Constants and Variables-Exploring the Many Doors of Bioshock Infinite

By Order of the Prophet

Vox propaganda seized by

her Columbia’s Flying squad

~1912~

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By-A.J. Carroll

othing can be quite so fulfilling or, in some cases, quite so maddening as a good ending. Lao Tzu once said, “Amidst the worldly comings and goings, observe how endings become beginnings.” Ever since its release in the late March of 2013, Bioshock Infinite has done just that. Everywhere I turn I’m seeing more and more about just what happened at the end. Debates have fired up all over the internet, theories have been wagered, pleas for understanding have been put forth; but, in the end, it’s hard not to ask the obvious question: “What just happened!?” So what did just happen? Well, if you are willing to follow me into my madness I will attempt to show you. In this essay I will tackle several core elements of the beautiful, yet complex plot of Bioshock Infinite. First and foremost, I will recount the last moments of the

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game following the Protect the Zeppelin campaign1. Following the recap I will give an in-depth analysis examining the many plot twists and revelations as well as provide diagrams that will help readers get a clearer picture of the multiple time lines and universes at play. Included with my findings I will also examine the many different themes abound such as fate versus free will along with the time period and key historical events. Let’s begin with the end.

fter fending off the Vox Populi’s attack on the Hand of the Prophet, Booker joins Elizabeth at the bow of the zeppelin.

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Monument Tower appears on the horizon, its copper plating exposing the Siphon: a massive device hidden inside that is designed to leech away Elizabeth’s abilities to manipulate

tears. To destroy it means finding the truth about Elizabeth’s powers, her severed pinkie finger and the nature of Comstock’s final words. Booker orders the Songbird to destroy the Siphon but as the hulking beast rips it apart, a blast of energy blankets the area. The

Whistler used to control the bird is rendered useless by the electrical pulse and the Songbird, enraged, bears down on Booker and Elizabeth. But just as all seems lost, Elizabeth, having regained her full powers, opens a tear and the Songbird disappears. Booker and Elizabeth emerge in Rapture, the underwater city used as the setting in the first Bioshock, and look on as the

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Note that due to the nature of this article it contains many spoilers so only those who have completed the

game should continue.

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Songbird is crushed to death by the immense pressure of the ocean. Elizabeth comforts him in his last moments before he slips away into the deep. Disorientated, Booker asks where they are. “It’s a doorway, one of many,” Elizabeth remarks. After a brief tour of Rapture, Elizabeth leads Booker to a bathysphere that takes them above the sea to the lighthouse that Jack had entered in the beginning of the first Bioshock. As they near the lighthouse, Elizabeth exclaims that she can see a million doors opening and closing. Confused, Booker questions if it’s the stars she’s looking at, but Elizabeth doesn’t answer. They come to a locked door leading into the lighthouse. After her attempts to pick the lock are unsuccessful a key appears in her hand. “Where did it come from?” Booker says. “It’s always been there. I just, couldn’t see it.” She replies. They open the door. On the other side they come upon a sea of lighthouses. Elizabeth reveals that it wasn’t the stars that were the doors but the lighthouses, each one a million different realities. She goes on to say that each reality is a set of constants and variables, each one different yet the same. Some things are altered, different choices are made and each one shapes a new world. “There’s always a lighthouse. There’s always a man, there’s always a city.” Elizabeth tells Booker. “I can see them through the doors. You, me, Columbia, Songbird…But sometimes, something’s different…yet the same.” Booker and Elizabeth eventually step through one of the doors and find themselves in another sea of lighthouses resembling the one Booker encountered in the beginning of the game. Booker witnesses another Booker and Elizabeth traversing the paths before them. “It’s us,” Booker exclaims. “Not exactly,” Elizabeth corrects.

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“We swim in different oceans but land on the same shore.” After a short discussion about the nature of fate and time Elizabeth leads Booker to the “place where it started.” They open one of the doors and emerge in a moment from Booker’s past: a small river where a preacher is performing baptisms. Booker reveals that shortly after the Battle of Wounded Knee, he sought religion as a way to absolve himself from the sins he had committed. But just as he was about to receive the baptism, he fled. Troubled after reliving the memory Booker pleads to leave, citing Elizabeth’s earlier wish to go to Paris, but she objects saying that they must find Comstock. “Comstock is dead!” Booker snaps. “No,” Elizabeth retorts. “He was here.” They step through the next door.

