The Better Ending
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The Better Ending
An ending can make or break a novel. A bad ending to a good book is like playing the wrong chord at the end of a flawlessly performed piano piece at one's recital. When comparing the endings of The Color Purple and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the latter has the better ending. It is better because it's realistic, it leaves the reader to think about the book and it doesn't sound like a rewritten "they all lived happily ever after." The Color Purple, on the other hand, is weakened by its strangely, over-happy ending.
Throughout The Color Purple, the reader witnesses Celie's struggle to find her role in society. The book contains a lot of sadness as the reader sees Celie being beaten, raped and criticized, but the reader also sees Celie's slow transformation into a stronger human being. One expects things to be resolved at the end but an ending needs to cause someone to think. It needs to spark a discussion, and the only discussion this sparks is "why is it so happy?". (add quote) The fact that Shug decides to come back and Albert cleans up his attitude towards Celie makes the writing seem too sloppy; too fairytalish. It makes the novel rushed at the end. Someone might as well call it a fairytale as it has the same structure as one. There is a struggle, it slowly starts to be resolved over time and once that struggle is taken care of they live happily ever after. It leaves a bitter taste to what, as a whole, is a fairly good novel. Even a little act as having Shug not come back would have made the ending more bearable to read. The reappearance of Shug is unnecessary for the novel to end well. Celie has shown that she is able to stand up for herself without the aide of Shug and by not having her come back, the novel may make that more apparent. However, Walker possibly wanted to convey to the read that this is only the beginning of Celie's life. But it is ironic that something so sugary-sweet leaves a foul taste in one's mouth.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's...
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