Riday Dharmendra Dalal

ENGL 100

Professor Larry Edgerton

Fall 2022

THE BETTER ONE

William Maxwell was an American Novelist who wrote a beautiful novel about friendship and love

titled The Folded Leaf. Set in the 1920’s, this novel is about two boys, Lymie Peters and Spud Latham

who, despite being polar opposites in terms of personality, become best friends. Jealously, hatred and

betrayal come in the way of their friendship, which the author later in the story elevates to

homosexual attraction between Lymie and Spud. Although Maxwell does manage to craft an amazing

novel using accurate analogies and a very light language, the biggest discrepancy that Maxwell has

had himself over the years is the ending.

Maxwell published this book in 1945, and ten years later, he deleted the ending and slightly modified

the previous details. Why did Maxwell change the ending of the book? Did he feel that the first

ending was not the right fit in the novel and he felt that the ending could be better? Or did he just

change the ending for re-publishing the novel and earn more money? Whatever the reason may be,

another question is that which of the two endings is better? The first one or the second?

In the first edition of the book published by William Maxwell in 1945, Lymie recovers from the

wounds caused due to his suicide attempt, but the scars of the wounds still remain. We see that a new

dormitory for the boys has been opened in May. We also see that Lymie reads a note given to him by

Sally which is about Hope inviting him to her spring house dance. Lymie is hesitant as he does not

want to show up there wearing clothes which will reveal his scars to everyone. We later see that he

goes to the woods with a blue bowl of violets in his hand. He digs a small hole further ahead, plants

the violets, and leaves the woods. The act of removing the violets from the blue bowl and planting
them in the woods is a symbolism of Lymie moving on and Lymie’s apparent entry into adulthood.

The violets are a symbol of a childhood that will be forgotten in the woods.

In the next edition of the book, Maxwell deletes this ending, and thus the book ends in a slightly

different way. Here, we see that Lymie is admitted to the hospital after a failed suicide attempt and his

wounds have almost recovered. Sally and Spud come to meet him in the hospital room and Sally

hands him a note from Hope. She also hands him violets which her mother had given. They proceed

to perform some antics until the nurse enters the room and “puts an end to their childish game”.

Out of the two endings, we see that the second ending is a more open-ended ending to the story which

is left to the reader’s interpretation while the first ending is a complete ending. Chapter 62 in the first

ending is an extension of chapter 61 where the author confirms that Lymie has recovered and that he

moves on with life, leaving behind the dreaded past. Chapter 62 builds on chapter 61 after the

recovery of Lymie. The depiction of nature around Lymie as he walks through the woods paints a

vivid description of his transition to adulthood. Although Maxwell does paint a beautiful picture about

Lymie’s transition to adulthood, if the ending would be depicted in such an obvious manner, it

wouldn’t create any element of uniqueness in Maxwell’s story. Such an ending to the story would

prevent the audience from constructing their own conclusion or interpretation of the future of the three

characters. Moreover, the main ending conveyed by the author to the audience can be inferred quite

clearly even without the presence of chapter 62. In chapter 61, Sally and Spud go to meet Lymie in

the hospital room. Their bonding in a hospital room, a place where injured people heal, is an

indication of the fact that their “wounded” friendship is now “healing” and that they are moving on in

life. They are abandoning their childhood and proceeding to the path to adulthood. The mention of the

nurse “putting an end to their childish game” is another indication of the same. This is why I

personally felt that William Maxwell took the right decision to revise the ending and remove chapter

62 from the book.