Date Posted:11:55:53 02/21/08 Thu Author:Steve Subject: Re: On Chesil Beach - Comments In reply to:
Tee
's message, "On Chesil Beach - Comments" on 19:02:40 09/26/07 Wed
I'd like to comment on your 2nd point; i.e. the support Flo's family gave to her choice of "a rather unsophisticated, undirected fellow". I think this raises an interesting link between 'OCB' and 'Atonement' along the lines of unacceptable sexual relations within the family environs.
As has been mentioned on other discussion boards, there is a strong case for Flo having been sexually abused by her father when younger. One of the 'clues' to this in my opinion was her father's over the top support of her marrying the first man who came along. Her mother I feel supported her choice due to her recognition of what had been going on but her parallel inability/reluctance to bring it up through her obvious fear of destroying the pretence of a loving family unit. For both parents therefore, here was a chance to be rid of the 'problem'.
Likewise, there is the discussion taking place elsewhere over whether Robbie and Cecilia in 'Atonement' are actually half-siblings as a result of her (official) father's infidelity with Robbie's mother. Here again the father stays away 'on business' and the mother stays quiet to preserve the very English pretence that nothing is amiss.
A further similarity on the subject crops up with the occurance of an opportune interuption to the status quo. In 'OCB' it's Flo's discovery of a potential partner which will take her away, whilst in Atonement it is Briony's certainty that it was Robbie who was responsible for the 'rape' of Lola and the family's seemingly over simplistic acceptance of this accusation. Briony's mother and father are more than relieved to see the back of Robbie as it lifts the 'evidence' of a crime committed years before by the father and the suffered silence assumed by the mother (perhaps one of the reasons she finds such need to retreat into the silence of her bedroom under the excuse of a migraine) and for which atonement has been attempted ever since. The parents fail to recognize however that whilst the father's actions in atoning for his lust have been brought to a form of closure, the process of atonement for their youngest daughter has only just started.
Perhaps Ian McEwan will be writing a sequel to 'OCB' looking at the 1960s from Flo's father's point of view...!
