Brian Clough: Family Man

David Peace's book The Damned United chronicles--and likely dramatizes--the career of Brian Clough, former football player and general manager for Darby and Leeds United.  The majority of the novel depicts Clough in an extremely negative light.  Peace emphasizes Clough's overly brutish businessman attitude, throwing countless swear words into the text and illustrating his harsh behavior with extreme real-life happenings.  Clough may be thought of as unforgivably inconsiderate to the people with whom he conducts business—from directors to players.  However, among all of the individuals that Clough despises, there are people in his life that he seems to genuinely value: his family.  While Clough's angry and explosive personality drives him to act very rudely towards numerous people in his life, he still has affection for his wife, two sons and his late mother.

Although Clough does not necessarily perform grand gestures of love toward his family, his admiration of them is evident in the narrative.  For example, Clough makes the most out of his time visiting his family at home.  He remembers when his sons’ midterm holidays are and makes the time in his schedule to visit home at that time rather than do business.  Additionally, he frequently asks his sons if they want to come with him to his workplace and may even seem slightly disappointed when they do not tag along.  He is kind to his wife, who has to bear seeing him on his worst days.  Although he throws tantrums around many business people and football players, he never once utters an unkind word to his wife.  She and his children remain frequently on his mind.

Additionally, Clough's utter regret of not being with his mother at the time of her death indicates his love for her.  Due to the frantic football business, Clough is in the middle of an extremely busy period when his mother suddenly dies.  This shocks him and troubles him while he proceeds in his career as evident by Clough's repetition of his thought: "Everything bad--You've lost your mam.  You've lost your mam.  You've lost your mam" (200).  As this thought sinks in, he reflects, "Every time you close your eyes, that's all you ever see, her face in the kitchen.  In the doorway.  In the garden.  In her hat.  In her nightie.  In the hospital.  You wish you'd buried your mam, not cremated her.  Now there is no grave, no place to go" (210).  Evidently, Clough is extremely regretful that he could not have been with his mother during her final moments of life.  Furthermore, he longs to have a place in which he can visit her on Earth; however, he despises himself for not making this realization earlier.

While Brian Clough acts bluntly, harshly and even sometimes brutishly toward countless people in his life, he consistently holds his family in a high regard.  Thus, although he does not embody the stereotypical family man persona, Clough certainly loves his wife, two sons and late mother.  Even though he may not clearly indicate this love to the members of his family, it definitely exists within him.

Time

              Although the novel obviously has numerous examples of repetitive phrases and actions scattered throughout, there was one repetition that struck me as particularly interesting, as it lined up with a notion that seems to be present throughout the novel. This repetition was the constant checking of his watch or rather the constant checking of his wrist even when the watch was missing. Every time that he checked his wrist for the watch and failed to find the time, he was firmly insistent that the watch was to be found immediately, “I am on my hands and knees on the training ground, looking for the bloody watch of mine in the grass and the dirt” (124).

 

              This struck me as particularly interesting because I believe he wasn’t just obsessive about it because of the fact that he lost it. I believe this had more to do with the notion that he was losing time or that he was wasting it in a sense. This hyper concern was him expressing that need to be aware of the time that he was using and to be aware of how much time he had left.

 

              But the checking of the watch wasn’t the only repetitive thing about time. There was also a significant portion of the novel where his mother has just died and he repeats the things either she or he could have done with time. Or what he would rather have done with time when she died.

 

              Then there is the obvious example of him feeling that the first three months of his time with the Leeds was crucial for him to make the changes that needed to be done. The time that he felt he was allotted to make trades and get his team the way he wanted felt strangled and rushed, but it was essential that it be done within that three months.

 

              Finally there is the obvious fact that half the novel is dedicated to looking back on the time that he had in Derby County. How they were his team and the time that he had with them was what he was truly meant to do with this life. It is in these sections that he reflects on how his time was well spent. He never expressly states it but I believe that he thinks the Leeds are a waste of his valuable time. They are Don Revie’s team and they always will be. This was “His corridor. Round the corner. His corner. Down the tunnel. His tunnel. Out into the light and out onto the pitch. His pitch. His field. His field of loss. His field of blood. His field of sacrifice. His field of slaughter. His field of vengeance. His field of victory” (259)! Brian feels that he has no business spending his time here when none of it is his. His time was well-spent and right when he was with Derby.

