‘The Sense of an Ending’ as a Postmodernist novel

‘The Sense of an Ending’ as a Postmodernist novel.

Welcome readers!

                                In this blog, I am going to discuss briefly ‘The Sense of an Ending’ as a Postmodernist novel. 

Introduction-

                     Christopher Butler in his work titled ‘Postmodernism- A very short Introduction’ writes “It (Postmodernity) is certain of its uncertainty”. A text which provides a rare glimpse of a translucent narrative or is thoroughly absent to dwell in uncertainty is Julian Barnes’s 2011 short novel ‘The Sense of an Ending’. Julian Barnes’ book is highly pregnant with documentation and subjective memory. The readers of Barnes’s book are left with two choices - either they can surrender themselves to the narrative or they can live in the unrest by questioning the narrator. The narrator begins his confessional episodes of life hence proving his subjective memory contrasting the factual events. With a hint of postmodernity, it may seem that Barnes had won in moving his readers from a legible black and white utopia to confused and realistic unrest.

                                As Marshall, one of Tony’s classmates puts the idea of history in words viz. ‘Unrest...Great unrest!’, in the very initial part, the words serve their purpose at the end of the novel. it was not only difficult but also challenging to read Julian Barnes’s short novel ‘The Sense of an Ending’. Although the tale is easy and short, it’s confessional quality and the final revelation makes it a bulky text to digest. It begins with a punching start and ends with a fiendish thwack of restlessness. 

                                Christopher Butler remarks “Postmodernity often claims that it has seen through the sustaining illusions of others, and so has grasped the ‘real’ nature of the cultural and political institutions which surround us.” The narrative technique is a perfect illustration of postmodernity. The novel's fragmented history, selected anecdotes, selective and personal memory as well as the struggle between a self-assumed peaceful life and a fallible self-assured narrative makes it a postmodern narrative. The challenging technique of Barnes as against the traditional storytellers is that he urges the readers to dwell in their 'thinking'. It requires great courage to solve a puzzle which this literature tries to show. Butler’s remarks can truly be applied to the Sense of an Ending’s narrative that makes the readers aware of their true inner nature. 

                                The tale starts with a quite happy and divorced man in his sixties, Anthony Webster who narrates an engrossing past in a confessional manner. While there is an unreliable narrator, it still engrossingly catches the reader’s attention. It makes the reader believe in whatever the narrator narrates is true but at the same time, he also warns not to be swayed by whatever he writes. This narrative art not only touches deeply but also affects the reader at a highly personal level. Memory and history both go hand in hand and turns out with such an enigma that it fully convinced me because it is as humane as anything. The novel begins with “I remember in no particular order”.

Hence, the narrator recalls his past but with no surety in chronological order.  

“What you end up remembering isn’t always the same as what you have witnessed.” 

                                It is a human tendency that we erase some memories which are unpleasant to our perceptions, views, or especially to our conscience, and the book thoroughly made me realize how we edit things in a peculiarly pleasing manner. However, the unreliability of the narrator was amazing because the history which he remembers is thoroughly different from the real thing. Hence, with the above-mentioned quote, Barnes establishes postmodernity 

                                The novel is mainly surrounded by SELF- it presents an awkward side, rather than a ruthless side of self. This hundred and a fifty-page book is directly an answer to the question 'What is Literature and what is the role of literature in shaping human society, particularly a human being’. 

b = s – v x + a1 or a2 + v + a1 x s = b. 

                                This equation puzzled me a great deal. The uneasiness was absolutely difficult to bear. It was like a painful venture in the unknowable darkness. The b in the equation stands for baby, A2 = Antony Webster, V = Veronica, A1 = Adrin, S = Sarah Ford. This can be understood only when one reads the novel. It almost seemed to reflect how I and mostly all human beings tend to approach life with our own version (especially our own fallible version). The novel also teaches us how we erase some parts of memory to remember only good things. Barnes observes,

 "How often do we tell our own life story? How often do we adjust, embellish, make sly cuts? And the longer life goes on, the fewer are those around to challenge our account, to remind us that our life is not our life, merely the story we have told about our life. Told to others, but—mainly—to ourselves." 

(Barnes, The Sense of an Ending)

                                I must mention the end of the novel is highly disturbing. It is disturbing not only in terms of the unreliability of the narrator but also in presenting the darker side of the self which is evidently present in all human beings. But as I approached this ending, I was in great unrest. Why was it haunting the mind? What were the reasons that our mind is less susceptible to the ideas which are shared in the book? This book has raised some rhetorical questions and fulfilled all the parameters that good literature ought to shape an individual. 

Conclusion-

                                I felt to vehemently deny the truth but it's thoroughly and undeniably difficult to digest. The fragmentation makes the narrative fresh and realistic. It is realistic because it reflects the manner in which memory is approached by an individual. It has made me aware of using my language more cautiously and dealing with every situation in a mature and sensible manner. The unpleasant situations should be dealt with with utmost calmness and with far-sighted spectacles to avoid some unconscious harm to others. As Postmodernity is multi-dimensional, the end of the novel can be interpreted from a variety of perspectives through questioning each of the perspectives for its reliability. 

References-

Butler, Christopher. Postmodernism: A very short introduction. Vol. 74. Oxford Paperbacks, 2002.

Barnes, Julian. The sense of an ending. Random House, 2012.