherine. Briony is barely a teenager at the age of thirteen while Catherine is almost an adult at the age of seventeen. They also live in different time periods in their respectful book. Briony lives in the 20th century while Catherine lives in the 19th century. (Schmoop and GradeSaver; 2018) Secondly, Catherine ends up getting married in the end to Henry while Briony never gets married even though she could have which she later regrets. Thirdly, even though they both have brothers, Catherine is closer to her brother than Briony is to her brother mainly due to the fact of their age gap. Fourthly, Catherine is seen as the hero in Northanger Abbey while Briony is not the hero in Atonement. Lastly, Catherine gets a happy ending when General Tiley accepts her and his son’s relationship, and approves of them getting married. Briony, on the other hand, has to see Lola and Paul get married on top of Cecilia and Robbie never forgiving her.
The second book that has an influence on Atonement, is Jane Austen’s book Mansfield Park. The book follows Frances Price who is sent to live with her uncle and aunt in the country in Northamptonshire. Like Jane Austen, she comes from a big family. Like Briony, she has an older brother, but his name is William. In Mansfield Park and Atonement, both father’s are barely home who don’t really know their children. Both Lady Bertram and Emily Tallis are also very similar. They aren’t very good mothers. Due to this, the children are affected by their awful parents, aunts, and uncles. They pretty much have to take care of themselves starting at a young age, and as we read, we see how that affects them.
The third book that is in Atonement is Jane Austen’s book Pride and Prejudice. In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy are from different social classes like Robbie and Cecilia are in Atonement. Elizabeth Bennet was a part of the middle class while Mr. Darcy was a part of the upper class. Cecilia was a part of the upper class, and Robbie was a part of the lower class. In both books, class effects some of the relationships as we see with Robbie and Cecilia along with Miss Bennet and Mr. Darcy’s relationship. The difference other than the plot lines of these relationships is that Robbie and Cecilia never get the happy ending like Miss Bennet and Mr. Darcy do. Miss Bennet and Mr. Darcy get married in the end, but Robbie and Cecilia never get to be together. (Jasna, 2008 and Carrubba, 2018).
Ian McEwan stated in a New York Times article; “For 10 years in my notebooks I referred to a novel I would write one day, and I called it my Jane Austen novel.” (Gussow; 2002). We see that it’s not only Jane Austen’s life that influence Atonement, but also several books that she had written. Ian McEwan took a lot of key points from Austen’s life and books, changed them a little bit, and wrote this story. Even though Jane Austen had a huge influence on Atonement, Jane Austen and Ian McEwan had their similarities and differences as authors. McEwan’s writing style is detailed and descriptive. Jane Austen has more of a burlesque style in her works. (litcharts; 2018).
While reading McEwan’s Atonement, there are countless parallels between Jane Austen life with Briony’s life and her works and the story in Atonement. The character Briony mirrors Jane Austen in the sense that she is has always been a writer who face the struggles of becoming an author. Austen’s books Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park, and Pride and Prejudice all are seen in Atonement with the connection between Briony and Catherine (Northanger Abbey), the connection of the parents, the aunt, and uncle being awful parents that it affects the children’s behavior in a bad way (Mansfield Park), and the connection between the relationship of Robbie and Cecilia and Mr. Darcy and Miss Bennet (Pride and Prejudice). We see the effect that Jane Austen has on Atonement through these examples, but we also see Ian McEwan on his book that makes it different. In Atonement, we get to see Ian McEwan take different key points from Austen’s life and works, and make it his own modern allusions, if you will. Even though they lived in different time periods, and they have different writing styles, we can still appreciate them both along with their works on top of learning a lot.
Charles Manson Family
Charles Manson was one of the most creative criminal masterminds in the criminal world. He was so influential to people in the late 1960s. Manson was an American criminal that lead a murderous campaign with his followers that was known as “The Family”. The Manson family was a cult that obeyed every order Charles would instruct them to do. They were connected to the barbaric murder of actress Sharon Tate and many other people. Manson then received the death penalty in 1974 but then that was commuted to life in prison the following year.
November 12, 1934, Charles Milles Maddox was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. But after his mother Kathleen Maddox, a 16-year-old girl who was an alcoholic and a prostitute. She married William Manson, that’s where Charles received the last name. Their marriage quickly ended and Charles landed in an all boy school for stealing. The school was called Gibault School for Boys in Terre Haute, Indiana. For the next twenty years, he was in and out of reform schools and prison for various crimes. On March 21, 1967, Mason was released from prison but he believed he was not ready for the outside world not after being in jail for half his life. Soon after his released he moved to San Francisco and meets Gary Hinmin who introduces him to Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys. Before Charles murders, Dennis of the Beach Boy had allowed Manson and several of his family members to stay at his home with him. He then auditions for Terry Melcher son of a friend/producer of the popular 1960s band the Beach Boys. Mr.Melcher, later on, said he was not interested in signing a contract with Manson. But word around that time was that Charles wrote some songs for him.