 

Time in this novel seems to be something that needs to be hyper valued and that needs to be spent as if it is a precious commodity. I believe this stems from what we were discussing earlier in class. His full time as a player was taken from him because of the injury. And then the time he could have spent with Derby County was taken from him too soon because of his sporadic behavior. Then the hypervigilance with time could be foreshadowing that once again he will lose his time with the Leeds and be fired before he really has a chance to show them his full potential.

Recurring Failure in Atonement

Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement struck me in a different way than most other novels I have read in the past.  Among all of the themes and ideas we have discussed concerning the novel, and perhaps some we haven’t, one I found to be most interesting and unusual is the recurring failure that characters experience throughout the novel.  Furthermore, I question whether or not Briony’s fasle depictions in the novel constitute yet another failure on her part, as opposed to a way of successfully atoning for the wrongful act she committed at the age of thirteen.

            Many of the failures in the novel are just unfulfilled hopes or dreams that various characters experience.  Some of these failures in the form of unfulfilled hopes and dreams are small ones, while others are quite colossal and have resounding impacts on the people involved.  Beginning with part one of the novel, Briony expresses her passion for writing.  Specifically, in part one when her brother Leon is set to come home to visit the family, Briony writes a play to be performed the night of his arrival.  She pours all of her time and passion into writing this play and then accepts the task of directing it as well.  Of course, things don’t go as planned and the cousins from the North are rather uncooperative, so the plans fall through and Briony aborts the mission, resulting in her failure to put on the play for her brother as she desired.

            Robbie was also at a pivotal time in his life in part one.  Up to that point he had experienced great success as a student and was set to attend medical school with hopes of becoming a doctor or some type of medical professional.  Obviously, this dream does not materialize into reality, because of Briony’s failure to tell the truth in court about who really assaulted Lola.  Briony did not necessarily fail herself when she told the court that she saw Robbie with her own eyes.  She failed - perhaps unknowingly at the time - Robbie, her sister Cecilia, Lola, and perhaps the entire family when she lied.  Most importantly, she failed Robbie and Cecilia’s newfound yet everlasting desire to be together.

            The rest of the novel chronicles the lives of Robbie, Cecilia, and Briony as they take on their separate lives during the war.  Briony spends a lot of her time writing and revising her story about Robbie and Cecilia and the act she committed against them.  However, Briony fails to tell the truth about what really happened until the end.  Was this in itself a failure on her part, or was it really a way of atoning for the wrongs she committed, or admitting her failure and the finality of it?  In the end we discover that Briony never did meet with Cecilia.  Instead, she let her fear send her back before gathering the courage to go to Cecilia’s home.  She never did admit to everyone what really happened; yet it was all in her novel.  Perhaps that was her biggest failure of all; no matter what stories she writes she never really was able to atone for the lives of and the disrupted love between Robbie and Cecilia.

The Effect of the Lie

We discussed in class that while Embassytown by China Miéille and Atonement by Ian McEwan are extremely different novels, they do seem to have one common theme; the lie. In Embassytown, the lie is what sets the Hosts free from their addiction. The lie is healing, releasing, saving, but in Atonement, the lies are take on a level of complexity. In Atonement, the lies take it’s characters captive, but it sets others free.  

            Briony tells two lies major lies in this story. The first when, she tells the police Robbie sexually assaulted both Cecilia and Lola, although she knows Paul Marshall was Lola’s assaulter. The second, though, comes in a different form. At the end of the novel, Briony discusses her new book “Atonement”, and informs everyone that the story is a lie. In her novel, Robbie and her sister Cecilia are able to live a life together, but in reality Robbie dies of septicemia while fighting in the war at Dunkirk, and Cecilia dies from the bomb at Balham Underground station. They never got the life together that they dreamed of. The same 2 lies serve as different determinants.

