Hey guys,

Long time reader of Bradbury and this message board. Just had a quick question. I just finished reading Farewell Summer, and I was bit confused about the ending between Doug and Quartermain. Anybody care to shed some light on this for me. Thanks so much.

What's the confusion? What questions do you have about it?

I guess being a little more specific would help.

I'm just a bit confused about the chapter at the end that is split between Quartermain and Douglas. I don't have the text in front of me, but if I remember correctly, they both here a voice. Also, the bit about Douglas now having two pulses was a bit confusing. I'm probably missing the obvious here. Also, I didn't really get the whole shed with the glass jars. Hope this helps.

Somewhere in these threads we talked about this before.

Part of this is a Lion King's "Circle of Life" thing. Quartermain is the older generation, passing away, and Douglas is the new generation just coming up. The circle of life is driven by reproduction, which creates the generation that replaces the departing one. As Quartermain lies in his bed at night, his reproductive organ (for the last time) comes alive and says goodbye to him. (In Junior, a story by Bradbury, the same kind of event occurs, but happens in a more humorous context.) His last erection is the end of his life. As he passes away with this last "pulsation" (The heart's pulsation representing actual life; the reproductive organ's pulsation representing multiple generations and another kind of life--passion, or whatever); Douglas is awakened with a pulsation between HIS legs. This pulsation represents that he is ready to begin his full life. The passing of life from one generation to another, represented by the first and last erection of representative of each of the generations. Passion drives life and creates it.

The series of jars in the tent, in my view, is a representation of life as it is--not as we want it to be. Human life grows from nothing into a person. Some of that growth is unrecognizable to the boys, because they are completely naive to what life is. When Douglas sees and confronts the series of fetuses, he has to come to grips with the beginnings of life. At the same time, he realises that these beings were once alive and are now dead. So he confronts the reality of human life--from its beginning to its end. He must have this recognition before he, himself, can be fully human. Once he understands life, he is ready to experience it's full passion. Once Quartermain is beyond passion, he is ready to pass on.

I think that's what's going on.