Prompt: Compare how two writers you have studied choose to begin their works, and the ways in which each beginning connects to the work as a whole.
Context
Text 1: Atonement by Ian McEwan
Freytag’s Pyramid (Plot)
•
Exposition: In 1935 England, 13-year-old Briony Tallis (protagonist and antagonist), an aspiring writer, misinterprets interactions between her older sister Cecilia and the housekeeper’s son, Robbie Turner, believing him to be a threat.
•
Rising Action: Briony falsely accuses Robbie of assaulting her cousin Lola, leading to his arrest and imprisonment. This accusation alters the course of multiple lives, as Robbie is later sent to fight in World War II while Cecilia, who loves him, distances herself from her family.
•
Climax: Robbie struggles to survive the war, making his way to Dunkirk, while Cecilia waits for him in London. Meanwhile, Briony, now older and remorseful, realizes the extent of her mistake and desires to atone.
•
Falling Action: Briony visits Cecilia and Robbie, seeking forgiveness, but they reject her apology. She decides to become a nurse and later a writer, using her craft as a means of redemption.
•
Resolution: An elderly Briony reveals that in reality, Robbie died at Dunkirk and Cecilia perished in the Blitz. The happy ending she wrote for them was a fictionalized attempt at atonement, as she could never truly undo the harm she caused.
McEwan’s Intention:
McEwan plays with narrative structure to make readers question the reliability of storytellers, including Briony and even himself as an author. With a metafictional twist, he explores how literature shapes reality and whether storytelling can serve as a form of moral reckoning. Ultimately, Atonement forces readers to confront the limits of forgiveness and the inescapable weight of past mistakes.
•
Central themes: subjectivity of truth and perspective, power of storytelling, guilt and redemption, class and social inequality.
Text 2: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Freytag’s Pyramid (Plot)
•
Exposition: In 1959, the Clutter family (protagonist)—Herb, Bonnie, Nancy, and Kenyon—live a peaceful, respectable life in Holcomb, Kansas. Meanwhile, ex-convicts Perry Smith and Dick Hickock (antagonists), recently paroled, plan to rob the Clutters based on false information that Herb keeps a safe full of cash.
•
Rising Action: Perry and Dick break into the Clutter home, expecting to find money but discover there is no safe. Despite this, they brutally murder all four family members and flee. The crime shocks the small town, leading to an intense police investigation.
•
Climax: Perry and Dick are eventually captured in Las Vegas after being tracked down through a series of leads, including a tip from a former cellmate. They are interrogated, and Perry ultimately confesses to the murders.
•
Falling Action: The trial takes place, and despite arguments about Perry’s troubled childhood and mental state, both men are sentenced to death. Their appeals for clemency fail, reinforcing the justice system’s strict stance on capital punishment.
•
Resolution: Perry and Dick are executed by hanging in 1965. Capote ends the novel with a haunting reflection on the crime’s impact, questioning whether justice has truly been served and highlighting the complex nature of crime, punishment, and morality.
Capote’s Intention:
Capote wanted to pioneer a new literary form—the nonfiction novel—that combined journalistic detail with literary storytelling. He crafted a narrative that forces readers to see criminals not just as monsters, but as deeply flawed humans. While he never explicitly condemns or justifies their actions, In Cold Blood subtly pushes readers to reflect on the nature of justice, the role of society in shaping individuals, and the fine line between good and evil.
Central themes:
nature versus nurture, fragility of the American Dream, morality of capital punishment.
Outline
Application of C&C Chart
Atonement | Similarity | In Cold Blood |
Makes it seem like it’s a third person perspective but subtly reveals Briony’s involvement in the story’s construction
Techniques:
- Formal voice
- Retrospective
- Narrative Free indirect
- discourse
→ intention: present limitations of storytelling (as a tool for making up real-world wrongdoings) | Narrative Voice:
Third person omniscient
Techniques:
- Unreliable narrator
→ used to create a sense of reality | Although in third-person, there is a clear subjective perspective toward the people of Holcomb.
Techniques:
- Descriptive language
- Mood
- Juxtaposition
→ intention: reveal
subjectivity inherent in the creation of any narrative |
Briony’s imagination is presented as having infinite possibilities but the end reveals that she cannot “atone” in real-life
Techniques:
- Diction
- Foreshadowing
- Motif
- Contrast
→ intention: emphasize danger of confusing imagination with reality | Theme: Truth
Techniques:
-Tension
- Cyclical structure
→ fiction’s power (providing closure) and limitations (blurring truth) in presenting truth | Immersive and subjective that makes it clear that it’s from the author’s imagination
Techniques:
- Creative descriptions
- Figurative language
→ intention: consider deeper causes behind violent acts by humanizing the murderers |
Essay
Prompt: Compare how two writers you have studied choose to begin their works, and the ways in which each beginning connects to the work as a whole.
