The Credits
Do We Prefer Closure or An Open Ending?
Contents
Introduction
Why Do We Crave Closure
Finding Beauty In The Unresolved
Stories and Real Life: The Differences
Concluding Remarks
Introduction
I’ve been thinking about the similarities and differences in how we process and understand stories versus our real lives. In stories and films, we often see everything tied up at the finale, with perhaps a few strands left unsolved for potential future material. If we do see these stories experience a lack of closure, since we have no involvement directly, this can bring intrigue. However, if this lack of closure occurs in our own lives, we experience discomfort. In real life, strands left unaddressed can lead to uncertainty and confusion, while also having to manage the potential consequences pertinent to us due to our emotional attachments to the events of our own lives.
Hence a question arose for me: Can we use stories, whether left open-ended or fully closed, to work towards better navigating our real-life situations? Let’s explore below.
Why Do We Crave Closure?
We’ll all have situations arise in our lives where we seek the closure we don’t get. Perhaps it was a romantic situation, or we’re suddenly let go from a job we thought we’d spend many years in. It could even be a global pandemic uprooting our lives.
When occurrences such as this arise, we can be left confused, wondering what could have been, while also feeling nervous about the unknown potential future impacts.
In contrast, closure can give us finality. We know where we stand with others, and that the journey is at an end. We can hence begin to process our emotions as we know there are no further chapters. We can start the process of healing in events of painful closure.
On occasions where we lack this closure, is there a way we can utilise the openness of endings to better deal with these situations? Even in situations where we’re left out in the open, can we find a happy medium?
Finding Beauty In The Unresolved
The first time I saw La La Land, it immediately skyrocketed itself up my list of favourite films. If you haven’t seen it, I’d recommend watching it. Without spoiling too much, the ending is representative of real life. It’s painful and incredibly bittersweet. At the film’s conclusion, we see an alternative ending that could have occurred between the two main characters if they made different decisions in life. In the end, as a viewer, I interpreted this as we are given the choice to choose our ending. The ending of closure presented by the film, or the openness of what could have been.
I’ve always found the ending between the two main characters to be wonderfully comforting, since it combines the finality of closure, with the openness of what could have been in another version of this story. With this ending, as a viewer, we can get closure if we accept the ending, or we can interpret it as open-ended depending on our personality.
But, the difference here is that we know this is a story, and we have a choice. We interpret it depending on how we think about closure and open endings through the scope of our own lives, without the fictional story having any actual effect on our individual lives. When openness arises in our own lives, we can process this differently due to the personal consequences and emotional involvement we suffer. And so, there is beauty in the unresolved, but the differences between stories and our own lives are where we need to explore some key differences.
Stories and Real Life: The Differences
The difficulty with personal open endings is navigating the period in which we lack closure, but haven’t yet accepted the openness of how things ended.
It hence comes down to the individual person and our attitudes towards closure or open endings. Do you enjoy thinking about open-ended problems, or do you seek clear, unnegotiable solutions in life? Do you prefer jazz and art left to interpretation, or art that has one clear message? Are you open to ambiguity or do you like to understand every situation you find yourself within in its completeness?
The first step is understanding our own relationship with closure so we can move forward in the best possible way to assist ourselves. From here, perhaps we don’t actively choose closure or openness. Perhaps we can embrace both the growth of openness and the healing power of finality in closure.
Perhaps, we don’t need one or the other at all. Perhaps there is no answer to anything. That’s why we love the closure in stories. It aids us in explaining what is an unexplainable life. Ultimately, it’s down to us to determine if we want to move forward or remain in place in our individual lives. We rarely choose our endings, but we can learn from the beauty of the stories around us.
Concluding Remarks
The path we’re on in life always has opportunities to branch off. If we pursue one of these branches, it becomes our main path. The ambiguity in open endings represents a real life in which there are no limits. With no limits, there are no simple answers. Open endings allow our imaginations to explore potential endings, projecting our hopes, dreams and fears into the future, whereas closure seeks a tidy end. Do you think a tidy end is ever achievable?
Maybe what we truly seek when we seek closure is self-understanding and self-compassion. Maybe we seek self-forgiveness. It’s from here that we can navigate our own lives and hopefully work towards finding a happy medium. What is our pursuit of closure rooted in?
Do you lean more towards seeking closure, or do you enjoy the occasional openness of life? Have you considered what could be fuelling your pursuit of closure or openness? Let me know below!
Sources:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/20687905