November 17, 2010

The End

I love the end of this book!  Anne Rice is realistic in the extreme; she holds nothing back and she doesn’t sugar coat it.  The end of Interview exemplifies all the typical fatal human flaws that Louis talks about throughout the whole book.  The boy’s response is classic.  How many people have listened to someone else describe their mistakes and thought, “If I were ever put in that position I would do things differently.”  It’s easy to think that after you’ve heard someone else’s mistake if you are ever encountered with the same issue you would be able to do it “right.”  The problem with this idea is that history repeats itself.  A person can be told repeatedly that something is wrong; often times they will choose to ignore it.
I think that the boy’s choice describes the type of person he is.  If you look at the characters of Lestat and Louis in a broad perspective they represent two different types of people; the types who live life to the fullest and embrace life and the types who believe all of their actions have consequences and continuously look back.  The boy’s decision that he wants to be a vampire shows that he is more like Lestat.  It also shows that the boy believes that he can live Louis’ life better than he did.  In reality, though, this is exactly what would happen.  Rice’s choice of the boy’s character is important.  He is young, naïve and impressionable.  If the interviewer had been a wise, old man would the end of the story have been believable?  Probably not.
What would my choice have been at the end?  Since the boy wasn’t even given a choice I can’t really look at it that way.  I don’t think I would have ever taken the initiative to ask.  Louis seems so depressed about his life of being a vampire that asking to be what he is would be downright insulting and Louis displays that insult and disappointment too.
            “’Give it to me!’ said the boy… ‘Make me a vampire now!’ he said as the vampire stared aghast.
What happened then was swift and confused, but it ended abruptly with the vampire on his feet holding the boy by the shoulders, the boy’s moist face contorted with fear, the vampire glaring at him in rage. ‘This is what you want?’ he whispered, his pale lips manifesting only the barest trace of movement.  ‘This… after all I’ve told you… is what you ask for?’”  (pg. 337)
I guess if I was in the situation the boy’s in I would probably think over exactly what Louis said.  If I still wanted to be turned into a vampire then I would try to find Lestat, the vampire far more likely to want to change me.

2 comments:

  1. It is so true, history repeats itself and humans for whatever reason have a hard time doing the right thing. We often want things like power and riches without putting in any hard work, this is what the boy wants, the powers that vampires have even though he has heard what despair and heartbreak it causes them. “ He is young, naïve and impressionable. If the interviewer had been a wise, old man would the end of the story have been believable? Probably not.” This is true, many older people with a better grip on the world and what it is about would probably not even think to ask if they could be turned. In fact, after you brought it up I completely agree that it was very insulting to even ask after Louis basically told his story so that people would know the sadness and depression he has gone through. Yopu can tell he is really upset with the boy because of how he sees himself as a failure because he felt he did not teach the boy anything. "I beg you . . . give it all one more chance. One more chance in me! “said the boy. The vampire turned to him, his face as twisted with anger as before. And then, gradually, it began to become smooth. The lids came down slowly over his eyes and his lips lengthened in a smile. He looked again at the boy. " I've failed, " he sighed, smiling still. "I have completely failed. . " (264-265)

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  2. This was a really fun post to read. I think that you really made the topic easy to relate to, and brought up a lot of good points. I think my favorite part was when you wrote "Louis seems so depressed about his life of being a vampire that asking to be what he is would be downright insulting and Louis displays that insult and disappointment too." I think it shows that you really understood Louis and his situation better than the boy apparently did.

    I don't think I would react the way that the boy did, either. It would take some blend of recklessness and boldness that I just don't think I have in me.

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