Kuno Survives
In "The Machine Stops" by E.M.Forster, all of the main characters in the story are killed by an airship that crashed on top of them. In my reimagined ending of the story, this mass death does not occur to that extent.
In the ending scene of the story, Kuno tries to lead people on the train tracks up and out through the ladder that he had previously found. Unfortunately, not a lot of people can make it up the ladder because they are not very strong, including Vashti. However, there are a few that are able to follow. On the other side, there are ground people waiting with respirators to meet Kuno and the people coming out of the earth. Previously, Kuno had already met and made friends in this group of ground people. It was with them he worked to prepare for this day by gathering the respirators from where they were held and such. They were not expecting most to survive the death of the machine; however, Kuno had tried to prepare everyone he could by convincing who he could to begin strengthening themselves. The ones who listened became his friends and joined the movement to try and move as many people that they could. However, the chance that a person would listen was low. After coming out of the dirt for good, the survivors integrated themselves into the communities that had been living on the ground for centuries. The ones that stayed on the tracks were slowly asphyxiated as the artificial air leaked from the ground and the ground oxygen seeped in.
I reimagined "The Machine Stops" in this way because I felt it was deserved. In the original story, Kuno was struck by something on the train tracks and, therefore, not given a chance to escape the inevitable death that accompanied that place. Throughout the story, Kuno was the only known character that did not worship the machine or believe that the earth was completely futile and dead. Since the story follows Vashti, the reader is not given much insight on Kuno's activities and whereabouts. Therefore, I believe that my reimagined ending would fit perfectly into the story.
At the end of the story, saving Kuno would give a happy ending to an otherwise condemning story. It leaves the reader hope for the story's epilogue instead of a feeling of want and wonder for what the ground people meant to the story. Although the author might've meant to leave the reader with longing for more explanation, the ending irritated me. Therefore I would want to finish the story with more of a sense of completion. In addition, left as is, it feels as if the author had just dropped certain characters into the story. In my opinion, they don't hold any true meaning with only one glimpse of them in the story. Also, Kuno collaborating with them correlates with the part of the story when he tells Vashti that he had met and visited them on a previous occasion.
Overall, my version of the story gives significance to the ground people and hope to the reader in the end. My last reason I stress the importance of this ending because it not only gives the author room to make a second book if they like, I believe it would appeal to a larger crowd. Most people prefer a happier ending and ignore the earth's problems they are contributing to. In my opinion, the general public would much rather look the other way to problems that fixes' require them to go out of their comfort zone. Therefore, in order to make more money off of the story and keep up general esteem, I would change the ending of "The Machine Stops" in this way.
In the ending scene of the story, Kuno tries to lead people on the train tracks up and out through the ladder that he had previously found. Unfortunately, not a lot of people can make it up the ladder because they are not very strong, including Vashti. However, there are a few that are able to follow. On the other side, there are ground people waiting with respirators to meet Kuno and the people coming out of the earth. Previously, Kuno had already met and made friends in this group of ground people. It was with them he worked to prepare for this day by gathering the respirators from where they were held and such. They were not expecting most to survive the death of the machine; however, Kuno had tried to prepare everyone he could by convincing who he could to begin strengthening themselves. The ones who listened became his friends and joined the movement to try and move as many people that they could. However, the chance that a person would listen was low. After coming out of the dirt for good, the survivors integrated themselves into the communities that had been living on the ground for centuries. The ones that stayed on the tracks were slowly asphyxiated as the artificial air leaked from the ground and the ground oxygen seeped in.
I reimagined "The Machine Stops" in this way because I felt it was deserved. In the original story, Kuno was struck by something on the train tracks and, therefore, not given a chance to escape the inevitable death that accompanied that place. Throughout the story, Kuno was the only known character that did not worship the machine or believe that the earth was completely futile and dead. Since the story follows Vashti, the reader is not given much insight on Kuno's activities and whereabouts. Therefore, I believe that my reimagined ending would fit perfectly into the story.
At the end of the story, saving Kuno would give a happy ending to an otherwise condemning story. It leaves the reader hope for the story's epilogue instead of a feeling of want and wonder for what the ground people meant to the story. Although the author might've meant to leave the reader with longing for more explanation, the ending irritated me. Therefore I would want to finish the story with more of a sense of completion. In addition, left as is, it feels as if the author had just dropped certain characters into the story. In my opinion, they don't hold any true meaning with only one glimpse of them in the story. Also, Kuno collaborating with them correlates with the part of the story when he tells Vashti that he had met and visited them on a previous occasion.
Overall, my version of the story gives significance to the ground people and hope to the reader in the end. My last reason I stress the importance of this ending because it not only gives the author room to make a second book if they like, I believe it would appeal to a larger crowd. Most people prefer a happier ending and ignore the earth's problems they are contributing to. In my opinion, the general public would much rather look the other way to problems that fixes' require them to go out of their comfort zone. Therefore, in order to make more money off of the story and keep up general esteem, I would change the ending of "The Machine Stops" in this way.
I definitely think your alternative ending would have more mass-appeal because as we know from Disney, everyone loves a happy ending. The only real hope "The Machine Stops" provides is the "what if ?" of imagination. There's chance that humanity continues above ground with the "Homeless". However I feel this way the ultimate moral of the story regarding the danger of technology is more striking- even if it's an unsatisfying ending. One quote that exemplifies this is when Vashti says “Oh, tomorrow -- some fool will start the Machine again, tomorrow”
ReplyDeleteand Kuno replies “Never,...never. Humanity has learnt its lesson”
Caylee, I also agree that the ending was unsatisfying! I think it would be interesting to see how the characters transition back to living on the surface of the planet. I wonder if they would be able to survive without the Machine, given that they've spent their entire lives under its guidance. If the Machine didn't kill them, I wonder if the lack of its presence will?
ReplyDeleteI do like your ending of the story much better. I think that the author ended the story with only a slight glimpse at the characters so that the reader can think about or even imagine what will happen in the future. But I do agree that the ending was less than satisfactory, and would have been better with a more complete ending so that the reader can get closure.
ReplyDeleteLike most of the other people who commented, I agree that your ending would probably be appeal more to the masses and is more satisfying in the sense that the conflict that is presented not only gets solved, but a new beginning arises from it. On the other hand, I think it's kind of interesting how in most of the alternative endings of stories I've read, the writer chooses a more positive ending because they think it is more "satisfying". I think this really shows how conditioned we are to expect that happy ending maybe because most books we read or movies we watch have happy endings but regardless, I honestly think the unhappy ending was kind of satisfying in itself in a different way. Forster's original ending with everyone dying more intensely conveys man's destruction from their reliance on technology and serves as an extreme example and warning for readers whereas making the ending the way you did can still send that message, but also shows a message of hope and new beginning.
ReplyDelete