This blog is part of my classroom
activity. In this blog I have answered some questions through my understanding
of the novel.
To view
full activity – click here
Here is my
response to the questions,
1. What does
Veronica meant by saying “Blood Money?
2. Adrian’s
diary is willed to Tony by Sarah Ford. How come Sarah Ford owned it? Why was it
in the possession of Veronica?
Sara ford owned the diary
of Adrian because both were in relationship with each other. Adrian was the
father of Sara’s child and before committing suicide, both were happy also. As Tony
said,
“Veronica’s mother had assured me the last
months of Adrian’s life had been happy”
And after reading the letter
of Sara Ford, Tony said that,
“Why she had written: “P.S. It may sound odd,
but I think the last months of his life were happy.”
Both were happy with each
other and that’s why Adrian’s diary was with Sara. After Sara’s death it was
with Veronica.
3. .Do you
see any missing block – some dot which is not getting connected with the whole
or dot missing to get full sense of the novel - in the plot of this
psychological thriller?
There are
many missing blocks are in the novel. We can find many questions which are not
answered by Julian Barnes. Some things are mysterious in the novel which we
have to think twice or thrice to understand and though we can’t get it. Some mysteries
like,
> Why Sara hates and jealous with her own daughter
Veronica?
> Why Sara warned Tony about his relationship with
Veronica?
> Why Adrian got attracted or got seduced by Sara when he
had Veronica as a lover?
> Why Veronica left Tony when he is considered as a good
man?
> Why all teachers used to favor Adrian?
> Why Adrian is thinking philosophically all the time?
> Why Adrian has committed suicide if he was happy in his
last days?
These many questions are depended only on possibilities.
Novel can’t answer these only reader can through possibilities.
4. What do
you mean by Unreliable Narrator? Is Tony Webster classifiable as Unreliable
Narrator?
In the very beginning
of the novel Tony says,
“I
remember, in no particular order: —a shiny inner wrist;”
“So I need
to return briefly to a few incidents that have grown into anecdotes, to some
approximate memories which time has deformed into certainty. If
I can’t be
sure of the actual events any more, I can at least be true to the impressions
those facts left. That’s the best I can manage.”
Many times
these kinds of statements come into the narrative. Even the incident of letter
in first part and second part is different. In first part Tony says he has
written a letter to Adrian and Veronica but in second part when we read the
letter we come to know about the harshness of it.
