The end of the Wall

Here's a purely speculative question: What do you think happens to Pink at the end of the Wall when the wall is torn down? Since Waters admits that he himself didn't know when he wrote it, I thought it would be interesting to see some different ideas on this.

I believe that there are several possibilities:
The Happy Ending

One being, of course that the the wall being torn down symbolizes Pink's desire to recover from his mental illness and seek help after being in denial throughout most of the album.

A Vicious Cycle

Another idea is that Pink is simply caught in a vicious cycle which he must relive again and again so that after the wall is torn down, he quickly begins to build another one. This can be supported by the whole "Is this where we came in" line that begins and ends the album. Thus, Pink is trapped in a sort of Twilight Zone scenerio of pain and redemption and more pain.

The end of the Rock Star

Another possibilty has to do with Pink's career as a Rock Star. Having that wall around him might have been what helped him to achieve the status of a rock icon. Without the wall, would this mean that Pink would have to retreat somewhere and live a "normal" life? This brings to mind an essential question: Is the Wall coming down a good thing or a bad thing for Pink? Surely the album does indicate that the wall is indeed an obstacle in Pink's life, but can Pink survive without the wall? What will become of Pink once the wall comes down?

Anyway, these are some of my thoughts on the subject, but I'm sure there are many possibilities I haven't considered so I would appreciate any thoughts you might have.

Jack

I've also considered the Twilight Zone idea. Where it's just a vicious cycle.

Here's my ideas:

The new, wiser Rock Star..

The first In the Flesh? is actually the end of the story. Here's Pink still bearing the scars of his breakdown (shaven eyebrows, black uniform), but somewhat more jovial. Instead of taunting the crowd, he invites them to meet him. He has broken down the wall and invites his audience to see the real him.

The Rebirth idea

The line "isn't this where we came in?" could refer to the fact that when you tear down all the barriers and insecurities, you're back to where you were when you are born. This goes back to Roger's idea that no one is born hating people and wanting to kill. So that when you remove all of the barriers and hurtful things, you would be like a child again.

I think it a life cycle, repeated over and over. Why would they have put the lines "isnt this were we came in" to join the end and beginning of the album?

Another possibility (though highly unlikely) is that disc 2 is the actual beginning of the plot and that the story ends with Pink's suicide or descent into madness with "Goodbye Cruel World" on Disc 1. I'm rather disinclined to believe this one, but one can interpret that after the wall is torn down, Pink performs "In the Flesh?" which starts disc 1 and the rest of disc 1 is Pink recalling his past in flashback mode until he decides to commit suicide or descend into madness (like Syd).

The other question that comes to mind is whether Pink is more reflective of Roger Waters or Syd Barrett. I suppose Roger admits that the story is somewhat autobiographical with peices of Syd in there, but as the audience listening to the album, there are many ways to interpret who Pink really is. Any ideas on this? The Pink persona was really introduced on "Have a Cigar" from WYWH albeit in a rather sarcastic sense to point out the shallow nature of record co. execs, but if one chooses to, one can make an argument that WYWH is linked to the Wall for this reason. Since the Wall never chronicles Pink's rise to stardom, one can suggest that WYWH may function as a document of this part of the story. Although we all know that the band may not have intended this and that WYWH is really about Syd, sometimes it's fun to speculate these possibilties if just for fun.

About that sarcastic line on WYWH: 'oh by the way which one is pink'. I just wanted to add that this is an actuall line that one said to the PF. Some producer that met them at the US.

I agree with Pedge.

I think that the 'isnt it where we came in' line is just to show that the process of building a wall is not specific to pink but anyone is building a wall.

I would say more of it is to do with Roger than Syd. And if we take the real life ending...it seems some of his walls have come down (between the audience) and some have not (between old 'work mates' for example).

I agree with Driven!

cheers

I agreee with cho.manno :smile:

I think at the end of The Wall Pink watches the credits like everyone else.

You really wanna know what happened to "Pink" at the end of The Wall? He took a few years off and wrote "The Final Cut"

Maybe he just got flattened by some polystyrene bricks.

That couldn't hurt him, he was only an animation then.

Everybody is building The Wall around himself. I have heard that at the end of the Wall movie, after the Wall is broken down, children start to play with the bricks and build their own personal Walls. (Correct me if I am wrong I haven`t seen the movie)