Abstract:Julian Barnes, who is called "the chameleon of British letters", is one of the unusually gifted British contemporary writers. He breaks from tradition and innovates with many experimental writing techniques.

In 2011, he won Booker Prize with his novel The Sense of an Ending.

Tony is the narrator of this novel. In the first part, Tony recalls the philosophical group set together with other three high school classmates and things happened in his university. That the love triangle between Tony, Adrian and Veronica, and the unexpected suicide of Adrian foreshadows the denouement of the novel.The second part of the novel is what happened forty years later. A parcel of relics from Veronica's mother made Tony curious about what happened to Veronica and Andrain during his forty-year absense. And he began to doubt the realibilty of his memory. 

This thesis consists of five chapters. The first part is the introduction and account of the life and works of Julian Barnes as well as the commentory on his works. The second chapter is the illustration of the concept of alienation from the perspective of Marx, Lukacs and Fromm. The third part is the self alienation of Tony, Andrian and Veronica. The fourth part is focused on the reason of those characters' alienation preceeding from their surrounding environment, both family and the society. And the fifth part is the conclusion of this thesis.

This thesis focuses on the alienation of the characters in The Sense of an Ending to reveal the phenomenon of lacking trust and love between people. They are indifferent and hostile to each other. Even the once intimate family and friends become strangers, thus a mental crisis of modern people being revealed.

Keywords: Julian Barnes; The Sense of an Ending; alienation

Contents

摘要

Abstract

Chapter 1 Introduction-1

1.1 Julian Barnes’ Life and His Major Works-1

1.2 A Brief introduction to the Novel-1

1.3 Literature Review-2

Chapter 2 Alienation-5

2.1 Concepts of Alienation-5

2.1.1 Marx’s theory on alienation-5

2.1.2 Lukacs’ theory on alienation-6

2.1.3 Fromm’s theory on alienation-6

2.2 Alienation in the Actual World-7

2.3 Alienation in Literature-8

Chapter 3 Alienation of the Charaters-9

3.1 Alienation of Tony-9

3.2 Alienation of Andrian-11

3.3 Alienation of Mrs Ford-12

Chapter 4 Cause of Alienation in the Characters-15

Chapter 5 Conclusion-17

Biboliography-19

Acknowledgements-21