Natalie Wednesday

Pages 1-60

I have really enjoyed reading The Sense of an Ending. I feel like I can really relate to the main character Tony Webster, and I believe that Barnes’s ability to not only show the process through which individuals think but also highlight the feelings (and at times animosity) of teenagers is on point. I think it’s very well written and I can very much relate to the first 20 pages. In these pages I think he really highlights the feelings of a teenager, which is basically a lot of angst and smarter-then-your-elders attitude. I also really like when Tony says “This was another of our fears: that Life wouldn’t turn out to be like Literature.” I am really glad he said this because this has been something that I have thought a lot about before, and I’ve never quite known how to explain it but it’s basically that. I feel like it stems from this “romantization” of literature, movies and music and our constant need to have our lives mimic them but I think it rarely occurs, or at least we don’t realize it. I have to say that I hated Veronica and I am so glad they break up. She just sounded so pretentious and bitch-y. I also feel like he only liked her because she acted like she was more intelligent and would constantly put him down.

Throughout the first 60 pages there is a constant reference to how we see the past vs what really occurred. When this question is asked to them in school, Adrian answers by saying that basically we can never know the full truth despite how close something may have occurred, which I felt was some sort of foreshadowing. Later throughout the novel, as Tony Webster recounts memories, he says that he thinks this is how they happened but he’s not exactly sure. Many times when we look at the past, at a certain event, we may remember it differently then someone else who was there at the same time. I think this happens because many factors affect how we perceive our memory. When Tony goes to visit Veronicas family he says that they had this sort of animosity towards him, but that may have not actually been the case but instead something he felt then and therefore remembered forever. I think this happens a lot to everyone. Overall I thought it was a very interesting topic and something to think about.