A False Sense of Hope

        The ending of Through the Arc of the Rainforest comes out of nowhere, after building up hope for most of the book the ending is a shock.  When the true nature of Matacao is revealed and starts to fall apart the “perfect world” that had started to form falls apart very quickly.  Bel Canto had a very similar feeling throughout, a sense of hope that builds up until the final few pages of the novel, when it all comes crashing down.  (Here’s a link to the wikipedia page, with a plot summary) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bel_Canto_(novel) Bel Canto takes place in a fictional South American country, where a government function is attacked by rebel forces in the country.  The rebels goal was to take the president hostage, but he missed the event, leaving the rebels with a group of less important hostages.  The standoff between rebel forces in the building and police outside goes on for weeks.  Inside, the plot focuses on character development between some of the hostages and the rebels, who start to bond during their captivity.  Relationships form and there is a sense that these people could live happy lives with each other outside of the hostage situation.  Oh right, a hostage situation, that slips to the back of your mind as the characters grow on you and then out of nowhere the police forces storm the building.  In the space of a few pages all of the rebels and a number of the hostages are killed, characters you have been hoping can have a future together are torn apart in seconds and in the aftermath only a handful of hostages are left.  I had the same feeling of shock reading Through the Arc of the Rainforest.  “The Matacao, too, was slowly but definitely corroding, as was everything else made of Matacao plastic.  Buildings were condemned.  Entire roads and bridges were blocked off.  Innocent people were caught unaware - killed or injured by falling chunks of the stuff.  People who stepped out in the most elegant finery made of Matacao plastic were horrified to find themselves naked at cocktail parties, undressed at presidential receptions.  Cars crumbled at stop lights.  Computer monitors sagged into their CPUs.  The credit card industry went into a panic.”   Reading this passage and seeing how quickly the world was collapsing had that same feeling of shock that I felt in Bel Canto.  I remember my english class in high school hating the ending of Bel Canto, the fact that their favorite characters died.  I loved the ending, the emotions it brought forth and the surprise that it caused.  It made the entire book much more powerful and Through the Arc of the Rainforest had that same power behind it, which helps the overall message about the destruction of the rainforest.  If the book had continued to be happy and show a world benefiting from Matacao, it would not be memorable, it would be a fun story with quirky characters but it would not be memorable.  The power this ending provides is crucial to the message and I can not imagine it ending any other way.