Welcome readers!
Have you ever wondered what a great read does to you? How a well written single book can change an individual? Why certain authors feel compelled to communicate a message? Well, it is a fact that it will move you ahead from your perceptons and your constructed reality. You can get so much wealth in form of mental enrichment that it will definetly shift your view of the world. And the most important things are-
🔸it will leave you the better version of yourself
🔸it will compel you to re-read, again and again
🔸it can be shared from one generation to another
🔸it is timelessly quatable
🔸it is endless- it will stay with you even after you finish reading it
Today, I can best relate all these qualities to Julian Barnes's text which I feel as one of the great read-
"THE SENsE OF
AN ENDING"
This can be the home blog to the book 'The Sense of an Ending'. It is the book on memory and history. It presents the darker shades of human beings. It is a book about life, how it unfolds and how we remember it. It is on how we make sense of our life and it describes how we explain about the ways in which we think about our lives. To read about my initial impressions on the book as well as some notable quotations from the book, please click here to navigate to the blog.
As a part of our academics, I had worked with four members in a group on this text to introduce and discuss the prime aspects of the text with class. Feel free to navigate to view our group task here- (Click on the bold fonts)
The present blog is a thinking activity task assigned by our professor Dilip Barad Sir to reflect our understanding of the text on given points, after class discussion. Click on the link to navigate the worksheet of Sir titled 'The Sense of an Ending: Julian Barnes: Teacher Resource & Worksheet'.
🔸Here are points worth pondering and my reflection of understanding the text.
Decipher the equation:
b = s – v x/+ a1
b = baby
s = Sarah Ford
v = Veronica Ford
a¹ = Adrian Finn
Firstly, it is necessary to note that the equation is from Adrian’s perspective. Adrian Finn had tried to put the relations in the form of a mathematical equation. The text uncovers the identity of the variables mentioned in equation in the last second page where it can roughly be understood in this manner-
The Baby is the result of Sarah Ford, in an awkward motherhood of her daughter Veronica Ford or almost not having the motherly nature towards Veronica Ford who was in a constructive relationship with Adrian Finn, when develops a deep engagement with Adrian.
Simply, we can say that the baby is the result of Sarah Ford's conflict with her daughter Veronica and her consequent acquaintance, and later, relationship with Adrian Finn.
or
a2 + v + a1 X s = b?
a² = Anthony Webster
v = Veronica Ford
a¹ = Adrian Finn
s = Sarah Ford
b = baby
In the second equation, Adrian has included Anthony Webster in the chain of relations. The equation can be deciphered in the following manner-
Anthony had a considerably fine relationship with Veronica. After falling out of the relationship, Veronica encounters a sensible relationship with Adrian Finn whose sentiments then grows (multiplies) for Sarah Ford resulting in a baby. The question mark at the end of equations can be read as Adrian is not sure about the chain of relationship and maybe he is just assuming the chain to ensure whose major responsibility it is.
'The Sense of an Ending' a general critique
Julian Barnes had developed a novel with a special thematic concern which is 'Memory' and 'History'. As an author he very convincingly puts the narrator selectively who narrates the episodes of his school days "where it all began". Julian Barnes maintains the order in a rough manner in his narrative. He in part of his narrative has employed the cause and effect structure but it seems to be very vague and rather blur but the deep reading of the text may benefit in highlighting those aspects.
Additionally, Barnes had put forward a tale with some abstractions. The narrative as such doesn't flow linearly like traditional narratives but it flows with a commentary of the protagonist, the narrator Tony Webster. He seems to tell the readers his life story and in between, he also narrates what he feels at the present moment about the situation and again going back to the past. So it is a kind of experimentation with the narrative style.
"Robson had been fifteen, sixteen? Still living at home, with parents who no doubt weren’t exactly liberals. And if his girl had been under sixteen, there might have been a rape charge too. So there was really no comparison. Adrian had grown up, had left home, and was far more intelligent than poor Robson. Besides, back then, if you got a girl pregnant, and if she didn’t want to have an abortion, you married her: those were the rules. Yet Adrian couldn’t even face this conventional solution. “Do you think it was because he was too clever?” my mother had irritatingly asked. No, nothing to do with cleverness; and even less with moral courage. He didn’t grandly refuse an existential gift; he was afraid of the pram in the hall." (Barnes, 52)
In this paragraph we can see that Tony is narrating about his past life to us when he is in his sixty something but he narrates the incident of Adrians's suicide when he was conversing with his parents, furthermore he is remembering how in his school days Robson had hanged himself in the attic. So he is comparing (past) Robson's suicide with (relatively present) Adrian's suicide episode and (the present) conversation with his parents (the real present) Tony's oldage when he is narrating his all past incidents.
‘The Sense of an Ending’ as a Postmodernist novel.
Click here to navigate to the blog
Barnes, Julian. The Sense of an Ending. London: Vintage Random House, 2012. hardcopy. 23 April 2021.
Post a Comment