“The Role of Memory in the Sense Of an Ending”

·        “The Role of Memory in the Sense Of an Ending”

The Sense of an Ending is, a novel written by Famous British author Julian Barnes. This is Eleventh novel of writer. This novel was released on 4^th August 2011 in the United Kingdom. This novel is based on memory of writer (narrator). That how narrator recalls his past (memory) and that create a sequence of accident and that makes a twist in the story. Thus the novel based on Memory of narrator.

This novel won MAN BOOKER PRIZE AWARD on 18 October 2011. And also announced The Sense of an Ending had been nominated in the Best Novel category at the 2011 Costa Book Awards.

Story of the novel is narrated by a retired man named Tony Webster. Tony recalls his memory of past about his clique and their friend Adrian Finn. They all have took vow to remain friends for life time. As time passes they become far from each other. At the age of sixty tony recalls his memory of school days. And the memory played vital role to develop the plot. And then story has different ending just like no ending.  

SOMETHING ABOUT THE NOVEL

The novel is divided into two parts, entitled "One" and "Two", Bothe part of the story is narrated by Tony Webster, when he is retired and living alone.

The first part begins in the 1960s with four intellectually arrogant school friends, of whom two feature in the remainder of the story: Tony, the narrator, and Adrian, the most precociously intelligent of the four. Towards the end of their school days another boy (Robson) at the school hangs himself, apparently after getting a girl pregnant. The four friends discuss the philosophical difficulty of knowing exactly what happened. Adrian goes to Cambridge University and Tony to Bristol University.

Tony acquires a girlfriend, Veronica, at whose family home he spends an awkward weekend. Their relationship fails in some acrimony. In his final year at university Tony receives a letter from Adrian informing him that he is going out with Veronica. Tony replies to the letter. Some months later he is told that Adrian has committed suicide, leaving a note addressed to the coroner saying that the thinking person has a philosophical duty to examine the nature of their life, and may then choose to renounce it. Tony admires the reasoning. He briefly recounts the following uneventful forty years of his life until his sixties.

The second part of the novel – which is twice as long as the first, – begins, with the arrival of a lawyer's letter informing him that Veronica's mother has bequeathed him £500 and two documents. These lead him to re-establish contact with Veronica and after a number of meetings with her, to re-evaluate the story he has narrated in the first part. And at the end of second part tony comes to know about himself, but he cannot see the Veronica and her vision of living a life.

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The style of the writer is ‘Memory Novel ‘or ‘Suspense Thriller’ or ‘Psychological Thriller’ This novel is mainly centered on the characteristics of 21st century writing. The Sense of an Ending is about "memory and time”. The book opens with a short list of memories. That memory is a part of narrator’s past experience. Not all of which the as yet unnamed narrator actually saw. Immediately we’re on warning, if one of these memories is imagined rather than real, can any of them be trusted? As the narrator says, “what you end up remembering isn’t always the same as what you have witnessed.”

Here Let’s define what is memory??

As per class room discussion, we have seen that memory is a mixture of Event and time. As more event and accident occur during some time period those events – accident becomes more powerful and that stored much effectively – strongly in the memory of human kind. If there are lesser accident and event that memory is lesser effective and stronger. More accident or Event that makes more effective and strong memory

  

Most of the thing of this novel is narrated by Tony Webster. Somehow it is a question of plot that how many things he narrated from his memory turn out to be real. As a memory played vital role in the developing of plot, Julian Barnes here justifies the Universal Truth that “One cannot know what he does not know” – with the reference of Tony Webster that he never understand the words of Veronica, When Tony asked Veronica bout the Money at that time she replied with very tragic answer “Blood Money”.  When Tony asked about other things at that time Veronica also replied with unaccepted answer: -

The Sense of an Ending is novel which has element of psychological approach. This novel deals with the theme of psychological situation of human mind. Each coin has two sides same way human nature has two sides good or bad. This novel represents this thing through character of the novel. In the first part of the novel, reader can find Tony as a good, responsible fellow. He is very responsible towards his duty. But as the second part is opening reader can find tony with some gray shade. There are some holes in his character; at some extent he is responsible for the damage of Veronica’s life, Suicide of Adrian. This accidents can be interpretation of reader as his own sense, though novel has not detail about any clarification about this accidents, reader are free to narrated and explain all accident happen in the story and he can interpreted it as his own way.

