'In Crime Writing There Are Always Victims": Pinkie versus Rosie, and Briony versus Robbie Callum Madle 12th Grade

Throughout crime fiction such as ‘Atonement’ and ‘Brighton Rock’, unwitting characters fall to the machinations that antagonists - even immature antagonists - set for them. While some might argue that the characters in Graham Greene’s novel ‘Brighton Rock’ and Ian McEwan’s ‘Atonement’ are responsible for their own fate and partake in criminality themselves, Rose, for example, is clearly presented as the victim of Pinkie’s criminality, and Robbie becomes the victim of Briony’s jealousy and fantastical delusions, as well as the victim of false imprisonment and of war.

Greene depicts Rose as a victim in ‘Brighton Rock’, creating a character with whom the audience can easily sympathise and pity. The author refers to Rose as having the “fear, obstinacy and incomprehension of a wild animal”; these negative adjectives evoke connotations of weakness and innocence, which are further emphasised by the description of Rose as a “wild animal”. Naturalistic imagery juxtaposed with Rose’s descent into criminal subservience enforces her status as a victim of Pinkie’s criminality as well as the poor socio-economic conditions that she faces. Rose cannot escape her subservience and subjugation, as prior to the Second World War, in the society in...