This time they emerge in October 8 th, 1893. Booker claims that this was the day he accepted the deal to retrieve Elizabeth from Columbia. The man who hires him turns out to be Robert Lutece who gives Booker the choice: “Bring us the girl, and wipe away the debt.” Booker steps through the side door in his office to find a crib with a baby girl inside. He is shocked, claiming that there was no baby, that his wife and child had died during childbirth and that if there had been a child he certainly would not have given her up. Elizabeth

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says that he doesn’t leave the room until he does. Lutece repeats his offer, revealing that Booker must give the baby over to him for the debt to be paid. Relenting, Booker hands the child over to Lutece who claims that “Mr. Comstock washes you of all your sins.” Booker argues that these events never happened but as he does so his thoughts become clouded and his nose begins to bleed causing him to question what he remembers. Elizabeth leads them to another door, the scene from the beginning of the game, and reveals to Booker that Comstock is alive in a million different realities. “It will only be over when he never even lived in the first place,” Elizabeth says. They go through the door to see a younger Comstock standing before a tear with Robert Lutece and the baby. On the other side of the tear Rosalind Lutece orders the two to step through. Just as they prepare to enter, Booker emerges in the alleyway and chases down Comstock. As Robert and Comstock step into the tear Booker wrestles for the baby while calling out the name Anna. As Comstock orders Rosalind to shut down the Siphon, Booker shouts, “Give me back my daughter,” just as Comstock pulls the baby through the tear. As it closes the tear cuts off the baby’s right pinkie finger revealing that Elizabeth is in fact Anna DeWitt, Booker’s daughter. Twenty years pass. Booker has shut himself up in his office, miserable from the loss of his daughter. He brands the letters A.D. onto his right hand, Anna’s initials, as penitence. Soon after, Robert and Rosalind Lutece open a tear to Booker’s reality in order to reunite him with his daughter. But as Booker steps through the tear, he collapses. His memories become altered due to the appearance of multiple memories bleeding over from the new reality leaving him catatonic. Attempting to recuperate, his mind begins to form new memories from his old ones culminating in Booker’s false perception that he is there to retrieve Elizabeth from Columbia in order to pay off his debts. He loses consciousness soon after.

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He wakes at the sound of Elizabeth’s voice. Now bearing the full weight of his sins for selling his daughter, Booker declares that he will go back to when Comstock was born and “smother (him) in his crib.” Elizabeth asks if this is truly what he wants to which Booker replies, “I have to. It’s the only way to undo what I’ve done to you.” Booker opens the door and steps back into the baptism he had rejected over twenty years before. Elizabeth tells him that this is, and is not, the same place as he remembers. At first Booker is confused and doesn’t recognize Elizabeth, an effect of having multiple different memories. She is then joined by several other Elizabeths, each one from a different reality. They explain that in this reality, instead of declining the baptism Booker accepted it and was reborn as Zachary Hale Comstock. The diverging realities occurred by a single choice: to receive or decline the baptism. In order for Comstock’s elimination from all other worlds is to “smother him in the crib” before Booker is reborn and takes his new name. Accepting his fate, Booker allows the Elizabeths to drown him in the river. With all realities of Comstock eliminated, the Elizabeths begin to fade away until there is only one left: the Elizabeth that led Booker through the doors. The screen then cuts to black before she disappears.

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In a final scene after the credits Booker wakes at his desk and calls out his daughter’s name. The calendar beside him reads October 8th, 1893: the day Booker gave Anna to Lutece. However, Robert is nowhere to be found and Booker heads for the bedroom door where soft music can be heard chiming from a mobile. He opens the door, asking, “Anna, is that you?” before the screen cuts to black and the game ends.

o, in here lies the beginning. After my first playthrough I

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sat through the credits, the extra scene and several websites just steadily piecing together all the plot points and revelations. It wasn’t until several hours later that it all settled in. But then came the questions, the very same

I see so many people all over the internet debating. So, what did happen at the end? How can there be so many different realities? How can Booker and Comstock be the same person yet not? And if they are, did Booker really end the Columbia timeline by allowing Elizabeth to drown him? Is Comstock really gone? First off, let’s explore the alternate realities of Booker and Comstock. Imagine, if you will, a “forking path” that diverges at a single point: the baptism. Note that Figure 1 below has two distinct features. To the left is Booker’s timeline designated by the letter B. To the right is Comstock’s timeline designated by the letter C. The point of divergence starts with boxes B.1

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and C.1. These points of inception begin each separate timeline noted below. The arrows pointing left and right signify when one reality has transposed onto the other. The arrow pointing left is Comstock’s entrance into Booker’s reality in 1893, while the arrow pointing right is when Booker enters the reality of 1912 in which he travels to Columbia to retrieve Elizabeth.

