The Sense of An

Ending Creative
Project
Kylie McCalmont

3v3 Quick Summary

The Sense of An EndingTonys Webster's idea of how old friend and enemy
Adrian Finn died
Tony writes letter
Adrian commits suicide
Veronica exposes truth

Guiding AP Prompt
2009. A symbol is an object, action, or event
that represented something or that creates a range
of associations beyond itself. In literary works a
symbol can express an idea, clarify meaning, or
enlarge literal meeting. Select a novel or play
and, focusing on one symbol, write an essay
analyzing how the symbol functions in the work and
what it reveals about the characters or themes of
the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the
prompt.

Thesis Addressing Prompt

In The Sense of the Ending, Julian Barnes asserts
how time and memories can be easily distorted
using Tonys tainted perspective of his dark past
after 40 years. A distortion represented by the
fluidity of water that allows time be manipulated,
creating a fantasy out of reality.

Literary Symbol: Water

Symbolizes

Fluidity of time and

memories
Pace- fast or slow
Can condensateclouds memories
Ability to change
(solid, liquid, gas)

Quotes-First Sentence of
Novel

A river rushing nonsensically

upstream and the latter,
another river, broad and
grey. (Barnes 1)
shiny inner wrist (Barnes 1)
steam rising from a wet sink.
(Barnes 1)

Ultimate Theme (Essence)

Facing Reality
Is this real life or is this just fantasy?
And the longer life goes on, the fewer are
those around to challenge our account, to
remind us that our life is not our life, merely
the story we have told about our life. Told to
others, but---mainly---to ourselves. (Barnes
105)

Fluidity
approximate memories which time has deformed
into certainty. (Barnes 4)
Time and memories can be distorted

Half throw the hot frying pan into the wet sink.
Water fizzed and steam rose at the impact.
The tendency for a memory to change

Pace of Time
And yet it takes only the smallest pleasure or
pain to teach us time's malleability. Some
emotions speed it up, others slow it down;
occasionally, it seems to go missing - until the
eventual point when it really does go missing,
never to return.(Barnes 1-2)
Severn Bores
Thoughts of damp and cold vanished as the river simply
seemed to change its mind, and a wave, two or three feet
high, was heading towards us, the water breaking across
a whole width.

Take a Closer Look

Can you identify this?

Take One Step Back

What about this?

Creative Symbol
Eyeball with Water Colors
Water colors
Fluidity

Veins
Clarity

Eye
Sight and perception

And I thought of a cresting

wave of water, lit by a
moon, rushing past and
vanishing upstream,
pursued by a band of
yelping students whose
torch beams crisscrossed in
the dark. (Barnes 163)

Works Cited
Barnes, Julian. The Sense of an Ending. New York:
Alfred A. Knopf, 2011. Print.