My ending to Ray Bradbury's "Last Night of the World"

Author’s note- When I read Ray Bradbury’s “Last Night of the World” I could not help sharing other commentator’s feelings about his lack of an ending. So I thought that I would write my own ending seeing as Bradbury died in 2012 and won’t be writing an ending anytime soon. I hope you all enjoy it.

“Honey, you are late for work.” The wife lightly pushed her husband who was still snoring.

He quickly opened his eyes and looked at the time on his alarm. It read 7:12 am. Work started at 6 am for him. He picked up the alarm clock and inspected the lever that sets the alarm; it was still in the down position. He looked up at his wife perplexed and said. “I forgot to set it.”

“That’s strange,” his wife said. “I thought the end of the world would have to happen before you ever forgot to set your alarm.” She smiled and began to walk away. “I have breakfast made already, so you better hurry.” Her voice echoed down the hall.

The husband chuckled and got out of bed. He began to pull out his suit for work, he stopped and thought for a moment, then after some time he neatly put it back. He entered the bathroom and turned on the light. He looked in the mirror for a minute; he couldn’t help but feel like something was missing. At last he shook his head and admonished the thought. He turned to leave the bathroom and just before turning off the light he grabbed his robe.

“Not going to work today?” His wife said from the kitchen sink as her husband entered.

“No,” he said. “I think I will call in sick today.”

The wife laughed. “Don’t you think Thursday is an odd day to take off?”

“No day off is an odd day to take off when I am spending time with my wife and kids.” He came up from behind and gave her a hug and kiss on her cheek.

Just then his two girls ran in from the den yelling “Daddy!” He bent down to hug them. Their yellow hair shone from the morning sun spilling in from the window over the sink.

“Daddy, are you going to work today?” the littlest one asked.

“No, not today.”

“Aww, we don’t want to go to school,” the eldest girl said with a pout, the younger one nodding solemnly in agreement.

“I am sorry girls, but your mother would mad at me if I kept you off.” His wife gave him a feigned accusatory glare. He shrugged his shoulders with a smile.

Both girls were now pouting with their arms crossed.

“I will tell you what,” he started. “Once you get ready and have breakfast I will drive you both to school instead of taking the bus.”

“Yay!” The sisters jumped for joy.

“Now go on, get ready,” he said as the girls ran off towards the bathroom.

“Would you like any coffee?” the wife said while holding the pot.

“Sure, let me just get a mug.” As he opened the cupboard, he noticed the little magnetic calendar on the refrigerator. It still had February’s page on it. He tore off the page to reveal “March 1951”. He turned back to see his wife still standing there with the coffee pot in hand; she was smiling. He smiled back at her; today is good day he thought to himself.

Meanwhile,

One block away two men, in neatly pressed black suits, stood in silence staring down the street. The older of the two pulled out a fedora and gently placed it on his head.

            The younger man spoke first. “Sir, why are we still here?”

            The older one sighed. “I am just making sure everything is in order.”

            “Sir, this sector has been cleared,” the young man said exasperatingly. “I was thorough in making sure everyone’s minds were wiped.”

            “That’s not what I am worried about.” The old man turned to the younger and gave him a look of annoyance.

            “But sir, the boss gave the orders to erase the day.” The young man began to panic. "This has been done before, right?” The older man nodded. “Then why are you so worried?”

            The old man reached in his pocket and pulled out a familiar wooden toy block and held it out to the young man.

            The younger man took it. “You stole one of the blocks those little girls with the yellow hair were playing with.” The young man snickered. “You are little old to be stealing from children.” He turned the block over and thumbed the bright red letter “B” embossed on the face. He looked back up to the older man. “What is the relevance of this?”

            The old man sighed again “That block you are holding is from the day we erased.” He paused. “I took it because it is important for you to understand what it is that we do.” He stood momentarily in silence then turned to walk away. He smiled slightly when he heard the block hit the street. He dropped it, he understands now. The old man thought to himself.

            “Wait!” The young man voice was now panicked. “This block shouldn’t exist, this is impossible. That day was delete and everything…” The young man grabbed his head, then looked up and said, “We have to go back, we did something wrong!”

            “We didn’t do anything wrong, boy.” The old man shook his head remembering the first time he erased a day from the universe. “This is just the way it is.”

            “But those people,” his voice caught in his throat. “The little girls…” He said in a ghostly whisper.

            The old man put his hand on the younger man’s shoulder. “It is not our problem; we work for Chronos. We only concern ourselves with anything pertaining to the Zodiac cycle.” The old man began to walk away again. “Let Elle and her minions figure out what to do with the people from February 30^th.”

            The young man took one last look at the familiar red block now laying on the ground; he closed his eyes to wash away his thoughts. When he opened his eyes again he said, “I need some coffee.”

The old man smiled and said, “Coffee sounds good.”

