My interpretation on The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes.

Julian Barnes

 This is my interpretation on the novel ‘The Sense of an Ending’ by Julian Barnes. As we know that the novel is very short and it reveals very hard struggle in designing. The book is written in two parts. The narrator of the book is Tony. The novel ‘The sense of an Ending’ is of course called our sense of understanding end. When you read last pages where Julian Barns reveals the secret of Adrian’s suicide- why he commits the suicide?

 After reading this novel we can say that the novel deals with the heavy unreliability in narration and faulty nature of memory. I think Life of Pie is the best example of unreliability of narrative style. The novel appears in two chronicle parts, if we talk about the first part its Tony’s schooling where he met Adrian and Veronica, and second part is concerned with changing narratives that merge back and forth to the present and the past.

When Adrian informs Veronica that her mother has left 500 dollars for him, Veronica simply calls that money Blood money. So here we can say that their relationship damaged young Adrian’s life so it is called blood money. I believe that one reason of Tony’s suicide can be the last letter by Tom Webster to him in which frustrated Tony cursed Adrian and Veronica as Veronica left her and Adrian started dating his own girlfriend, because of that curse he might have felt guilty and commits suicide. In that case we can say it as” Murder”

b = s – v x/+ a1
S (Sarah), V (Veronica), a1 (Adrian), b (baby)
Sarah who has not good relationship and bonding with her own daughter leads her to have healthy and more obsessive relation with Adrian. And this relationship leads to the birth of Baby.

a2 + v + a1 X s = b?
a2 (Anthony Webster), V (Veronica), S (Sarah), b (Baby)
Anthony Webster who has a manful relation leads Veronica to break up with him and to date his friend Adrian.

In the novel it is clear that Adrian was very close to Sarah. We can say that on the basis of what she says about herself that Adrian was happy with Sarah, as at that time she was with him. We can say that Sarah has Adrian’s diary due to their relationship. We find that in the novel until Sarah’s death diary was in her ownership and in her will she agrees to give the diary to Tony.

We know that in the novel writer doesn’t tell everything in  easy way so sometimes we can’t understand what he actually wants to say to his readers. So it’s possible that Adrian felt guilty of his seen and maybe he went mad because of his guilt.  Guilt may be one of the reasons that he was hiding his identity. May be he was more guilty for making his girlfriend pregnant.

If we talk about Jr.Adrian who is suffering from stress as Sarah and Adrian’s son then Veronica and Jr. Adrian are their siblings. So he can be considered as step- father of Veronica.

I think Veronica is the most horrible among the other characters. Because when she was alone nobody shared problems and secrets with her. We can say that because she had no good relation with her mother and her family members. If we talk about Adrian Finn’s character then we can say that he was a genius and as a person he was intellectual. His thinking process was in philosophical way. And we know that intellectual people did suicide including writers, politicians, and scientists.

Yes of course narrator is unreliable because he himself goes on telling his own story. The first thing is whatever he said is only his point of view and his way looking towards life. Second thing is we can’t remember all things which happened in our past so here we can say that memory isn't unreliable or imperfect.

In the light of new revelations I read her as sacrificial, trustworthy and manipulative. Veronica truly loved Tony but Tony didn’t take their relationship seriously at that time she found that Tony does not understand her and their relationship. So she breaks their relationship so we can say that her character was calculative but not selfish. So she is calculative and emotional.

So these are my point of views about this novel.

                                                                        Thank you…