Calista brought up an interesting point in class the other
day about how most times in books we don’t get a “recovery period” at the end of
the book where we see the aftermath of the big battle.
We don’t usually get to see how the characters we followed
through their story mentally or physically deal with the aftermath of their
quest. Like in superhero movies - we see them save the day (woohoo!) but we
also see that they’ve destroyed half the city. Then, in the next scene, or the
after-credits scene, or the beginning of the next movie, everything has
miraculously gone back to where it was before. New York is rebuilt, people have
moved on with their lives, and the scene is set for the next adventure to
begin.
If we do get a “what happens later”, it is usually in the
form of an epilogue – glossing over the recovery period to tell us what
happened later. We see that they’ve recovered, but not how. (See Harry Potter: “Nineteen
years later…”)
It could be that authors feel the recovery period might be boring.
The story was about the quest at large after all, not about the therapy
sessions that should probably be necessary afterwards, or the long and arduous
rebuilding of the city. Authors could want us to imagine how things go from
here back to normal, giving us the space to make up our own ending. Or they may
just not want to dig into the difficulties of portraying the aftermath of the
battle.
Tolkien, however, gives us not only the aftermath of the
Fellowship’s quest but also the “what has been happening at home,” and “what is
the overall impact on the characters of the quest”. We talked in class a bit
about what this gives us as readers, so I don’t need to rehash that here, but
honestly, I’d enjoy seeing that kind of attention to detail in more of the fiction
that I read. It could serve as a reminder that even happy endings are not fully
happy, or not fully happy to begin with (we must work our way to happiness).
Gandalf,
ReplyDeleteI agree that the ending in the Lord of the Rings is more satisfactory due to the long ending. It is different in a film, where you will start to lose the attention of the audience after the climax. Movies are supposed to have declining action after the climactic event, so we don't see the scouring of the Shire in the films. I think it is nice to see how the stories of all the characters play out. The Scouring of the Shire is where we see all the character change in the Hobbits and the good that the quest did them. You are right that Tolkien gave all his characters realistic endings. Most are happy, but some, like Frodo's, are still fraught with underlying issues.
I think showing the recovery in the story helps to keep the audience connected to the characters. I think in some ways after reading a story with so many moments of death and loss and despair the reader also needs some sort of recovery period. When its left out of the story then the reader will have to look elsewhere for comfort while if the recovery period is included in the story then the reader will feel a stronger connection with the character as they progress through the emotional journey together. Just my theory.
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