Now that we have a clearer understanding of these two paths, let us examine Booker’s choice to be drowned by the Elizabeths. The plot designates that Comstock is born once Booker had accepted the baptism therefore starting the Comstock timeline. Elizabeth reveals that the only way to truly end Comstock’s atrocities is for Booker to be drowned before he surfaces and takes the name of Zachary Hale Comstock. Box C.1 shows the demise of Booker/Comstock at the baptism after Booker allows the drowning.

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Following Comstock’s demise we see that boxes C.2 and C.3 in Figure 3 are no longer possible because there is no Comstock to cause them. Notice the red arrow pointing to the left arrow. This is the moment when Comstock entered Booker’s reality. Remember this for Figure 4.

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In Figure 4 now we can see the full scale of Booker’s decision to allow the drowning. Not only has he eliminated Comstock’s timeline but partially erased some of his own. How is this possible? It occurs because Booker’s reality changed when Comstock entered it. Comstock gave Booker an out for his debt. “Bring us the girl, and wipe away the debt.” But if there is no Comstock there is no deal, therefore boxes B.2 and B.3 cannot exist. Similarly, Booker’s arrival in the Columbia reality is no longer possible because, quite simply, there is no Columbia.

So here is the aftermath of Booker’s choice. There is no Prophet, no Lutece Tear without Comstock’s funding, and Columbia, her winged city, never flew. All that remains is box B.1: Booker and his daughter, Anna. The family parted is now complete.

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This also explains the hidden scene at the end of the credits where Booker goes to Anna’s room and calls out her name. The date, as noted by the calendar on Booker’s table, is October 8th, 1893, the day Robert offered the deal. But as we saw in Figures 1-4 there is no deal because there is no Comstock to offer it. Booker can now raise his daughter free of Comstock’s interference, an opportunity that neither of them had before. However, true to form, Ken Levine offers us yet again another question. Is this our Booker, the one we guided through the flying city of Columbia, or another Booker from another reality?

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evine, it appears, has saved his best guessing game for last. Who is this Booker that awakens in his office in 1893? Is it the Booker we know or someone else? Now unlike the previous sections this examination is left more

to the prejudice of the gamer than grounded in hard proof. However, there is evidence to suggest that this Booker is, and is not, the Booker we know. This may sound like an evasion but hear me out. Note in the Vox Populi Revolution arc, Booker enters a world where he became a martyr for the Vox cause. Upon remembering this new memory Booker’s nose begins to bleed and his thoughts become distorted. He comments, “(It’s) hard to think…there’s two memories in the same place.” This inexplicably refers to the “bleeding effect” theory coined (pun intended) by Robert Lutece

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which states, “The mind of the subject will desperately struggle to create memories where none exist.” So what does this have to do with the secret ending? Let’s examine the evidence. I believe that there are several clues indicating that this Booker remembers the events of Columbia. This is not the Booker we have led through the game, after all, we watched him die. Instead, I believe this is another Booker that has been transposed into this remaining reality by Elizabeth. There is a high possibility of this since we do not see the last Elizabeth disappear at the end of the game. Perhaps with her powers restored she has become something akin to the 2

Luteces . If so, she is separate from all timelines and therefore free of the collapsing reality. Now, this seems all well and good but where is the proof that this is possible? It all hinges on Booker’s monologue at the end of the game. As he awakens he calls out Anna’s name. Standing from his desk he slips into her room and asks, “Anna, is that you?” If this Booker is just a Booker who never encountered Columbia or Elizabeth, a man with gambling addiction and poor drinking habits intact, why would he ask “is that you?” Wouldn’t he know his daughter is in her crib? That line of questioning wouldn’t occur to him unless he knew the gravity of her being there in her crib and not in Comstock’s custody. I believe that Elizabeth gave to this Booker the memories of the one that drowned so that he might learn to be a worthy father and cherish their time together as he raises his daughter. This way Booker has grown as a character rather than remain the same destitute thug we meet in the beginning of the game.

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Refer to the section Heads or Tails

