The Evasiveness Of Truth In 'The Trials Of Arabella'
The Evasiveness of Truth [Assignment 2, Part 1]
“The truth is always a compound of two half- truths, and you never reach it, because there is always something more to say.” -Tom Stoppard. Atonement describes the nature of language and storytelling in a way that precludes it from giving us the truth, as those mediums are incapable of doing so. Ian McEwan’s Novel Atonement shows that because stories and language can be distorted, provide a false sense of control, and can divide and alienate people, they dissociate us from the truth. Regardless, stories are an important part of human life. Some argue that stories are what define us as human beings. When we face this dilemma about the nature of stories, the very way we live our lives is brought …show more content…
Stories also hide the truth from us because they provide a false sense of security and control over that which we don’t truly understand. We see this when Briony writes he play The Trials of Arabella. Briony creates “A universe reduced to what was said in it…” where she has ultimate control over the story. “[E]very utterance was delivered at the extremity of some feeling or other…” in her play because Briony felt the need to have total control over her story. This is not unique to just a young girl in a story. Throughout our lives, we struggle for control, despite our limited understanding of the world we seek certainty in all we do. We never truly achieve it in fact, but rather we find it in stories. In a realm where what’s true is dependent on the person who perceives it, they can become God. Twisting stories and ideas to fit their whims. All too often we consider what happens in stories possible in real life. It only can be real in the sense that it’s part of someone’s perception. The truth is that, like Mr. Stoppard said, “…there is always something more to say.” There are no stories in truth because the truth is the world keeps spinning, the passage of time, the experiences of others, the existence of reality never stop. Some might say this is a benefit to Stories end, and they fit neatly into our desires for
“The truth is always a compound of two half- truths, and you never reach it, because there is always something more to say.” -Tom Stoppard. Atonement describes the nature of language and storytelling in a way that precludes it from giving us the truth, as those mediums are incapable of doing so. Ian McEwan’s Novel Atonement shows that because stories and language can be distorted, provide a false sense of control, and can divide and alienate people, they dissociate us from the truth. Regardless, stories are an important part of human life. Some argue that stories are what define us as human beings. When we face this dilemma about the nature of stories, the very way we live our lives is brought …show more content…
Stories also hide the truth from us because they provide a false sense of security and control over that which we don’t truly understand. We see this when Briony writes he play The Trials of Arabella. Briony creates “A universe reduced to what was said in it…” where she has ultimate control over the story. “[E]very utterance was delivered at the extremity of some feeling or other…” in her play because Briony felt the need to have total control over her story. This is not unique to just a young girl in a story. Throughout our lives, we struggle for control, despite our limited understanding of the world we seek certainty in all we do. We never truly achieve it in fact, but rather we find it in stories. In a realm where what’s true is dependent on the person who perceives it, they can become God. Twisting stories and ideas to fit their whims. All too often we consider what happens in stories possible in real life. It only can be real in the sense that it’s part of someone’s perception. The truth is that, like Mr. Stoppard said, “…there is always something more to say.” There are no stories in truth because the truth is the world keeps spinning, the passage of time, the experiences of others, the existence of reality never stop. Some might say this is a benefit to Stories end, and they fit neatly into our desires for