An Analysis Of The Evolution Of Characters' Identities In The Sense Of An Ending

Julian Barnes is one of the most outstanding writers in English literary world,and his novel The Sense of an Ending came out in 2011 and won the Man Booker Prize in the same year.Based on Paul Ricoeur and Mark Freeman's narrative identity theory,this thesis attempts to analyze the evolution of characters' identities in The Sense of an Ending.The protagonist Tony Webster s identity exploration goes through three phases: firstly,the fabrication of self identity and others identities;secondly,rediscovery of personal history in others narratives and the reconstruction of true identities;finally,the retrospection on the evolution of identities.Accordingly,this thesis discloses the identity crisis people faced today and provides a referential survival paradigm for human's identity disorientation and orientation in light of narrative identity theory.This thesis consists of five chapters: Chapter One mainly introduces Barnes' life experiences and works,systematically summarizes the foreign and domestic research on Barnes and his works,expounds the theoretical framework and briefly describes the purpose of this thesis.Chapter Two concentrates on the analysis of Tony's construction of self and others' fake identities.Chapter Three follows with the rediscovery of characters' true history and the restore of their true identities.Chapter Four profoundly decomposes the reasons for the characters' disorientation of identities.Chapter Five provides the conclusion of this thesis.With the analysis of Tony's construction of fake identities according to his personal narrative and the process of restoring the true identities of characters,this thesis reveals Barnes' deep consideration of identity crisis people faced today.The construction of personal identity depends on personal memory and narrative,and by means of exploring the relationship between the identity and personal narrative,this thesis intends to proclaim that humans must have the courage to face real personal histories and construct true identities for themselves,so as to find the way of self redemption.