Although
it was mentioned that the Sense of an Ending was an easy read, I did not expect
the meaning of the book to be so philosophical. What I got from the book is
that its meaning mostly concerns time and our perception of it. The stages of
our lives also plays a big role in the book as the narrator often
differentiates his overall attitude in youth , with life and all its possibilities
ahead of him , and the cold, submissive attitude of adulthood. Some of the
ideas the Barnes mentions actually unsettled me such as when he describes the
way he lives his life as an adult. He mentions that you can lie to yourself and
say that you are making mature decisions yet you are probably only making those
choices because you’re a coward afraid of the consequences. Even this way of
life is not without its pain as Tony ends up bitterly recalling a plethora of “what-ifs”
from his youth and young manhood.
The
book also prompted me to think about things I never would have thought of such
as the history of my own life. Right now I am young yet the more the years
accumulate the more unclear my own past will be. I may perceive my own life in
a way that completely ignores what actually happened. I may essentially lie to
myself all the way to the grave and then what does it even matter? I fear that
Tony Webster was right and life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. The worst part
of it all is that I could relate so clearly to Webster’s feelings of youth, as
if life was certainly about to happen and I’ll go on to live fuller lives then
my parents yet it is clear that Webster felt this way and in adulthood was left
with Remorse and the bitterness of settling for what won’t hurt you. So in the
end this book deals with our “own personal, largely undocumented” piece of
history and how we alter and perceive it. I liked the way the author went about
discussing this interesting topic and I found the overall plot of the book entertaining.
No comments:
Post a Comment