            It would be easy to conclude that McEwan is conveying the weight and destruction of a lie, but that is not so. Briony’s accusation of Robbie ruins the hopes of Robbie and Cecilia having life together. On the contrary, in a very twisted way, it creates opportunity for life to Lola and Paul Marshall. Is Briony’s act still horrible if Paul and Lola are able to live a life together? The lies Briony tells both destroy her, and save her. Her first lie not only ruins Robbie and Cecilia’s lives, but also hers. She saturates in her own guilt, never able to atone, never able to forget, but too cowardly to admit her mistakes. Her entire life takes on a new direction. She abandons the possibility of studying and decides to become a nurse. She wants to do something practical, something where she can help people, but also arguably to punish herself. By becoming a nurse she attempts to match her guilt with punishment. On page 260 it says, ”This was her student life now… she had no free will, no freedom to leave. She was abandoning herself to a life of strictures, rules, obedience, housework, and a constant fear of disapproval”. To Briony, to lie and write a happy, long life for Robbie and Cecilia is her only way to possibly reach atonement. She says that page. 350, “As long as there is a single copy, a solitary typescript of my final draft, then my spontaneous, fortuitous sister and her medical prince survive to love.” Her last lie is her last attempt effort to atone with herself and with her sister and Robbie.  This novel, this lie, is one she uses in attempt to set herself free. The lie’s device in this novel is neither a primarily saving grace nor a total element of destruction. With each lie, something is born and something else dies.

Expectations and Roles

Throughout Atonement, I found one of the most interesting themes the expectations and even archetypes many of the characters follow. The reader and central characters in the story often do not see the full picture of the world around them, yet still assume behaviors based on a mold they think everyone should fill.
For example, Mr. Tallis fulfills the role of the cheating, absent husband too busy for his family. Emily doesn't even question why he stays overnight at work so frequently, just assumes he isn't sleeping at the office when he's away (139). Despite her lack of communication with her husband and no evidence to prove he's cheating on her, in her mind he fulfills a role expected of him. Cecilia also follows the typical "selfless nurse" path after she (also somewhat expectedly) leaves her family for good. As we discussed on Wednesday, she offers no real surprises as a character; she fulfills the readers expectations as a wronged lover and daughter, who tries to make a happy future without help from anyone else.
Even the main conflict is because in Briony's mind, Robbie fits the role of a crazed maniac (156). Based on the actions she thought she saw in the library earlier in the day, Briony truly believes Robbie capable of assaulting Lola and there is no doubt in her mind that he could commit two crimes in one day with no remorse.
While the very last page, with Briony's twist reveal on the fate of Cecilia and Robbie, is still tragic, it's not surprising to me because of these held expectations. It would have been more shocking to have Robbie survive that despairing last scene at the beach in Dunkirk (248) because his story already seemed so defeated. Surviving the war would have been a happy ending his character lost when Briony cast him in the role of the madman. Cecilia's selfless journey as a nurse and struggle to find her independent identity would have turned selfish if she really had received her happy ending with Robbie. Even Briony never steps outside her role as a writer until the last page. She talks about the many drafts she wrote of this story and only in the last one did she give Robbie and Cecilia a happy ending (350) but will never be able to truly convince herself into believing. She knows too well the expectations and roles she appointed the "characters" in her life and has to live with the consequences.

"Atonement" and "Pride and Prejudice"

One of the points that was brought up during discussion which was of most interest to me was the comparison of Atonement to other romantic stories, such as those written by Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice is one of the most well-known stories which Austen wrote. The characters and plot of this story might be considered very similar to Atonement, as it refers to war, conflicts of love, family, and society in general. However, each point of conflict within the stories is romanticized, written out as a thing of beauty to be overcome. Even the worst situations are played out in a way that makes them seem more trivial by the end of the novel.

Cecelia and Robbie can be seen as folds to Austen’s Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy. They end up in love, though they come from two different degrees of society. The reader can see that this love might be considered improper by many, which merely increases the romantic nature of their engagement. In the beginning, the female character seems indifferent to the male, avoiding him if possible. This eventually leads to an unlikely romance. However, in Atonement, this develops early on, whereas the entirety of Pride and Prejudice follows this development.