The given prompt highlights that the beginning of a story is a construct which the author uses to set up the rest of the events that follow. It also suggests that there are many possible beginnings to choose from, so the decision about where to start from becomes a hugely significant aspect of any text, as it will influence all that follows and, if effective, also suggest a world of events prior to that beginning. This notion of the beginning as a construct holds true whether the text is fiction or non-fiction, as the shaping of a narrative is a series of subjective decisions a writer makes, regardless of whether they are writing about real events. This can be seen through a comparison of a fictional work, Ian McEwan’s Atonement, alongside a creative non-fiction work, Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. In the beginnings of these two texts both writers start in a fairly conventional way: they both give us an exposition that introduces us to characters and their worlds before the onset of some dramatic and life-changing events, while also laying the groundwork for this drama and the central ideas their texts will explore. While the setting, characters and events in Capote’s novel are real, he constructs a beginning and a narrative that is more fictional in style which, ironically, makes the characters seem more human. McEwan’s world is fictional yet he writes in a detailed way that also makes us believe in the characters as if they are real people. As such, both authors construct beginnings that create verisimilitude for the readers and in both cases this is of fundamental importance for the central concerns each text goes on to explore.
In the beginning of both Atonement and In Cold Blood the narrative voice creates a sense of assured reality which, when one looks back after reading the whole book, also raises questions about the larger issues with the text as a whole. This is evident in Atonement where the story opens with narration that at first glance seems to be third person omniscient, styled in a way that is traditional and steeped in realism. McEwan evokes this sense by the slightly formal prose he uses to describe his characters, with elongated sentences and slightly mannered diction that is reminiscent of prose from a 19th century British novel. Yet from the opening chapter there are nuances noticeable in the narration, nuances that allude to the realization later on that the narrator at hand is actually Briony Tallis, and that McEwan constructed the beginning with the intent of having Briony’s self-consciousness as just noticeable enough for the reader to detect some discrepancies in his otherwise realist narration style. These tensions – barely noticeable on a first read - are present in the sense of a retrospective narrative, such as when the narrator states that “Briony was hardly to know it then, but this was the project’s highest point of fulfilment.” The use of free indirect discourse, with its knowing mimicry of the young Briony’s thinking, is another tell: “Her passion for tidiness was also satisfied, for an unruly world can be made just so.” By employing a degree of self-conscious narration, from the very start McEwan hints towards the higher purpose of ‘Atonement’, which is concerned with Briony’s attempt to redeem herself for her crime by projecting herself into the thoughts and feelings of her characters.
The narration in In Cold Blood is also an assured third person omniscient voice, confidently setting the scene with a description of Holcomb, the small village where the murder of the Clutters is about to take place. Truman Capote is notably absent from the narration, although we know that he investigated the crime as a journalist, visited Holcomb and met with many of the people involved, forming a particularly close bond with Perry Smith. None of this is explicitly stated in the text, although – as with Atonement – once we know more and revisit the text after a first reading, we can see aspects that undermine the supposed objectivity Capote’s narrative voice seems to be striving for. In the description of Holcomb as a place where no traveller ever stops and where there is not “much to see” we can sense the city-dweller’s condescension for the “ordinary life” of its inhabitants. This superiority becomes more sinister when an equivalence is drawn between the lives of the murderers and the lives of the murdered: “At the time not a soul in sleeping Holcomb heard them – four shotgun blasts that, all told, ended six human lives.” While this is a statement of fact, it is an early indication of Capote’s fascination with the killers, particularly Perry, and the callous approach his book takes towards the victims. This is apparent throughout the opening sequence as the narrative cuts between vivid, energised descriptions of the murderers and more sedate, patronising descriptions of the victims in the build-up to the murder. While the third person omniscient narrative voice might appear to be an objective choice, the selection, ordering and perspective given on events is highly subjective. The opening of In Cold Blood makes it clear that we are reading something based on reality yet written in a creative and subjective style.