The writer describes Veronica’s life with different triangle. She scarified her life for her step brother, she lost her love. The writer mentioned unreliable narrative style. Tony is the perfect narrator for this novel. But all the narration depends on Tony’s memory so here raised a doubt that all the things and incident are real or not. May be he create his own story. Life of Pie is the example of unreliable narrative style. As a bing narrator Tony has never seen the life of Veronica, so he can not feel the problem of her, so he has not any description regarding the Life and Damage of Veronica’s life. Tony has narrated Veronica with some gray shades but as reader moves towards the end of the Novel they find that the character of Veronica emerges with high morality and responsible because she has spent her whole life, Losing his Boy Friend, Mother. She was living with child of her x-boyfriend and mother. She has ruined her whole life with her x-brother. So, whenever Tony asked Veronica she replied: “You still don’t get it. You never did, and you never will. So stop even trying”.

The first is the narrator’s is named Ton, memories of his years of during studies, and school days at school and his early years at university. Here reader can experience the early life of tony and his experience through the narration of Tony. So it could interpret that Tony had hide some reality or he has not put gray shade of his personality, just because it is a based on Memory of Tony. He is not ready to show his gray shades of his past.

“The memory becomes a thing of shreds and patches. It’s a bit like the black box aero planes carry to record what happens in a crash. If nothing goes wrong, the tape erases itself. So if you do crash, it’s obvious why you did; if you don’t, then the log of your journey is much less clear.” (Page - 105)

During the study there were three friends, a narrator himself – Tony Webster, Colin and Alex. Now a new boy, Adrian, joins the school and becomes a key member of Tony’s small clique of friends. Adrian Finn, who is much cleverer than any of them. They consider themselves philosophers, intellectual rebels, they look to great art and literature for inspiration and they are convinced as was I and as no doubt were many reading this that they have insights that the old and adult world never knew or has long since forgotten. They look down on those around them with all the haughty certainty of adolescence, and they look forward to lives which whatever they may be will not be like their parents, or so at least they hope.

What is History?

“History is that certainly produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.”

The Sense of an Ending is written from the perspective of Tony Webster as his reflects on a relationship that shaped his life. The narrative – at least in Part One – is written as a recollection. But not a factual recollection. Tony concedes that Part One is made up of his imperfect, shabby memories which, even as he writes, he realizes are inaccurate.

A few incidents that have grown into anecdotes, to some approximate memories which time has deformed into certainty. If I can’t be sure of the actual events any more, I can at least be true to the impression those facts left. That’s the best I can manage. So the narrative voice brings us face to face with the shoddy reality of one’s own memory, prompting me at least to consider my experiences of having my own memories proven wrong.

As class room interaction, we have seen that Memory is a mirror of oneself. Whatever is stored in the memory that can be a real personality of that person. Now days, we find many controversial thing regarding Spiritual and religion BABA or GURU. They played lot with the emotion and feeling of the people. They also trapped in some unbelievable activity, at some extent they also found guilty and captured, and sent behind the BAR (Jail). In some cases culprits are not accepting their crime, so they have to gone under “NARCO TEST” and they accepted their crime. This NARCO TEST is based on the base of memory that whatever culprit has done, that is stored in his memory and this test reveals all the secret of that person which is stored in the Memory. So here we can justify that: -

  

The Sense of an Ending reminds us of the uncertainty of memory and cautions us against drinking too pensively nostalgia’s nepenthe. Julian Barnes’ has achieved something remarkable with this text, creating a work that is honest in its inaccuracy that is genuine in its falsehood.