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Anthony Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange, went on to state of the film adaption, “There is, in fact, not much point in writing a novel unless you can show the possibility of moral transformation, or an increase in wisdom, operating in your chief character or characters…When a fictional work fails to show change, when it merely indicates that human character is set, stony, unregenerable, then you are out of the field of the novel and into that of the fable or allegor y.” (Burgess). Bioshock Infinite is anything but an allegory. Change and redemption are all core themes in the game. Several times Elizabeth questions Booker, as well as herself-by evidence from her Voxophones-on the nature of their sins. “Do you think it’s possible to redeem the kind of things that we’ve done?” she asks. “Redeem?” Booker replies. “I don’t see much use in that.” However, Booker himself comes around in the end evident by his willingness to die in order to undo what happened to Elizabeth and the people of Columbia. Like his characters, Levin seems to detest the idea of an unalterable fate but rather that redemption is something that can be achieved and that sins can be atoned for. There is another possibility to be considered if the “Transcendental Elizabeth” still exists. At one point during the game, Elizabeth asks Booker, “Did I just bring us to a world where Chen Lin was alive or…or did I create one? I told you, I always thought my little trick was a form of wish fulfillment. I got my wish.” If this is the extent of Elizabeth’s powers now, what could a fully powered Elizabeth do? Could she create an entire universe in which Booker and Anna are together? It’s highly possible. However, I believe the evidence supports the previous theory, although, like the doors in Bioshock Infinite, the possibilities are endless3.

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With the core intent of my essay now completed I will address a few more questions and themes I’ve encountered in my playthrough as well as those I’ve stumbled upon in forums across the internet. If you have already found the answers to your questions you may skip ahead to the concluding section To Bring in a Tide .

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obert and Rosalind Lutece present Booker with a coin and ask, “Heads or tails?” An innocuous request until

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we see that according to the hash marks on the sandwich board it has been heads one hundred and twenty two

times without a single tails called. Thus begins the reoccurring theme of fate versus free will. In a way, the Luteces themselves represent these opposing viewpoints. Rosalind, a fatalist who-when it comes to describing herself-claims she is someone that instead of seeing a blank page sees King Lear.

This attitude reflects in her dialogue as she constantly doubts Robert’s experiment, placing herself as a firm advocate for fate and its irreversible nature. Robert, however, is an optimist with a guilty conscience. He largely rebels against his twin’s fatalism, opting more for the effect of choice on the outcome of events rather than abject linearity. Here, Ken Levine has created two of his most endearing characters. Robert and Rosalind Lutece: two beings that, after being “murdered” by Jeremiah Fink via a malfunctioning Lutece Tear, wind up outside the timeline allowing them to travel to any reality they please. Utilizing this uncanny ability they guide Booker through the events of Bioshock Infinite and offer support, albeit, through cryptic means. One would think that this alone would make them stand out as unique characters but there is something else that must be noted. Robert and Rosalind are the same person, but from different realities.

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After Robert is “transfused” into Rosalind’s world she comments, “What separates us now, but a single chromosome?” However, among their commonality and witty, if not ultraliterate, banter there is a distinct difference between the two other than their gender. Why is Robert an optimist while Rosalind a fatalist? I believe the answer lies in the time period. The Luteces both grew up at the turn of the century and both sought a career in physics. However, during this time such a position was rare, if not unheard of, for a woman. Take for instance the Kinetoscope A City in the Sky? Impossible! “The great lady of science shows off her wonders! How does that darn thing fly? Rockets? Balloons? ‘Quantum mechanics!” says the little lady! (We say it’s more like woman’s intuition!).” This Founder propaganda is perhaps the best instance in the game portraying the rights and roles of women during 1912. Rosalind, most likely, was submitted to this kind of prejudice all her life which would have, undoubtedly, made it difficult for her to succeed in her field. This could attribute to her way of thinking as opposed to Robert who, most likely, never encountered this kind of difficulty. Another frequently asked question is ‘wouldn’t Rosalind still invent the Lutece Tear and build Columbia?’ I firmly believe the answer is no. Comstock’s vision and funding largely led to Rosalind’s development of the machine. Without Comstock, and his rapt fanaticism of a flying city, Rosalind would have most likely continued to struggle through her career as a physicist. Another thing to note is that the ability to create tears largely came not just from Comstock’s funding but also with the collaboration between Rosalind and Robert. “The Lutece Field entangled my quantum atom with waves of light,” Rosalind documents in the Voxophone

Whispers Through the Walls. “Sound familiar, brother? That's because you were measuring precisely the same atom from a neighboring world. We used the universe as a telegraph. Switching the field on or off became dots and dashes. Dreadfully slow, but now, you and I could

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whisper through the wall.” By working together, the Lutece’s developed the technology that would place the city of Columbia in the sky, “a city, lighter than air.”

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hemes in the Bioshock series vary drastically from politics to social behaviors, ethics, religion, addiction and racism but one constant that is hard to go unnoticed is the theme of fatherhood. From Andrew Ryan to Comstock, from Jack to Booker, from

Big Daddies to the Songbird everything revolves around the core issue of the father, but why? I believe that the nature of this issue is also partly connected to the other present theme of choice. Andrew Ryan and Zachary Comstock are the fathers that chose gain at the sake of their children. Jack and Booker are the fathers that chose redemption 4. Then there are the Big Daddies and Songbird, the fathers without choice, the surrogates. One thing that these men have in common is that at one point or another they had to acknowledge their children, to accept them whether by free will or not. By direct or indirect interaction, the impact of their choices can be viewed upon the actions and consequences of their daughters. One instance that stands out most in my mind is the death of Daisy Fitzroy at the hands of Elizabeth. After taking a child hostage,

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If Jack’s “good” ending is to be accepted as canon.

