Wasn't too bad

      After finishing The Sense of an Ending, I must admit that the novel is a whole lot more abstract than I had anticipated. When we were told that the novel was going to be an easy read and I later read the first few pages I felt as if there was not going to be any hidden meaning behind the narrator’s words. Clearly (at least in my opinion), I was wrong, as nearly the entire novel is full of a more complex message. 
      Since the beginning of the novel, we learn about the lives of various characters. Most importantly, we are introduced to Tony and Adrian’s friendship and a young girl named Veronica. Moreover, after Veronica leaves Tony for Adrian and Tony finds out from Adrian himself, the result is chaos. Tony responds to Adrian with the intent to hurt him, but I do not think he really expected the suicide of his old friend. Similar to one of the earliest scenes in the novel where one of the school’s students kills himself, Tony is left questioning the real reasoning behind Adrian’s suicide. 
      Personally, I think the real meaning of the novel resides on the idea that there is no true meaning to life. The entire novel spoke about the characters’ childhood and how they were all friends until it all fell apart quickly. Veronica almost directly causes the death of Adrian and the deep sorrow of Tony and although Veronica and Tony meet at the end, a reflection of the past almost always precedes a period of sadness. In other words, what was the point of living the decades and decades that the characters did if it always results in death? What makes one person’s life better than another person’s if they result in the same thing? That is exactly where religion steps in. Religion gives a meaning to life. Religion tells you that yeah…everyone dies, but some people have a better death than others. Hence, people strive to have a great life because they are constantly afraid of death or looking forward to death. Death gives the meaning to life. If I haven't made any sense, I will sum it up now. Basically, I think the novel is just telling us about the fact that life has no true meaning without the concept of death and an afterlife. For this exact reason, we use religion as a mechanism to drive us to live a more “successful” life.