The Pursuit Of Authentic Self:An Existentialist Interpretation Of The Sense Of An Ending

Shortlisted thrice for the Man Booker Prize,The Sense of an Ending which published in 2011 helped Julian Barnes finally win the prize in the same year.The novel is short yet compelling.Tony Webster,the protagonist,tells the whole story in first-person narrative.The first part of the novel focuses on Tony’s "self-preservation"in his friendship with Adrian and his love of Veronica in his high school and college life.The second part,beginning with a letter of the mother of his ex-girlfriend Veronica,is Tony’s exploration of truth,during which he ultimately acquires his authentic self and establishes his positive outlook on life.The novel embodies Barnes’s thoughts of values and outlook on life;his existentialist thoughts are especially reflected in it.So far,scare researches have been done to examine the novel from the perspective of Sartre’s existentialism.The author of the present thesis ventures to approach the text in terms of bad faith,being-for-itself and authenticity,and to explore the constantly subversion of the moral satisfaction built in"bad faith" by Tony so as to pursue his authentic self and realize self-value.The thesis is divided into six chapters.Chapter One introduces the author Julian Barnes and his The Sense of an Ending,and also summarizes the significance and framework of this thesis.Chapter Two focuses on the research status and the theoretical rational.Chapter Three analyzes the coward Tony in his youth under the guideline of bad faith.It expounds from two interpersonal relationships:his love of Veronica and his friendship with Adrian,gradually shaping his image of victim.Chapter Four dwells on Tony’s a series of anxious memories under "the look of the Other".He lives as being-for-itself,constantly negating the speculation of the meaning of the end and restoring his real image of victimizer.Chapter Five is to analyze the sense of shame and the sense of pride brought by the truth disclosure.The sense of shame comes from the unrest from the bottom of heart and from the end of any likelihood of change in past life.The sense of pride is emerging with consciously undertaking of responsibility.Chapter Six concludes that the humanity concern in Barnes’s work is completely unmasked.Tony Webster is a symbol of human beings,and his existence of being-for-itself embodies the profound significance of constant negating "I am which I am" in order to approach "I am which I am not".Barnes shows his humanistic care for the spiritual world of post-modern people and provides a mode of seeking authentic existence for human beings through literary works.