"The Comet" with a more wholesome ending
Story Ending
“Julia,” he whispered, “my darling, I thought you were gone forever”.
After recovering from the trauma, they began to travel through New York, searching for any survivors. They were unable to find anyone, but settled in a rural area near Long Island, away from the corpses and and pain and suffering leftover from the world they used to live in.
They sat together, with their hands interlocking as they watched the sunset in the distance, trying to forget the desolate city that they left behind.
“Our world is gone,'' she replied,with tears welling up in her eyes.
“I know. We’re the last ones, the last living people,'' he said as he gripped her hand tighter.
“We can start over,'' she said, “and live our lives together in peace, away from the pain and suffering we once knew.”
She noticed a small smile on his face, the first she had seen in a while.
They didn’t know what would happen next, now that they were the only ones left. But in that moment, the only thing they knew was that they could never let go of each other again.
Analysis
The theme of "The Comet" by W.E.B. Du Bois is about how ultimately race is ultimately unimportant, and that if society was different, such as it is in the short story “The Comet”, ideals such as race would be almost meaningless. Throughout the story, the characters develop a lot, and even though most of humanity has died out, It starts to seem like society now has the ability to change. However, this is all changed at the end when they run into the white men, who assume that simply because of his race, he hurt her, along with calling him racial slurs and wanting to “lynch” him. The ending I imagined is much more wholesome. Being the last of humanity, they are able to start over with a blank state, and create the kind of society where race really is an arbitrary concept. They are able to be happy with each other and live a peaceful life, away from the pain and suffering that society can put on a person.
I love the idea behind this alternative ending. If I could've rewritten the conclusion of the Comet, it would have definitely been something along these lines. I was honestly hoping that Julia and Jim would stay together in the end, because up until the part where Julia's father finds her (in particular, the part where they talk on the rooftop), it genuinely seemed like Julia was starting to really open up to Jim & put her previous perceptions about him behind her. She says to him, "how foolish our human distinctions seem", and talked about how in the end, they are both human and that's what matters. So it was kind of disappointing to see her leave him in the end and go off with her father and Fred. I guess DuBois was trying to relay a message.
ReplyDeleteThis is very wholesome but sadly I think it's kind of overly Romantic. I feel the characters W.E.B. DuBois crafted would be reluctant to reach this happy conclusion. The fact that Julia says nothing defending Jim or thanking him in a genuine way points to the idea that they can never really overcome their social conception of race, at least in this world.
ReplyDeleteI'm very conflicted on what to think about such a romantic ending between the two characters, who were so clearly divided in the early part of the story. It's clear that Du Bois intended to project that during an apocalyptic event, society's more prevalent distinguishing factors (in this case race) SHOULD be and are indeed ignored, but are never really gone. Also, this is just my opinion but I never got a very wholesome vibe from the two; their only form of romance was lustful and sexually driven. Thus, I'm not quite sure if the ending itself fits with Du Bois's message, but I'd certainly like to see you re-write or alter the entire story to fit the wholesome tone.
ReplyDeleteThis is super interesting to see because I also wrote about an alternate ending to "The Comet" but in a different way so it's cool to see how other people imagined it! Similarly, I also went the route of making the story ending a bit more wholesome except instead of having everyone still be dead, I had the white men come back and end up accepting the black man. I think both of our versions are obviously pretty unrealistic considering it's extremely difficult for racial barriers to be forgotten that easily and huge natural disasters that kill everyone in the entire world but 2 people to happen. I think in Dubois' original, by having the white people come back and the regular racially divided world come back is not only more realistic, but really conveys the message that without the outer influence of society, this racial hierarchy and refusal to accept others of a different race would not exist. I think your version can actually still convey that message, but differs because you don't get the impossible feeling. I think this is a super cute ending though!
ReplyDeleteGiven I just read Matatov’s blog post before this, I think it’s quite nice that both you and him thought about a more idealistic, “happier” ending for “The Comet” where society can restart without racism. As I posted on his, sometimes idealism is great and is preferred to a more depressive view on reality, and right now, I think that’s sort of the case when it comes to the ending of “The Comet.” I think you and Matatov both imagining a nicer ending is telling about how much our society has changed since “The Comet” was written. Perhaps because we’ve become more progressive in terms of race (we still have work to do, but still), it’s easier for us to imagine a world where race doesn’t matter. Anyways, nice blog post - short and sweet! :D
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your more wholesome ending. I also believe that it speaks a different message from the original work. Where “The Comet” had a punch at the end, arguing that the idea of race requires more than the massacre of an entire urban center to eliminate, your alternate ending concludes with a happy, and sentimental message. This takes the comet from sociological commentary to a different genre entirely, ending with romance. I think a post-apocalyptic romance novel would also serve as an effective means to contemplate the strength we give to a social construct, the story would just need to detail the future (along with problems that immerge amongst their descendants. Excellent work!
ReplyDelete