with Cecilia, go down the drain. Life in prison is an unbearable experience (though it will teach him many things). This is undoubtedly the most challenging stage in Robbie’s life. It teaches him to view life from a new perspective.

After prison, although faced with multiple challenges, he becomes even more responsible. Thoughts about Cecilia, and the possibility of being cleared from the criminal record, give him more reasons not to give up in life. At this point, readers begin to see a practical and positive side of Robbie. Further, his sense of optimism and purpose becomes more evident when he decides to search for his father. Without a father figure in his life, Robbie feels useless and rootless. He desperately needs a father, and for this reason, his urge to become a father heightens. Now, Robbie is finally in his adulthood phase; he adopts the responsibilities of an adult and also aspires to become a father.

Robbie Turner, of Ian McEwan's Atonement, is a dynamic character, which means that he changes and develops as the events of the novel unfold. Robbie goes through several significant life changes that all impact him in different ways: first of all, he leaves the Tallis estate to go Cambridge and medical school, he realizes he is in love with Cecilia Tallis, he is unfairly and wrongfully imprisoned after being accused of rape, and he goes to war. If the reader views these life changes through the lens of social class in Britain, Robbie's character changes and adapts to the different class roles of each experience.

As the son of the Tallis's cleaning lady, Robbie's early life is somewhat defined by his working class position, but he commiserates with the Tallis children and grows up with them, which mitigates the effect of his class at that early stage. Later, when Jack Tallis pays for Robbie's education, Robbie goes to study amongst elite members of British society, which also changes Robbie, and he returns to the Tallis estate a more confident person. When Robbie finally expresses his love for Cecilia and finds that she reciprocates, they meet emotionally as equals, but Robbie is then cast into a lower class once again when he is imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. As a soldier in World War II, he experiences the equalizing effects of violence and wartime injury and sickness, eventually dying, like many others, alone.

Robbie is a very dynamic character who has to face extremely difficult situations throughout the course of the novel; those situations will inevitably change him.  We learn quite a bit about Robbie as a young boy, growing up on the estate, through character descriptions in Cecilia's mind, and also though Robbie's own reflections.  He was a happy boy, hard-working, and in school, very ambitious.  When we meet him as the novel begins, he is filled with hope, life, dreams, and the sure confidence of having the world at his feet.  He nurses dreams of being a doctor, and is fully confident that he can achieve that goal.  He has the assurance, ambition and innocent dreams of a youth who has lived a good life.

After the events that change everything, we meet Robbie as a soldier, fighting in World War Two.  Gone is his confience; instead, he is unsure and hesitant.  Gone is his happy dreaming; instead, he is filled with impatience and cynicism.  He is hardened, bitter about events from the past, and restless.  He doesn't like fighting the war, and instead is anxious to get his life back in order from the time that he lost.  Instead of an outspoken leader, he is a quiet, melancholy leader.  There is a sense of desparacy about him, and even hopelessness.  One can't help but understand the changes that he has gone through, and have sympathy for what he has had to live with.

I hope that those thoughts helped; good luck!