Thinking activity :Sense of an ending

 Hello readers welcome to my blog...

This is blog  on  sense of an ending novel.this is the  task which is given by Dr. Dilip Barad sir. For more information and questions  click here 

    In that task  we have to  write  answer of the questions.so my blog  is response  for that  task. 

This Man Booker Prize–winning novel is now a major motion picture. It is written by Julian Barns and it was published in 2011.

A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single setting, The Sense of an Ending has the psychological and emotional depth and sophistication of Henry James at his best, and is a stunning achievement in Julian Barnes's oeuvre.

 

This intense novel follows Tony Webster, a middle-aged man, as he contends with a past he never thought much about—until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance: one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. Tony thought he left this all behind as he built a life for himself, and his career has provided him with a secure retirement and an amicable relationship with his ex-wife and daughter, who now has a family of her own. But when he is presented with a mysterious legacy, he is forced to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.

Here  I wrote answers of the questions from the  Barad's sir blog.

# History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation." How far can you agree with this definition of Adrian? Justify you answer with reference to your reading of ‘The Sense of an Ending’.

“History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.” That is the quote from Lagrange which Adrian referred to in Old Joe Hunt’s class.  As the story unfolds, I found this quote is an exact and precise description of history and everything happened in the past.

the history is important for knowing or to learn anything but it lacks something, we can find a lack of factual information and authenticity. As far as memory is concerned, it always seems imperfect, even no one can be sure about one’s own memory, memory is the result of certain things that have been told to us we never observed it.  Along with it memory is something that can be differ from one person to another person and when it meets with ‘inadequacies of documentation’ , the outcome in form of his may differ also. In fact what Adrian said is served as backbone in the novel also. As the novel is divided in two parts, the first one is about the ‘imperfection of memory’ when tony recall his school days, and the second part is about the ‘inadequacies of documentation’ when Tony hunts for Adrian’s diary. In nutshell, history is something which couldn’t be aimed to follow blindly as it can be unreliable and untruth, but it is required to sustain past happening.

#‘It is not about what we ‘do’, it is about how we ‘remember’ what we have done?’. Illustrate with reference to the novel ‘The Sense of an Ending’.

As the above mentioned quote suggested experiences of life is all about how we remember, it is upon an individual what he/she wants to remember. There are many right and wrong things we have done in our life. But when the matter comes to tell it to other what we say, is in fact the matter which we supposed to reveal, while sharing something about own self  we reveal in such way that foe our some wrong doing we blame others and for good doing we appreciate our selves and as a result either we emerging out as hero in the story or victim of it. And this also happen in novel while Tony narrating the story, at the earlier part he depicts himself as being good but later on we come to know what he actually is as well as we can see how he becomes partial in his memory while narrating story. But the end he was the one who felt remorse for whatever damage he done by writing letter to Adrian. Basically it’s all about how we narrate our story by remembering events apart from what we have actually done.

“Eros and Thanatos . . . Sex and death. . . Or love and death, if you prefer. The erotic principle, in any case, coming into conflict with the death principle. And what ensues from that conflict.” How far this statement encircles the central theme of the novel The Sense of an Ending’. (Key: First explain concept of Eros and Thanatos and then illustrate from the text – love and suicide incident – and conflict in the memory of narrator)

   Here first  we let's see  what is meaning of Eros and Thanatos? 

Eros and Thanatos—Freud identifies two drives that both coincide and conflict within the individual and among individuals.  Eros is the drive of life, love, creativity, and sexuality, self-satisfaction, and species preservation.  Thanatos, from the Greek word for "death" is the drive of aggression, sadism, destruction, violence, and death.  At the conclusion of C&D, Freud notes (in 1930-31) that human beings, following Thanatos, have invented the tools to completely exterminate themselves; in turn, Eros is expected to "make an effort to assert himself in the struggle with an equally immortal adversary.

 As we know  that  the novel is all  about  memory or can say  history,and as long  about  the love,  suicide,...

How ?

    There are  two  characters who  committed suicide.