Brave New World ends with John taking
his own life after wrestling with various difficulties living within the World
State’s society. My initial reaction was that the conclusion was unsatisfying.
I expected something closer along the lines of a dystopian novel, in which the
protagonist starts some kind of uprising in order to break out of the confines
of the tainted society they live in. Instead, Bernard and Helmholtz get sent to
an island, and nothing else is heard of them. Further, they aren’t developed as
a heroic figures in the book, and the focus of the book shifts to John later in
the story, who doesn’t accomplish any more than Bernard or Helmholtz did.
After
discussing the ending of the book and contemplating further, I concluded that
the ending is underwhelming, but it is the most fitting for the direction the
book was heading. Unlike other dystopian novels, there isn’t much of a build up
in Brave New World. There isn’t a
character in the book that cultivates ideas of a revolution, so it wouldn’t
have made sense for there to have been a rebellion. The only characters that
had the potential to create change in the society didn’t seem to have it in
mind, and their thoughts never reached the point of even considering taking any
significant actions to change the society. They merely dwelled upon their
disagreements with the society. John’s philosophical debate with Mustapha Mond didn’t
develop to become anything more than just an interesting conversation.
Even if there wasn’t a revolution,
I still thought that there should have been an alternative ending. For
instance, what would’ve happened if John returned to the Reservation? I would
predict that this would’ve led to the same result of John ending his own life
because he wouldn’t be able to break free from his thoughts of Lenina and
Linda, even if he left the World State. Additionally, before he came to the
World State, it seemed as though he wasn’t accepted by the people in the
Reservation, and he wouldn’t have had a family to return to since Linda was his
only family. By ending the book with a scene of isolation and John’s death,
Aldous Huxley displays that John is an outcast to both societies.
I also think the ending is fitting
for the nature of the society in Brave
New World. All three of the characters that had any sort of disagreement
with the society’s ideals were sent away/died in the end of the book. I think
this shows the power of the World State. A couple rebellious people can’t even
attempt to overthrow this powerful regime. Personally, I think it would have
been nice to have a final scene of the World State, in which everything is
normal, to show that the society is so powerful that these three characters
weren’t able to even have the smallest ascertainable effect on the World State.
Regardless of the fact that the ending
can seem underwhelming, it is the most fitting for the society that is
described in the book. I don’t think Huxley intended for this book to
demonstrate the power of the individual. If anything, I think this book
emphasized the power of this society as a whole, and is demonstrating the
elimination of individuality that would result from a utopia.
-Minji
I also felt like this and wrote about this in my blog post. It makes me feel really uncomfortable and bad that at the end of this book. Morally, there is no one in this book that you can root for. For that reason I didn't really enjoy Brave New World. It didn't feel good while reading it (which is why I read books). I feel like that's going to be a common thread in dystopia & utopia. Either the society survives or they collapse.
ReplyDelete-Anna O.
Minji, in all honesty, I could not agree with you more, especially the points that you made in your second to last paragraph. At the end of the day, I too was underwhelmed with the ending; but, I felt like it was fitting in that it showcased the dark, eternal brutality of the World State. And I think that that's what Huxley wanted readers to understand. I don't think that he intended for the novel to be about heroes or change. Rather, I think that Huxley wanted the ending to be raw and itchy, if you will. In that light, I agree with your remarks about the finale and find myself growing a deeper and deeper appreciation for it everyday.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting because I was not surprised by the ending at all, and I think it might have had something to do with the comments I had gotten from various people when I mentioned I was reading the book. I was hearing a lot of how terrible and dismal the book was from people who had already read it, so I guess I internalized that and wasn't expecting anything redeeming from the book. It definitely offers a really depressing, pessimistic outlook on the possibility of change in society. Sometimes it feels we're living in some sort of dystopia today, and so this ending was definitely not encouraging. But, while it was really discouraging, I do think it made sense in the context of the book, and it made the book really interesting for me.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with your point about the underwhelming ending...I think we're used to current dystopian novels ending in a revolution and rebellion, and having the main character come out victorious and "beating the system", but that's not really where this book was headed. Why set up this huge and seemingly ideal society if to tear it down in the end? And I agree that while at first Bernard may have seemed promising, he turned out to be too cowardly and in his own head to do anything. John wouldn't have been able to make any changes alone, so I think it makes sense for Huxley to kill him off, kind of like he killed of our hope to see a change in this society.
