"Just under the crown of the arch dangled a pair of feet."
-Page 259
John could not take this civilized world anymore. The Savage could not live in a world when everyone was forced to be happy, and the last thing he wanted was to be like them. He was mocked and followed and had no where to hide from the people. This world, this civilization, these people had driven him to take his own life. John's suicide is the resolution of the plot/novel. The denouement concluded the story, after all of the other conflicts have been settled. The fate of the last character remaining is discovered in the final page of the book. The author does not bother telling us what happened to Bernard and Helmholtz on the island they were sent to. The important part of the resolution is that the happy and perfect society led to the death of a savage who knew what life was like before. The Savage knew God, and Shakespeare, and love, and he was killed by the Other Place, which he found to be insanity.
No comments:
Post a Comment