How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph) or (Part.Paragraph)
Quote #7
In the lucid freedom of his dream state, Turner intended to shoot the officer through the chest. It would be better for everyone. It was hardly worth discussing the matter in advance. (2.261)
Some war stories focus on the sense of comradeship between the men. In Atonement, on the other hand, the soldiers all seem to be ready to start shooting at each other at a moment's notice. The only reason Robbie, in his delirium, doesn't shoot the officer is that, when he reaches for his gun, he discovers he's lost it.
Quote #8
It was never said, but the model behind this process was military. Miss Nightingale, who was never to be referred to as Florence, had been in the Crimea long enough to see the value of discipline, strong lines of command and well-trained troops. (3.16)
Florence Nightingale, who organized nursing in England, developed her ideas during the Crimean War of the mid-1850s. The quote here suggests that Briony is experiencing something similar to what Robbie did during basic training. Both are being taught to obey orders in preparation for war.
Quote #9
Perhaps she was the last person in the hospital to understand what was happening. The emptying wards, the flow of supplies, she had thought were simply part of general preparations for war. She had been too wrapped up in her own tiny concerns. Now she saw how the separate news items might connect, and understood what everyone else must now and what the hospital administration was planning for. […] It had all gone badly wrong in France, though no one knew on what kind of scale. This foreboding, this muted dread, was what she had sensed around her. (3.29)
Briony is a little slow on the uptake, which just goes to show that—though she's older—she's not that distant from the thirteen-year-old from the start of the book. She still has a bit of trouble putting things together.