The document summarizes Julian Barnes' novel "The Sense of an Ending". It discusses how the novel explores the limitations of memory and how memory shapes our identities. The novel is divided into two parts, with the first focusing on the main character Tony's school years and friendships, and the second taking place later in his life as he tries to piece together and understand his past. A key theme is how our memories can be unreliable and we may misremember or forget events, shaping our sense of ourselves and our history.

1. Name:- Neelamba. R. Sarvaiya
Paper no- 13 The New Literature
Roll no:- 19
M.A. part-2
2014-2015

2. “The Sense of an Ending”
Author :- Julian Barnes
Cover artist :- Suzanne Dean
Country :- United Kingdom
Language:- English
Publisher:- Jonathan Cape (UK)
Knopf (US)
Publication date:- 2011
Published in English
4 August 2011

3. Limit of Memory
How memory affects to defines us?
The Novel divided in two parts
1. Part-1
2. Part-2

4. part – 1
 The first part being much shorter than the
second.
Barnes recounts the school years of Tony
Webster and his three friends
Most important is Adrian Finn
Near graduation time, a student commits
suicide after impregnating his girlfriend, This
leading to much philosophical discourse on
history.

5. Tony ends up relationship with Veronica.
 Adrian’s letter to Tony
Before part one ends, Adrian commits suicide with a
philosophical note claiming the right to renounce life
after having done a thorough examination of it.

6. Part -2
Tony was married and then divorced and has
a daughter.
He’s living a somewhat boring existence.
 Then one day a letter comes informing Tony
that Veronica’s mother has bequeathed him
500 pounds and Adrian’s diary. Why?
That’s the rest of the novella. Tony gets back
in touch with Veronica and tries to piece back
his memory.

7.  This is an internal novel that sits in the
recesses of the mind. The narrator is
soliloquizing for a significant portion of the
book, grappling with his ignorance of the
past–not the past in the sense of history, but
his personal past.
 He feels that he should have the
authoritative say on the metaphorical
transcript of his own life.
 Ironically, he finds that his personal history
lacks an objective ruling.

8. History is that certainty produced at the point where the
imperfection of memory meet the inadequacies of
documentation.
History isn’t the lies of the victors, as I once glibly assured
Old Joe Hunt; I know that now. It’s more the memories of the
survivors, most of whom are neither victorious or defeated.
But to understand The Sense of an Ending, we need to grasp
Julian Barnes’s goal in giving us an unreliable narrator. We
doubt our narrator’s ability to tell us what actually happened
with Adrian and Veronica. As Tony unravels these hidden
truths, Veronica is constantly reminding him of his ignorance
when she repeats the refrain, “You still don’t get it. You never
did.” And that is what Barnes is making us consider.

9. “Our pasts shape our identity, but it is not a
one-way street. We shape our understanding
of our history by forgetting the ugly things
and remembering the attractive memories.”
So, in a sense, with our tunnel vision, we create who we are
by a altering our memories. And who can question such a re-
creation if there are no witnesses to our internal
thoughts and our secret deeds, or rather our perception
of our thoughts and deeds.

10. 1. First, we should consider our self-deception
and how Scripture reads us when we read
Scripture. The Word is a mirror that shows
us an ugly vision of ourselves. Tony is right
to doubt what he thinks he knows about the
past—or about himself. We all should.
2. Second, we should be careful about
applying that scepticism too broadly. It can
be dangerously tempting to give up on the
search for certainty and give in to the
postmodernist’s flippant nihilism.
Two things for Christian to Ponder

11. Thus the importance, as Christians, of
holding on to the authoritative account of
history as recorded in Scripture.
The ultimate Historian’s character is one
of absolute trustworthiness—his past
deeds and words demonstrate this—and
therefore we can know ourselves, our
past, and our God.

12. Conclusion:-
The Novel’s first part is about
‘imperfections of memory’.
Second part is about the ‘inadequacies of
documentation’ when Tony hunts for Adrian’s
diary.
Tony’ s own tale of his student days is quite
unreliable. This is why he seeks Adrian’s diary.
“The diary was evidence; it was –might be–
corroboration. It might disrupt the banal
reiterations of memory”