Both books deal with the concept of truth and are both explorations in the ways in which fiction, or creative writing, can convey and conceal the truth; this is apparent in the way both authors begin their texts. McEwan crafts his beginning with a focus on stories as literary artifacts, constructed in order to make sense of the reality the writers face. From the very start Atonement is a story concerned with the making of fiction, opening as it does with the words ‘The Play’ - a plunge that McEwan uses to signal that this is a story about storytelling. His beginning is a description of ‘The Trials of Arabella,’ the play written by thirteen year old Briony. The significance of the play is propagated by the fact that McEwan introduces the story to us with this first and foremost, and recurring motifs of the ‘two lovers’ in the play haunt the rest of the novel until at the very end it becomes clear to us that the lovers and their sad tale mirrors that of Briony’s sister Cecilia and her lover Robbie. ‘Atonement’ ends not only with the revelation of Cecilia and Robbie’s deaths but also that the older Briony is actually the narrator of the events, using fiction to seek redemption for her part in their separation and deaths. However, atonement is not possible as Briony realizes towards the end of the novel: “No atonement for God, or novelists, even if they are atheists.” Indeed, by the time we reach its concluding pages, it is clear that McEwan’s novel is about the limitations as much as the possibilities of fiction. While the book begins with the seemingly limitless possibilities of Briony’s precocious creativity and imagination, and her childish belief in the power of literature as a “magical process” and “a kind of soaring, an achievable form of flight, of fancy, of the imagination”, by the end this has been tempered by her experiences and the trouble that her imagination and her construction of a narrative caused for Robbie and Cecilia. The novel ends were it began with ‘The Trials of Arabella’ now being performed by a new generation of children for the older Briony’s birthday, causing her to reflect that she has “not travelled so very far after all.” Fiction serves a purpose - it can entertain and provide structure and meaning, for example with happy endings – but it should not be mistaken for reality. The way McEwan connects the beginning and ending of his novel makes this idea apparent.
This is a message that Truman Capote also conveys through In Cold Blood, albeit inadvertently, with the beginning setting the tone for a fictional shaping of real people, places and events. The narrative perspective takes us inside characters’ heads and imagines their thinking in a way that Capote could never have truly known: Herb Clutter, for example, who was dead by the time Capote had ever heard of him, is introduced at the beginning as a man who was “always certain of what he wanted from the world” and Capote proceeds to detail his morning routine and thoughts about his family for several pages. While some of the details are based in fact, most of this section involves Capote imagining what Herb Clutter might have been thinking about his family, his life and other members of the Holcomb community. The book ends with another such moment of invention, with an imagined scene where Alvin Dewey meets Susan Kidwell. Dewey’s moment of reflection upon meeting her, “just such a young woman as Nancy might have been”, sets up the poignant closing line with “the whisper of wind voices in the wind-bent wheat”, and Capote’s creativity here may be seeking to convey a truth of some kind, but it is not a truth of what happened in reality as the meeting never took place. Capote’s book reveals that creative writing can do great things – it can help us imagine other people’s lives, it can help us empathise with people who we usually might only see being reduced and vilified in the media (such as Perry Smith), and it can help us find meaning in places and events, even if this is metaphorical or symbolic meaning. However, as with McEwan’s message, it is important we do not confuse this with reality, although as is clear from the very beginning, Capote has no interest in pointing this out to us.
Ultimately, both Ian McEwan and Truman Capote begin their books as they mean to go on – in McEwan’s case this means a focus on fiction and storytelling in a nuanced and self-referential way; for Capote it means a confident, seemingly omniscient presentation of events, with no acknowledgement of the role that imagination and subjectivity will play. By the time we reach the end of each text, these beginnings do not seem “arbitrary.” The connection between the beginning and ending of Atonement creates a sense of order and completion, a feat that fiction can achieve that is not attainable in reality. Capote too gives us this sense of order and completion, despite writing about reality, beginning and ending in the wheat fields of Kansas. Ironically, it is the work of fiction – Atonement – that seems to be the more honest and truthful work.
Marking Criteria (old)
Criterion A: Knowledge, understanding and interpretation (10 marks)
9 out of 10: There is clearly a perceptive knowledge and understanding of both texts in relation to the question. While the texts are very different, the student develops a convincing comparative interpretation focused on the relationship between reality and fiction.
Criterion B: Analysis and evaluation (10 marks)
9 out of 10: The student's focus on narrative voice is effective, and the connections made between the beginnings and endings of each text are also insightful. The comparison and evaluation of fictional techniques used in fiction and non-fiction is interesting, although it could perhaps have been explored more, especially in regard to In Cold Blood.
Criterion C: Focus and organisation (5 marks)
5 out of 5: The essay is very well structured, alternating between the texts through logical points of comparison.
Criterion D: Language (5 marks)
5 out of 5: The language is very clear, effective and precise overall.
Marking Criteria (new)
Criterion A: Knowledge, understanding and interpretation (5 marks)
4 out of 5: There is clearly a perceptive knowledge and understanding of both texts in relation to the question. While the texts are very different, the student develops a convincing comparative interpretation focused on the relationship between reality and fiction.
Criterion B.1: Analysis and evaluation (5 marks)
4 out of 5: The student's focus on narrative voice is effective for both texts and the comparison and evaluation of fictional techniques used in fiction and non-fiction is interesting, although it could perhaps have been explored more, especially in regard to In Cold Blood.
Criterion B.2: Comparative Analysis (5 marks)
4 out of 5: The connections made between the beginnings and endings of each text were insightful, especially with great and lucid comparison points between the two texts.
Criterion C: Focus and organisation (5 marks)
5 out of 5: The essay is very well structured, alternating between the texts through logical points of comparison.
Criterion D: Language (5 marks)
5 out of 5: The language is very clear, effective and precise overall.