A few months ago I read Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel “Never Let Me Go.” The story centers around an organ-farming system in which clones are raised to be harvested for “real people.” The majority of the book had an extremely compelling focus on the humanity of the clones and really made the reader think deeply about the future of medical ethics.
But when the ultimate conclusion was just that neither the clones nor the activists supporting them could do anything to change the system, it didn’t leave me wanting to ask further questions or wanting to inspire change in the systems it criticizes. It just left me feeling that the future was hopeless and that there was nothing that could be done to fix it, and that isn’t the message that a book should leave you with.
The first time I read a book that ended like this, it seemed so thought-provoking and subversive. It made the book’s messages seem so real, and made the reader think deeply about the implications of the ending on their life. But as time has gone on, it feels like these hopeless endings are only taking away the potential for a story to have deeper meaning. Books should strive to have good, meaningful endings instead of solely trying to adhere to life.
A book that uses the same type of ending more compellingly is Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel “Frankenstein.” The book focuses on how both Dr. Frankenstein and his creation fall into despair and ultimately their deaths, not because they couldn’t have hoped to prevent them but because of the selfish and spiteful decisions they actively choose to make. Rather than making the reader feel helpless, it makes the reader think about the mistakes the characters made and how they can avoid making those mistakes in their life. The book even provides the reader with a third character, a sailor named Walton, who sees the mistakes the main characters make and learns from them, saving his life.
The world is filled with fundamentally flawed systems. Our stories shouldn’t tell us that we can do nothing to fix them; they should tell us that we can and should fix them and improve ourselves. Everyone can grow, and every individual’s efforts matter, and if there are any realities that our stories need to reflect, it’s those.