ReplyDeleteI agree with that the ending makes sense in a way, because John doesn't really belong anywhere. After discussing the ending and contemplating different endings for John's character I also came to the conclusion that despite the horrible ending for John's character, it makes a lot of sense for his story. His whole arc was that he didn't fit in anywhere, so it definitely seems like that story couldn't have been truly developed further.
ReplyDeleteI agree that throughout the novel there wasn't any tension building up which is why the ending seemed very underwhelming. I think its because in modern dystopian novels there seems to be a theme of an eventual uprising that usurps the authoritarian system. Since that wasn't present in this novel, it may explain why a lot of people were disappointed by the ending or felt that John killing himself didn't do much to upset the World order in BNW.
ReplyDeleteMuch like the comments above I agree that the ending was a bit off. What felt like a large build ended up being disappointing to say the least. I've always grown up to expect that the protagonist will beat the odds and come up on top, and in this book it just didn't happen. In the end it didn't really help the cause.
ReplyDeleteThe ending was trash. I feel like the author wrote it thinking his novel wouldn't have that much success or he didn't actually know how to finish it. Also, John just killing himself that abruptly doesn't seem that plausible to me now that I think about it. I feel like he would likely try to escape first instead of ending it all. With how crafty the savage was, he still couldn't figure out how to get out of the problem he was currently facing. Also, I may have just skipped over it, but is there a reason that John couldn't go with the other two to the island aside from Mustapha Mond wanting to experiment on him?
ReplyDeleteI think I pretty much agree with you here. I didn’t hate the ending, but that’s mostly because I’m glad nobody started a revolution. That may have been even more depressing, because I can’t envision the effectiveness of a revolution in the situation. I like your idea about having a final scene going back to the world as a whole. I was annoyed that a big chunk of the end focused on John, when the book’s point seemed to be more of a portrait of a society. Something going back to the bigger picture would have wrapped things up more nicely.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I wasn't very satisfied with the ending. It felt more like an end to the chapter than the end of a book and I don't feel like it really wrapped everything up in a satisfactory way. The only part of the story that was really ended was John's life, however I felt like his story was more cut short than finished. I think having this as the end of the book also confuses the reader, making it seem like the focus of the book was John when it could have actually been a picture of wider society.
ReplyDeleteThis ending seems more like a breaking point between act two and three. We have no idea how the citizens will react. It seems like there would certainly be a strong reaction though. Maybe Bernard comes back from the island with all of the other thinkers and is able to use this a catalyst for change? I'm not sure what i really wanted to happen but i certainly expected something more than just: suicide, The end.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree, this idea that one person with some radical ideas could take down a thought out society that seems to use mind control to control its people isn't realistic in the setting. I liked the ending in the sense that is wasn't a cheesy ending where John dismantles this entire society.
ReplyDeleteThe ending definitely fit the book for me. Everything about Brave New World is bleak and thought for change in the society is hopeless. The World State has already been in existence for a long time (some number of centuries), so it wouldn't make sense for it to be seriously threatened in any way by the conclusion. As you said, the characters were never set up by Huxley to be the ones who "save the day" at the end. The ending seemed pretty natural, was pretty tidy, and most importantly didn't distract from Huxley's main points with regards to his social commentary. As for an alternate ending, you said yourself that you see John going down the same path if he goes back to the Reservation. I think the current ending does pretty well in showing that John is an outcast from both the Reservation and the World State by having him go away from both.
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