Atonement

Robbie spends more than three years in prison. Due to the outbreak of World War II, the authorities offer him early release in exchange for joining the army. He becomes a private and is sent to France, where his fellow soldiers know him as Turner. After the German army attacks his unit, and an exploding mine injures Robbie. The shrapnel wound in his side causes him pain as he walks through rural France with two other soldiers, Corporal Mace and Corporal Nettle. Though the corporals outrank Robbie, Robbie’s experience growing up in the countryside makes him the de facto leader, whom they call “guv’nor” (119), an informal term of respect. The three soldiers stay in the barn of a French farm. That evening, they share food and wine with the brothers who run the farm. Thanks to Robbie’s “running translation” (123), the brothers describe the damage the German army has wrought. Robbie tells the brothers that he and his comrades were separated from their units and that they are marching to Dunkirk, the French coastal town from which the British army will evacuate. Robbie thanks the brothers for their hospitality and promises them that he will return “with even less conviction than before” (124).