Final post

Damn, that ending really escalated quickly. I began getting really frustrated in the middles of reading this book. It felt like it just kept on dragging on and on and on. It truthfully took the last 10 pages of the novel for me to finally feel intrigued again. Barnes' makes it philosophically self evident in his novel that perception is often skewed based on what we fear. Tony's inability to understand the situation with Veronica comes from the fact that Tony cannot truthfully perceive the right scenarios over and oer again. When he meets Veronica's parents, his fears of the, not liking him and his fears of them judging him too harshly over shadow in his mind the fact that they genuinely liked them. That false perception right there leads to the domino effect of all of his misunderstandings.

The ending really hit me harder than I would have expected. I'm not usually the type to feel the way I did after this novel, but I did. Barnes' build up throughout the novel is legendary in my eyes. He builds it up in such a complicated, subconscious vortex of material to the point where it becomes immediately clear to the reader.

This book is a good example to me of how we as individuals tend to skew our perceptions of events or the actions of others based on our fears of them. I did not recognize this pattern in myself and other humans until reading this book. I think it's something that I will carry within myself for the rest of my life. Instead of accepting my first, impulsive perception of an event or action, it's better to give the benefit of the doubt in certain cases, and really think the perception through, logically and rationally.