Asssignment: New Literature

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Unreliability of History and Memory in Sense of an Ending

M.K Bhavnagar University

Department of English

Sem 4

Name- Hema Goswami

Roll no. 13

Enrollment no. 20169108420180020

Paper no. 13 – The New Literature

Topic: Unreliability of History and Memory in Sense of an Ending

Introduction

The Sense of an Ending is a novel written by Julian Barnes in 2011. There is unreliable narrator Tony Webster who narrates his life events. First person narrative is never reliable because there are no other views of different person who are involved in the life of the narrator. So whatever truth we are getting is half truth. But when we come to know about the truth then entire narrative fails. Same is the case with Tony Webster’s narrative. When truth revealed in the end then nothing remains in his life, it is already sense of an ending.

Concept of unreliable memory

In our life also the point came when all the imperfections of memories meets the inadequacies of documentations. No one can trust their memory fully. There remains some kind of confusion. It happens that our own views of life remains incomplete. Sense of an Ending tells us that it may happen that our own views, lives would be inaccurate. Even if research done in this field then the result will come of series of false memories in the lives of people.

Tony Webster’s Narration

Tony Webster receives a letter explaining that he has been left the diary of his closest friend from school, Adrian. From there the process of false memories began. There is inadequacy of document because Tony has received only half diary and full diary was torn apart by Veronica, his Ex-girlfriend. Veronica refuses to give him complete diary.  The diary has been left to him by the mother of Veronica, Mrs. Sarah Ford. Diary becomes a medium for the reunion of Tony and Veronica after so many years. When Tony broke up with Veronica, then Adrian came in the life of her. Afterwards Tony becomes busy in his life and started doing job. He never wishes or thinks of meeting Veronica again in his life. But circumstances make them to meet again. This time it is because Tony wants to know the reason that why Mrs. Sarah Ford given him a diary of his school friend Adrian? Why not to Veronica?  What is the relation between him and Veronica’s mother? Why she has Adrian’s diary with her? Veronica is Adrian’s girlfriend then why not Adrian gave his diary to her?. There are series of questions moving inside the mind of Tony Webster. Therefore at last he decided to contact Veronica to know the truth. But he has not any contact of her. Then he realizes that he can contact with Jack, Veronica’s brother and ask him to give the email id of Veronica. He received mail id from him and then text Veronica to meet. He asked so many questions to her but Veronica is always complex in her thoughts, she is not easily understood by anyone. She talks with lot of secrecy. Tony never gets what she wants to convey till the last. She also becomes angry with Tony that he never gets the truth, and he will never get. Then she decides to move on, and never meet to Tony anymore.  After the last meeting tony realize that he is lacking something, he then started visiting the same place which Veronica had shown him in their last meeting. After so many visits one day he saw the same group of boys which Veronica show him before. Now he started looking on them consciously to get the meaning. Then he realized that one of the boy who is deformed is exactly looking like Adrian Finn, his school friend. He didn’t get time to recognize that he will be surely the son of Veronica and Adrian. He realized that he has done serious mistake. He thinks that because of his curse to Veronica and Adrian, they get deformed son. He then went back to home and typed an email again to Veronica to say sorry.  Still he has inadequacy of document or unreliable memory which never is trusted. Veronica replied, “You don’t get it, but then you never did, so stop trying.”

Tony becomes more confuse and this is not the first time,. He always gets confused whenever he received any answer from Veronica. This time he decided to visit that place of pub again. He talks with one of the caretaker of Adrian’s son who reveals that, the man is actually the son of Veronica’s mother Sarah Ford, making him Veronica’s half brother. Then Tony realized that Veronica was right that he never gets things properly, now it is too late for him. It is already the sense of an Ending, he get sense at his last stage of life. He lives with imperfect memory throughout his entire life. He has half truth with him and only one perspective. He never tried to look from other angles. Therefore whatever he has narrated is just unreliable narrative, the truth is totally different form his narrative. He realized that all mistake was done by him and his last letter to Veronica and Adrian did all the damage because in that letter he consult Adrian to meet Veronica’s mother. After that all damage began in the life of Adrian, who has committed adultery. May be in guilt he has committed suicide. Therefore at last Tony become only reason to destroy the life of his friends, his letter did serious damage. He also gets the meaning of the equation of Tony in the last (Barnes)

b= s-v +,x a1

or a2+ v+ a1 x s= b

The two equations represent Adrian’s speculations as to the child’s paternity. In one equation the father is A1, means Adrian. In the other he appears to A2, means Anthony Webster. “B” refers to the Baby, V’ for Veronica, S’ for Sarah Ford The ending of the diary with sentence, “So if Tony…..leads to various interpretations (wikipedia contributors)

Now Tony gets the meaning of history from his memory that-

“History is not the lies of victors, as once I glibly assured Old Joe Hunt; I know that now. It ‘s more the memories of the survivors, most of whom are neither victorious nor defeated.”

Conclusion

So Tony has distorted view of his life and history. We all have our different versions of life, we all have our story that we told to others. But it is only that the story from one perspective. At last we realized that whatever we have told is just the recollections of things from our own perspective which may be lie or false. Tony comes to realize that the distortion of his memory can change anything that he has believed true for so long. This is simple case because it happens in life of everyone. No one reminds memories thoroughly, distortion is natural. If we look from other side then we can get that Tony’s false narration in a way protects him to take all the blame of Adrian’s suicide. False memories can avoid traumatic thinking of life (Knott)

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

Works Cited

Barnes, Julian. The Sense of an Ending. New York: Alfred. a Knopf, 2011.

Knott, Lauren. The Sense of an Ending – and why we are wired to produce false memories. 18 April 2017. <https://theconversation.com/the-sense-of-an-ending-and-why-we-are-wired-to-produce-false-memories-76031>.

Shampa, Kurtz. The Sense of an Ending question. 3 october 2011. 2016 <https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/675357-what-do-people-think-of-the-ending-spoiler-alert>.

wikipedia contributors. The Sense of an Ending. 25 June 2018. 6 April 2019 <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Sense_of_an_Ending&oldid=847423248>.