My work on "worksheet of sense of an Ending"

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http://dilipbarad.blogspot.in/2014/02/the-sense-of-ending-julian-barnes.html
Below is my work on Worksheet which is prepared by Prof.Dr.Dilip Barad .

Respected Sir,

As we have been given task to share our understanding of novel   ''Sense of an Ending “Here I have tried to shape my understanding  but as the novel itself  do not show every events in chronological order, my answer too not follow the chronological orders.

When I studied "To the Light House" I was impressed by Virginia Woolf's narrative style but I never thought that after her Julian Barns will come with Hammer like novel and will END our sense of an understanding. When you end up the novel by reading last few pages where Julian barns reveals the secret of Adrian's suicide that why he commits the suicide is the last yet strong hit of Julian Barns which is still hammering me. There are so many possibilities to think other reasons of Adrian's suicide. And at that point I find that novel has missed that dot/block. As a reader we are left to decide our own reason, and I think this Julian Barns wants us to do. Here we also find the objectivity of writer in drawing the character; if He would have given the reason of Adrian's suicide easily than we reader may think that this is what Julian Barns thinks of suicide. In other words it can be said that Julian Barns gives the 3D image of suicide to reader through the Tony Webster when he thinks of the possible reason of Adrian's suicide.

1. What does Veronica meant by saying “Blood Money?”

When Adrian informs Veronica that her mother has left 500 dollars for him, Veronica simply calls that money Blood money. There are two possible reasons if we think from Veronica’s perspective. One reason is that she may be thinks that her Mother Sarah is responsible for Adrian’s suicide as he might have felt guilty for his seen of having relation with her own mother and made her Pregnant. In age of sixteen it’s a serious crime to make girlfriend pregnant. Another reason can be that She might thinks that Tony Webster is responsible for Adrian’s suicide, If  Tony would have not written letter to Adrian and if Adrian would have not meet Veronica’s mother Sarah and would have not broken up with her and have not fallen in love with Sarah. He falls in love with Sarah and he feels guilty for that and commits suicide. 

One reason of his 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 start dating his own girlfriend, because of that curse he might have felt guilty and commits suicide. In that case we can consider it as” Murder”

So, as Veronica thinks that Sarah and Tom Webster are responsible for Adrian’s suicide, she calls that money as BLLODMONEY.

2. How do you decipher the equation: b = s – v x/+ a1 or a2 + v + a1 X s = b?

b = s – v x/+ a1

Ans: S (Sarah), V (Veronica), a1 (Adrian), b (baby)

Sarah who has negative relationship and bonding with her own daughter leads her to have healthy and more passionate relation with Adrian. And this relationship leads to the formation of Baby.

a2 + v + a1 X s = b?

a2 (Anthony Webster), V (Veronica), S (Sarah), b (Baby)

Anthony Webster who has a meanful relation leads Veronica to break up with him and to date his friend Adrian, and it indirectly leads Adrian to date with Veronica’s mother Sarah and at lat it leads to formation of baby.

Adrian’s diary is willed to Tony by Sarah Ford. How come Sarah Ford owned it? Why was it in the possession of Veronica?

It is clear in his last days Adrian was more close to Sarah, as she herself says that “Adrian was happy in his last days “it shows that Adrian was happy with Sarah, and she was with Adrian in those days. As Adrian and Sarah were in relation than it’s obvious that Sarah should have Adrian’s Diary. So until her Death Diary was in her possession and in her will she passed that Diary to Tony but Veronica was reluctant to hand it over to Tony.

   Was the mentally retarded middle aged ‘Adrian’, Tony’s friend who did not commit suicide and was suffering from trauma and thus gone mad, and was living with hidden identity?

As in the novel so many things are not clear and it’s also a possible that Adrian was guilty of his seen had gone mad, and that’s why He was leaving a secret life with hiding his identity. And it seems more logical if we consider Toney’s narration and memory reliable because he says in second part that Adrian was the only friend of our group who has great control over his emotions and, he was practical in his life so he can not commit suicide just because that he made his girlfriend pregnant. Or there should be some other reason.

How was Veronica related to Adrian, the one suffering in care-in-the-community?

If we consider Adrian who is suffering from mental trauma as Sara and Adrian’s son than veronica and Adrian are siblings .And we consider that Adrian, Toney’s friend who is suffering from mental trauma and has gone made than He can considered as step-father of Veronica.

Do you see any missing block – some dot which is not getting connected with the whole or dot missing to get full sense of the novel - in the plot of this psychological thriller?

The whole novel is dependent on possibilities, there so many things that are not clear for instance we are not told that how and where Veronica and Adrian met? What Sara told to Adrian that he immediately ends his relation with Veronica? What were the reasons that Sarah did not pay much attention to his husband? Why she kept herself busy in search of other man? Why she felt jealousy from Veronica? The novel is just like “The Birthday Party “where we are not told much about all character’s history and we are left with so many possibilities.

   In the light of new revelations, how do you read character of Veronica? Instinctive, manipulative, calculating, stubborn, haughty, sacrificial, trustworthy, Good Samaritan?

In the light of new revelations I read her as sacrificial and trustworthy. With one reading we may find her calculative when she ends her relation with Adrian due to Adrian, as she finds Adrian more suitable for her. But In second Part Tony do not understand what Veronica tried to convey by showing him that group of mentally retired people at that time Veronica says that you still don’t get it, you never did and you will never will. It shows that even in past when they were in relation whenever Veronica tried to convey something to him, he never get it. And when she met Adrian, she feels that Adrian can understand her. Tony was not able to understand Veronica’s perspective and both had their own different nature and way of thinking and communication and because of that they failed to understand each-other. Veronica truly lived Tony but she found that Tony does not understand her and if she will continue this relation than even they will never be happy couple. So she is calculative but not selfish at all. She also sacrificed her life for Junior Adrian .So she is emotional as well as calculative.

What do you mean by Unreliable Narrator? Is Tony Webster classifiable as Unreliable Narrator? 

Unreliable narrator is one whose narration cannot be taken as reliable or whose narration is not faithful to reality. For instance that Mysterious lady of “One night @ Call center” who tells Chetan Bhgat that if you do not think that God can never make call to people than take other character like Old Fellow who made call.”Life of Pie “also deals with Unreliability of narrator when Pie says to viewers/reader that takes any story that you find true. So we never come to know that what happened in reality. Weather that struggle of survival was of human being or of animal.

In this novel, we find Tony as unreliable narrator as he stars the his narration by saying that “I REMEMBER, IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER”

So novel stars with this sentence where he/narrator(Tony)Confesses that whatever he is going to tell his reader is outcome of his broken memory because of that wherever he finds some dots are missing ,he has added his own respective and imagination in his narration. So for me he is classified unreliable narrator.

 I found it more suitable as in the middle white part where we found some black dots which symbolizes the memory of narrator, he joints that various dots but nit in chronological number. It also symbolizes the broken memory means man can not remember each and everything as it has happened and when they start missing some dots if their past it becomes broken memory.