The Fountain

Atonement (nickgottschalk.com)

This is the fountain where it all started, here you see a picture from the filmset. The most important piece of the book happens here, namely the part were Robbie and Cecilia break the very important vase. Cecilia thinks it Robbie's fault, so she jumps in the fountain almost naked to make him feel guilty. Robbie just stands there stunned and is secretly admiring her. Afterwards, Robbie goes home and can't stop thinking about what just happened and how much he loves Cecilia. He writes a letter to her, but he accidentally puts the wrong piece of paper in the envelop. As Cecilia reads it, she realizes that she is in love with Robbie. They both confess their love to each other, and it was supposed to be a happy ending. That happy ending was ruined by the imaginative mind of Briony, Cecilia's little sister. 

Oh just think of what would've happened if the vase didn't break, Cecilia wouldn't have jumped into the fountain and they would've probably never realised that they loved each other. Only if Briony didn't see anything the happy ending would indeed have been there. The rest of the book does show how deeply they love each other since they keep on writing letters, even when the war is happening.   

I think the part where Cecilia jumps in the fountain has a bit of a feministic touch. She is trying to make Robbie feel guilty and is like: 'Hah I can easily do this myself.'. I like that part because she shows that she can do it herself and doesn't need a man to fix things. Realising too that there wasn't really a feministic movement going on at the time it takes place. Therefore, it is a bit futuristic and I think it adds a bit of a different dimension to the book.