Through the narration of The Sense of an Ending, its protagonist Tony Webster teaches himself a set of lessons about the erratic itineraries of memory. We could say that a reflection is offered on how the chronological time of life gets itself undone through the durational time of memory. But realizing, by which I mean assuming in everyday behavior, ourselves as divided by chronology and duration does not place us outside either. They carry us on forward in time. Even in moments of realizing ourselves as split by chronology and duration, we dance freestyle to the beats of being and time. Living implies constant narrative shifts, adjusting to the rhythms of our truths, lies, and indifferences Memory, as Barnes understands it and as Tony is forced to realize far more edited than we'd like to believe.

"I have a brother who's a philosopher," Barnes says. "He maintains that almost all memories are false, all fallible, and that memory is the act of imagination, rather than the act of a lucid remembering machine somewhere up in our brains. I have a more sort of old fashioned, pragmatic view of memory. But I certainly increasingly think that it's not only faulty but some times over reliant on the imagination."

Memory, individual rather than collective, accounts for who we are and what we have become. And early memory is particularly valuable, though it can be misconstrued. Its influence can persist throughout adult life, though what is cause and what effect may be difficult to judge. In this short but compelling novel Julian Barnes tracks the origin of one particular memory through a long and apparently uneventful l life towards an explanation that leaves traces of unease that are difficult to dismiss.

During classroom discussion, this thing is explained that “When we are near to death or critical condition at that time we recalls all good thing which is occurred in our past and we recalls all the good memories. As Tony is near to End his life (at the age of Sixty), he recalls all the good and experience of joyful day of his past. 

The facts are quite simple. Three school friends, of whom the narrator, Tony Webster, is one, are joined by a fourth, Adrian Finn, who is much cleverer than any of them. They age and lose contact with one another. But Webster, eventually married and divorced, cannot rid himself of the memory of his former girlfriend, Veronica, at whose family home he once spent a weekend. At the time he had felt uncomfortable, socially inferior, and he was hardly surprised when the enigmatic Veronica took up with the more prestigious Adrian. His early misconception hardens imperceptibly into a mystery that is exacerbated when he learns of Adrian’s suicide. Nor can he understand why Veronica’s mother should leave him a small legacy and the news that she possesses Adrian’s diary.

These facts throw into relief his inability to reconstruct his relations with either Adrian or Veronica. What remains in his memory is the discomfort he felt on that weekend, a discomfort he cannot explain even at an advanced age. The clue might lie in the diary, but attempts to get hold of it are unavailing. He is up against an initial misalliance to which others are being added, containing the same characters but no further explanation.

Webster’s attempts to resolve this enigma form the bulk of this clever novel, in the course of which it becomes clear that the character of Veronica is pivotal. Even her random impulses, to which Webster had become accustomed, seem opaque. The explanation, when it comes, is so fortuitous that it throws intodoubt that early unease and what Webster had made of it. The unease had been, and had remained, authentic. This is a fact to which others are gradually added.

Going back in his mind, Webster unearths another memory of that uncomfortable weekend: the odd kindness of Veronica’s mother and her eventual legacy. His reading of the incident had been inconclusive: later reconstructions supply more clues. Finally he accepts an alternative version, which turns out to be the correct one, though it is a betrayal of all concerned.

There are many such questions which are not answered in the novel but reader can interpret with his own sense:---

v Why Mrs. Ford has Adrian’s Diary?

v What was the intention of Veronica to write Blood Money?

v Why only one page of Adrian’s Diary allowed seeing Tony?

v What is the meaning of Veronica’s statement: You still don’t get it. You never did, and you never will. So stop even trying”.

v What is the meaning of the mathematical equation:

Ø b = s – v x/+ a1

Ø a2 + v + a1 X s = b

As, Per reading of this novel, one can say that this novel is based on memory which Tony recalls all the event of his past and that narration is generating a story which is called “Sense of an Ending”.