A Study Of Ethics In Julian Barnes' The Sense Of An Ending

Profound humanistic care is a prominent feature of Julian Barnes' s works.As a typical postmodern writer,Barnes makes the utmost of his exquisite writing techniques to depict the living environment and ethical conflicts of contemporary people,and manages to assist people in disentangling those conflicts and rediscovering the meaning of life.The present thesis aims to discuss the ethical phenomena of The Sense of an Ending by applying ethical literary criticism and postmodern narrative strategies,and explore the way to extricate people from modern ethical conflicts.Chapter one holds that Barnes mainly unfolds the novel in two kinds of ethical situations,namely the objective historic ethical situation and the literary ethical context,giving a background support for the characters' ethical choices making.The second chapter mainly discusses how narration represents the typical ethical phenomena in a fictional literary world,and finds that narrative strategies facilitate the presentation of ethical conflicts.Thus the form echoes the content and themes.Unreliable narrator and uncertainty it causes presents the obscure ethical self;fragmentation presents the collapsed spiritual world;two-section narrative structure highlights the variation of ethical identity,and the circular structure it forms implies an idea that “ending” isn't always the end,but is a new start in some circumstances.Chapter three interprets the deep meaning of “ending”.The premise of “ending” becoming a new start is that people shall reassess the past,and confront the true “self”.Through past-reassessment and self-introspection,people will have a better understanding of life.Through the three aspects,Barnes' s deep humanistic care and ethical values are revealed.Rationality-resumption,past-reassessment and self-introspection play an immeasurable role in reconstructing people's ethics,and discovering the meaning of life.