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In 1995 while he was in and out of prison sentences Charles Manson married at the age of 17 years old to a hospital waitress Rosalie Jean Willis. They then moved to California and a son, Charles Manson Jr who then later committed suicide in the 1990s. A year later Willis leaves with their child to be with her new lover and later on divorces Manson. A few years later he goes on to marry a prostitute called Leona Rae “Candy” Stevens with who he had his second child with. But that did last because Steven then divorced Manson in 1963. November 2014, Charles at the age of 80 with his wife “Star” obtained a marriage license and she was only 26 years old. However, their marriage license expired in 2015 and the allegations were made that she only wanted to marry Manson so she could publicly display his corpse for profit after his death.
Furthermore, Manson was an influencer but not in the kindest ways. He had what he called a family but it was really a cult of around 100 followers and they became known as “The Family”. Manson was driven by drugs such as LSD and magic mushrooms also artworks and music of that time mostly The Beatles. His favorite song was “Helter Skelter” from their White Album. He strongly believed that The Beatles were telling him that he was a sort of god and needed to do what was being told. After Manson was released for petty crimes in 1967, the Manson Family moved to San Francisco and then later to a deserted ranch in San Fernando Valley. The followers began to believe without question that Charles Manson himself was Jesus and his prophecies of a race war. The followers killed many people for Manson and these were the following people.. July 1969 Hinman was killed by the followers called Bobby Beausoleil and he was accomplished by Mary Brunner and Susan Atkins. August 8-9,1969 instructions were given out by Manson that small group to go out and kill Polanski pregnant wife, actress Tate, writer Wojciech Frykowski, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring and, Steven Parent who was a family friend. The followers were Atkins, Tex Watson, and Patricia Krenwinkel. Linda Kasabian accompanies them as being a lookout.August 9-10,1969 he was displeased at the sloppiness from the murder the night before.Accompanies a group of followers on a search for victims. The people who were in the car were Watson, Atkins, Krenwinkel, Kasabian as well as Leslie, Van Houten and Steve “Clem” Grogan.Several hours pass and the group comes upon a couple at the supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary. They are brutally murdered by Watson, Atkins, Krenwinkel and Van Houten. October 1969 Charles and his followers at another remote location called “Baker Ranch” were in custody of the police because of a sneaking suspicion of auto theft. On November 6, 1969, Atkins was already charged in the murder of Hinman.Atkins tells Virginia Castro that was also an inmate that she killed Tate “because we wanted to do a crime that would shock the world, that the world would have to stand up and take notice.” November 12th LA Sheriff’s detective interviewed Al Springer a motorcycle gang member who had some association with Charles.Springer than informs detectives that Charles did inform him of the killings that happened Tate died. November 18th Deputy District Attorney Vincent T Bugliosi was assigned the case. A couple of days later Watson gets arrested in Texas while his lawyers fight extradition to California for nine months. And finally, on December 8 of 1969 Manson, Watson, Atkins, Krenwinkel and Kasabian are indicted for the murders of Tate and her friends. The jury the indicts the five, plus Van Houten for the LaBianca murders. A family members Kasabian is given immunity when she gives her testimony against Manson and the others. And from there everything goes downhill after January 15 the lawyers are fighting for seven months and gladly a few days later all the defendants are found guilty. March 29,1971, Manson, Krenwinkel, Atkins and Van Houten receive the death penalty. Not long after Watson is found guilty of the seven people and sentenced to death but after California took off the death penalty all their cases went to life imprisonment. Manson years in jail tried and tried to get parole but it is always denied. On November 19, 2017, Charles Manson two days after coming back to the hospital at the age of 83 died of natural causes. As of the major players of the Manson Family got what the verdict gave them. First was Susan “Sadie” Denise Atkins dies in prison on September 24, 2009. Bobby Beausoleil in 1969 convicted of the murder of Gary and serving life also denied parole for the 18th time and will try again in 3 years. Bruce Davis is serving a life sentence but in 2017 got recommended for parole. Governor Jerry denies parole for Davis and this is his fifth time California governors do not release him from prison. August 14, 2009, Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme is released on parole after serving 34 years. Steven “Clem” Grogan is released on parole to show where the missing body of Donald Shea that was killed in 1969. In 2014 Patricia Krenwinkel interviewed in “Life After Manson” and then on June 22, 2017, Krenwinkel is denied parole for the 14th time in five years they said she can try again. Leslie Van Houten on September 6, 2017, they were reviewing her release and it was once again denied and she is able to try again in March 2019. And Charles D. “Tex” Watson was denied parole 17th time in 2016 and can try again in 2021.
Charles Manson was not just a little boy with a lost mom and sorry childhood. He was one of the greatest influencers in the criminal life. Charles had made a cult out of 100 followers, those 100 followers had families of their own! He never once laid a finger on nobody physically but mentally he had. People killed for him and he was the greatest to them… The lord and savior as they would say.
