Atonement and the Question

Atonement is an interesting book to apply to this question. adversity is thrown at every single main character in the book and none of them escape it unscathed. Briony falsely accuses Robbie of raping her cousin Lola and this act send him to jail. But he keeps in contact with his love Cecilia and this is what helps him survive through jail and then the war. What helps Robbie overcome his adversity is the love between him and Cecilia. It's an interesting concept that is very different from the Odyssey. It's the idea that an outside force, love, can assist in overcoming adversity. Something outside of your own being can give you the strength to over come obstacles. The people without this force backing them, fail. Like Lola. She was raped but she allowed her cousin to take control and in the end she did not overcome her adversity, but rather she ended up marrying her rapist. So in this book, the idea is that you cannot overcome adversity alone and that love will always pull you through. Love is a powerful emotion and literature has often portrayed it as a savior.