The Unattainability of Truth Emily King 12th Grade

Truth is a universal theme that has been the fascination of people since the dawn of time. It is the underlying, almost primal reason that urges mankind to progress; a noble quest for knowledge, and an uneasiness that the essence of truth will always linger at our fingertips, nudged just beyond our grasp. Postmodern novelists, Ian McEwan and Tim O’Brien communicate a fascination for truth-seeking in their respective novels, Atonement and In the Lake of the Woods. This is displayed throughout both books, exploring perspective, the role of the subconscious and use of deceit, in order to engage readers in consideration of the importance of truth; not only in fiction, but in daily life.

In both novels, the author highlights the unreliability of subjective truths through the use of different character perspectives. In Atonement, the omniscient narrator shifts to present one perspective against another, at times offering several character’s viewpoints of the same event. An example where this is illustrated is in Robbie and Cecilia’s dramatic scene at the fountain, where McEwan juxtaposes a stifled, “writhing”[1] account of events between the two with Briony’s imagined “proposal of marriage”[2] as she watches the same scene,...