Ryan Cordero Final Post

After finishing Sense of an Ending I think the novel and Tony Webster’s actions embody Dostoyevsky’s ideas. The novel as a whole is an accurate observation of the human condition. Barnes focuses on the concepts of memories and how perception changes over time. Also, Barnes discusses the influence of time, both objective and subjective, on the mind. I think the overall message of the novel is how perceptions of past events change over time. Whenever, Tony meets a person from his childhood he always discusses a lasting impression, but after conversing he realizes his previous attitudes towards the person were unjust as the person is not like he remembered. Barnes made an interesting point about time; he stated that subjective time is measured in relationship to memory. I have made this point previously, but again depending on how you view a past event you can decided whether it felt like a long time ago or relatively soon. The best example is thinking back on a school year, the time feels both short and lengthy, but the person decides how they want to view the time. I liked Barnes’ ideas on history and what it actually means. To most people, history is just events that happened in the past, but to Barnes history is what is produced when inadequate memory meets lack of documentation. I think this is an astute observation because there are distinction between memory and history. Another one of my favorite points Barnes makes is that life is more than just addition and subtraction. Reinforcing that life is more than just simple mathematics like Dostoyevsky describes. Throughout the novel, Tony conscious makes illogical decisions proving his humanity. All in all, I enjoyed the novel and it served as a nice continuation of Dostoyevksy.