The True Meaning behind Ray Bradbury’s “The Last Night of the World”

Nathan Phillips

English Composition 1
Instructor Wendy Moore
5/20/2015
 

      The meaning of Ray Bradbury's short story “The Last Night of the World,” is misconceived by most people, I believe it represents a stoppage of time, the existence of a time loop, and a general skepticism of death. This story, published in Esquire magazine February 1951, centers around a husband and wife and a conversation they have in regards to a dream that postulates the end of the world occurring on the following day, February 30th. Since the telling of the story, it has drawn the attention of many readers and has sparked several philosophical theories about the end times, as well as a general acceptance of death. I believe, however, the story actually theorizes the possibility of time loop that occurs on February 30th, 1951; affecting the entire world. Additionally, I believe the characters assumed acceptance of death could more likely be interpreted as subconscious skepticism. I find that most people never truly believe in something unless the evidence is literally in front of them.

      Several people who read this story believe the context alludes to the end the world or an extinguishing of life itself; I disagree. The male protagonist says to his wife, “I dreamt that it was all going to be over… it said things would stop here on Earth” (Bradbury, 1951). I believe when Bradbury wrote the word “stop,” he meant exactly that, to cease movement. The theory that time could stop is possible. Professor José Senovilla, Marc Mars and Raül Vera from University of Salamanca, Spain published in the journal Physical Review D a proposal on, what they thought of as the universe expanding is actually time itself slowing down. Senovilla states, “We do not say that the expansion of the universe itself is an illusion,” he explains. “What we say it may be an illusion is the acceleration of this expansion… [sic]” (2010). Bradbury shows another example in this quote, “There are bombers on their course both ways across the ocean tonight that’ll never see land again” (1951). I believe this demonstrates that the bombers will never land (nor crash) because, I believe time itself will stop and restart. This theory of a day ending and starting again is commonly known as a time loop.

      There are other examples from the “text” that lead me to believe that a time loop might be what Bradbury is alluding will happen to the world on this final evening. In the story, the protagonist states, “Maybe it’s because it was never February 30, 1951, ever before in history…” (Bradbury, 1951). February 30th does not exist as a real date. Back in Roman times, the calendar started on the month of March because the Romans did not care about the winter as the non-harvesting months. Julius Caesar felt that it was foolishness to have 60 days not included on the calendar and later added the months, January and February at the end of the year; February got the left over days, which happened to be 28. Lucas Reilly states, “February has 28 days because, to the Romans, the month was an afterthought” (2014). Later on January and February were placed at the beginning of the year.

      There are experts who theorize parallel universes may exist. Scientists from Stanford University have stated, “Parallel universes may exist invisibly alongside ours, on their own membranes less than a millimeter away from ours” (Scientific American, 2000). So it is possible in Bradbury’s story, February 30th did, in fact, exist. So the question is what happened to February 30th? In this short story, written by a legend of sci-fi, I think he places that date and its inhabitants into an eternal time loop. More evidence of this is also seen when the male protagonist says to his wife, “Sometime during the night for us, and then, as the night goes on around the world, those advancing portions will go, too. It’ll take twenty-four hours for it all to go” (Bradbury, 1951). I feel that Bradbury is applying a symbolic correlation between when the world will end (stop) and how long it takes to complete a one day cycle. I believe it is possible the 24-hour period represents the quantitative time associated with the time loop. Not so much when everything will be over permanently, but rather, once twenty-four hours commences, time for the next (same) day will restart at hour zero. This concept ties in greatly with mankind’s perception of time, purpose, and the desire to survive and move forward.

      A lot of readers believe this story is about the acceptance of death as seen in the Kübler-Ross model. I, however, believe there are several examples within the story demonstrating people’s innate instinct for survival. In the story, the wife of the protagonist asks what everyone around the world will be doing on this final evening. The husband replies, “Go to a show, listen to the radio, watch the TV, play cards, put the children to bed, get to bed themselves, like always” (Bradbury, 1951). The husband seems to believe that people carrying on their typical routine, despite their impending doom, is normal behavior. I do not believe that to be true. From experience, I have seen how people respond to seemingly hopeless situations; not all minds are created equally. In fact, not even main characters in the story truly believe that things are going to end on earth as seen with this quote, “He heard her get up and go out into the back of the house, and then he heard the soft shuffling of a swinging door. A moment later she was back. ‘I left the water running in the kitchen,’ she said. ‘I turned the faucet off’” (Bradbury, 1951). There would be no reason to shut off the faucet if they believed everything was going to be over.

      From start to finish Ray Bradbury’s story “The Last Night of the World” plays out as if the world is going to end, extinguish all life on earth while everyone mindlessly accepts their fate. When looking at the story from a different point of view, we see that story shows significant examples of something more scientific rather than philosophical. This, however, does invoke the question of what really did happen to February 30th and with that, where does yesterday truly go?

References

Arkani-Hamed, N., Dimopoulos, S., & Dvali, G (2000). The Universe’s UNSEEN DIMENSIONS. (EBSCOhost)

     Scientific American, Aug2000, Vol. 283 Issue 2, p62. 8p.

Bradbury, R (2012) The Last Night of the World. Retrieved from
      http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a14340/ray-bradbury-last-night-of-the-world-0251/

Kübler-Ross, E (1969) On Death and Dying
     New York, NY: Scribner

Reilly, L (2014) Why Are There Only 28 Days in February? Retrieved 5/12/2015
     http://mentalfloss.com/article/55327/why-are-there-only-28-days-February

Sato, R and KazanIs, C (2010) Time Disappearing from the Universe? Retrieved 5/12/2015
      http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2010/07/is-time-disappearing-from-the-universe-radical-theory-says-yes.html