James Wood in his book, How Fiction Works, analyzes various essential elements of fiction. Most fascinating is his critique of “character” and “sympathy and complexity.” These two chapters are perfectly illustrated in the novel Atonement by Ian McEwan. The novel demonstrates what Wood calls sympathetic identification. When a reader is able to create an emotional connection with particular characters. Author Ian McEwan uses a free indirect style to evoke a sympathetic identification with the characters. In Atonement, the character Briony Tallis embodies the danger that comes with the inability to place oneself in the circumstances and emotions of others. She is unable to connect sympathetically with others. The character of Briony prefers a neat fiction rather than a disorganized reality. So this leads to guilt and regret. Wood, in his analysis, shows how McEwan, through Briony, demonstrates the separation of characters in order to show the reader how to inhabit the minds of the characters. When reading the novel, one is tempted to condemn Briony for her childish misdeeds. Wood analyzes this by saying, “that this movement outside ourselves into realms beyond our daily experience might be a moral and sympathetic education in itself…” (Wood, 102). By putting themselves in a character's perspective, readers learn something about themselves. An author does not ask his reader to understand characters who are not approved until the author himself has unequivocally and firmly condemned them. A reader can show disgust or hatred for a character and simultaneously see life through their eyes. A reader simultaneously moves from aversion to a moral and sympathetic education of the motivations of the character in question. Wood defines that... middle of paper ...... not yet” (McEwan, 372). Towards the end, she decides to write it exactly as it was, without rhymes, embellishments or adjectives, because words and memory are the goal and tools of writers. In the end, Briony's first novel was also her last, an autobiographical book with only the absolute. truth. The atonement shows the dangers of not putting oneself in another's shoes. Because it seems better to have a tidy fiction rather than an unorganized reality. The separation of McEwan's characters shows the reader how to inhabit the minds of other characters. At every point in the novel, the reader identifies sympathetically with the characters. As readers, we feel and learn about Briony's development into a woman who can have multiple perceptions. Works Cited McEwan, Ian. Atonement. London: Vintage Books, 2007. Print.Wood, James. How fiction works. New York: Picador, 2008. Print.