Seeing as only 1/3 of Atonement follows the traditional romantic plotline seen in Pride and Prejudice, it is easy to understand how it might contain more detail. As with most of Austen’s works, if not all, the ending sees the two main characters happily married, despite their trials and tribulations, ending with the quote “Darcy, as well as Elizabeth, really loved them; and they were both ever sensible of the warmest gratitude towards the persons who, by bringing her into Derbyshire, had been the means of uniting them” (Austen, 226). Atonement ends much differently, with the love interests torn apart irreparably because of Briony’s decision. (“She knew what was required of her. Not simply a letter, but a new draft, an atonement, and she was ready to begin” (330).)In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth’s younger sister, Lydia, runs away with a soldier, Wickham. For the time period, this could ruin the entire family’s status, and destroy any possibility of Darcy and Elizabeth’s life together. However, they easily overcome this, due to Darcy’s heroism.

Despite Robbie’s continuous attempts to overcome his past, he is never able to return to Cecelia. They are unable to move beyond what Briony caused, and end up dying alone. While Briony realizes what she has done, there is no heroic solution to the “terrible thing that [she] did”(322). There is no perfect way to clear Robbie’s name, to save him from jail, war, or death, though she may wish it so (“If I had the power to conjure them at my birthday celebration…Robbie and Cecelia, still alive, still in love, sitting side by side…” (351)).

I think it is interesting that McEwan chose to follow this path for his story. While it reflects what one often sees in romance novels, it seems much more realistic. There is violence, death, and situations which cannot be overcome. It is not the perfect world seen in romance novels, nor does it end with the happy couple, but instead, long after they are gone. While both novels focus on humanity’s imperfections and on selfish choices, they play out in very different manners which create a very different view of society. 

Works Cited

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Modern Library, 1995. Print.

The Struggle for Adulthood

When first introduced to Atonement, we were asked to pay attention to opposing elements, such as art versus science or reason versus emotion. One of the examples that stood out the most throughout the novel is childhood versus adulthood. At a certain age, children start wishing to be treated as adults. Since the children do not see themselves as kids anymore, they consistently act and long to be adults. In Atonement, the reader is introduced to Briony as she is just entering that stage. While she is barely thirteen, it quickly becomes clear that she sees herself as an adult and she tries to convince those around her of the very same thing. However, based on the course that the novel takes, it is quite clear that she is still a child.

A large part of growing up is learning what is right and what is wrong, with not a lot of gray area in between. For example, children are taught the importance of having a clean room. Since there is usually a punishment for a disorganized one, it makes sense for children to assume that a dirty room is not aligned with something appropriate for an adult to have. When Briony is first introduced, the reader is told how her room is arranged and how it is “a shrine to her controlling demon” (4). Compared to every other room in the house, Briony’s is the cleanest, which is only the beginning in a long series of examples that can be summed up to show how badly Briony wants to be seen as an adult. A little later on when Briony is sharing her play with her cousins, she struggles with handing over the lead role to Lola, so she combats that by assigning herself the role of director (13-5). This strong desire for control is another example of Briony’s longing to be seen as an adult and her perception of what it means to be one. She is fully aware of how unorganized the other rooms in the house are, and she likely believes that there is a strong correlation between order and adulthood.

Because Briony wholeheartedly believes that everything is so black and white, and because she does not see the effects of emotions on decisions, it almost makes sense that she makes the accusation that she does. Based on her actions, it is clear that she sees an adult as a protector from any type of harm. However, up until the point that she reaches actual adulthood, she does not see that her emotions played a heavy role in what she thought she saw the night the twins disappeared. It becomes very evident that she is motivated by her desire to be seen as an adult, especially when during the hunt for the twins, she comments that nobody takes her along to help find them because she is not seen as an adult. Furthermore, she mentions that she does not mind Robbie’s hate for her because it is a symbol of growing up (147). A lot of evidence is provided throughout the book that demonstrates how much the desire for adulthood acts as motivation behind most decisions. All of this put together says a lot about people and how we act and grow as we age. Even though the desire for adulthood can be seen as an excuse for Briony's behavior, it does not make what she did any less infuriating.