Atonement

by Ian McEwan

Atonement: Foil 1 key example

Part 1, Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Order and Disorder:

Early in the first part, McEwan develops Briony and Cecilia as foils for one another, which foreshadows their impending rift. The differences between the Tallis sisters—cemented through imagery, metaphors, and similes—fuel the motif of order versus disorder. Whereas Briony loves tidiness and regularity, Cecilia feels at home in the very opposite. McEwan connects Cecilia's cluttered room to her distaste for familiarity and her desire to break free from her family.

McEwan uses descriptions of the sisters' bedrooms to emphasize their differences. In the first chapter, the reader gets an impression of Briony through her personal space.

Whereas her big sister’s room was a stew of unclosed books, unfolded clothes, unmade bed, unemptied ashtrays, Briony’s was a shrine to her controlling demon: the model farm spread across a deep window ledge consisted of the usual animals, but all facing one way—toward their owner—as if about to break into song, and even the farmyard hens were neatly corralled.