When reading the ending to Brave New World, I was quite confused by the way it ended. The novel concluded itself with the Savage committing suicide because of how his personal views contradicted that of society's. In addition to feeling unwelcomed, he turned on his own beliefs by taking soma, which he considered "poison," and had sex with Lenina, which he wishes to only happen after marriage.
I consider the ending quite odd because why would John kill himself for betraying a couple of beliefs? John could have easily accepted the offer to live on an island, which could have progressed the story further and added an additional aspect to the plot. By the way the author ended the novel, it made it sound as if Huxley didn't know how to close out the novel. Brave New World's ending, with the protagonist dying, is similar to having an ending where the main character wakes up and figures out their adventures was all just a dream. Those kind of endings are a way for authors to end the conflict in a story without putting in much effort or thinking.
I personally believe a better alternative for an ending is John accepting the offer to live on the new island. This allows for more characters to be introduced who have also disagreed with the "utopian" society. Furthermore, this would allow for a more ambiguous ending, leaving the reader's creativity to decide what would happen to John and the other islanders. In addition, this kind of conclusion would allow for a possible sequel to happen. The decision to continue on the island could lead to an ending where John lives happily ever after or the Savage could once again be considered an outcast to the new society. If he were to be considered an outcast the death ending would be more acceptable because no matter where John has gone, his views will never be accepted by the public.
-Justin Bou
I consider the ending quite odd because why would John kill himself for betraying a couple of beliefs? John could have easily accepted the offer to live on an island, which could have progressed the story further and added an additional aspect to the plot. By the way the author ended the novel, it made it sound as if Huxley didn't know how to close out the novel. Brave New World's ending, with the protagonist dying, is similar to having an ending where the main character wakes up and figures out their adventures was all just a dream. Those kind of endings are a way for authors to end the conflict in a story without putting in much effort or thinking.
I personally believe a better alternative for an ending is John accepting the offer to live on the new island. This allows for more characters to be introduced who have also disagreed with the "utopian" society. Furthermore, this would allow for a more ambiguous ending, leaving the reader's creativity to decide what would happen to John and the other islanders. In addition, this kind of conclusion would allow for a possible sequel to happen. The decision to continue on the island could lead to an ending where John lives happily ever after or the Savage could once again be considered an outcast to the new society. If he were to be considered an outcast the death ending would be more acceptable because no matter where John has gone, his views will never be accepted by the public.
-Justin Bou
Thanks for fixing this, JB!
ReplyDeleteWell Brave New World isn't really a normal novel with a normal story since that really wasn't Huxley's intention in my opinion. In these types of novels that depict dystopian societies the main point of them is to give an image of a society that focuses on an exaggerated attribute of our current society. In Brave New World it's the extreme pursuit of happiness that's being described. Another example of this would be in Fahrenheit 451 where the main thing being focused on is the ban of books due to people not wanting to be knowledgeable as it might intrude on their happiness. Notice how both of these books don't have a "traditional" ending since their purpose was to give a glimpse of the possible future.
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