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Daisy claims that the only way to end the Founders’ reign is to “pull it up by the root,” insinuating that the children, too, must be exterminated. Elizabeth intervenes and stabs Daisy in the back with a pair of scissors. Coated in Daisy’s blood, Elizabeth watches in horror as the Vox leader bleeds to death at her feet. Booker reaches for the visibly stunned Elizabeth, but she pulls away. “I guess it runs in the family,” she says before fleeing. At this point in the game, she is hinting at the relationship between her and Comstock but after we learn that Booker is her father this moment becomes even more intriguing. At the Battle of Wounded Knee, Booker was responsible for unspeakable acts of violence against the Native Americans which earned him the nickname “The White Injun.” As evidenced by the Preston E. Downs Voxophone Coming for Comstock and the Comstock Voxophone The

True Color of My Skin, it is heavily implied that Booker himself is part Native American and that due to his fellow soldiers taunting him he sought to hide his lineage by slaughtering as many Indians as he could. Booker’s life after that moment is shrouded in violence. This, in a way, is a reflection upon Elizabeth’s own life once she joins him in escaping from Monument Island. This is an interesting moment to examine considering the drastic change for Elizabeth. All her life she has known nothing else but the Tower. However, once Elizabeth joins Booker on their escape from Columbia she is plunged into a world of unspeakable violence. She is even more horrified to see how accustomed Booker is to it. During the Battleship Bay arc Booker encounters an ambush

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set to reclaim Elizabeth. He dispatches them easily but Elizabeth is terrified and runs away. Booker eventually catches up with her but she is disgusted by him. “You killed those people,” she says, shoving Booker away. “You’re a monster.” Eventually, Elizabeth comes to terms with their task and the inevitability of violence, but the guilt weighs upon her. This is also evident in the Future Elizabeth as well. In this reality, Elizabeth was never reunited with Booker. Because of this Comstock was able to condition her into the “Lamb” he had always envisioned. However, even this Elizabeth considers her actions a sin and seeks to atone by bringing Booker into her reality in order to set things right.

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inkton is a large district in Columbia and the central hub of its thriving industry. Racism, terrible working conditions, no fixed income, shantytowns and starvation await the eager workers that come to Finkton’s harbors. Lording over it all is Jeremiah Fink, a shrewd capitalist with a questionable, if not

fetishist, interest for animal metaphors. At first, Finkton is used as the back drop for the introduction of multiple realities and the consequences of its altering, but eventually grows into the flash point for the Vox Populi revolution that steadily consumes all of Columbia. It’s certainly hard to overlook the similarities to the Industrial Revolution and subsequent labor disputes that followed. During this period in American history the U.S. saw booming

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strides in technology and economic status. This eventually saw the country rise to power as the forward most authority on manufacturing. However, this came at a cost. With the sweeping industrialization workmen were needed in order to keep the wheels of progress turning. Factories were filled with workers, many of them migrants seeking their fortune in the land of opportunity. Employers saw the need of those seeking work and abused it by lowering wages and increasing work load in order to secure higher income and growth. Forward Industry! These concepts are mirrored in Columbia as well. One example occurs at the entrance to Finkton proper. When Booker and Elizabeth emerge in the Plaza of Zeal they witness an auction taking place. The workers bid feverishly for work in a sort of Grapes of Wrath nightmare. They bid not in money but in minutes as to who can finish the job in the shortest amount of time. At one point a man, having lost the bid, attacks the man who won and incapacitates him. The assailant is awarded the job. “That’s a Fink man, an efficient man!” the announcer cheers. Naturally, workers were put off by the unfair treatment and formed labor disputes. This can be seen in a sort of extreme by the Vox Populi movement. After being framed for murder, Daisy Fitzroy flees to Finkton and begins a slow-burn revolution. “I saw a fire burning,” Daisy says in the Voxophone Fanning a Flame. “A fire's got heat aplenty, but it ain't got no mouth. Daisy...now, she got herself a mouth big enough for all the fires in Columbia” Nevertheless, every revolution has an opponent, and Strike Breakers, often times Pinkertons for hire, were called in by employers to “settle” them. Booker at one point admits that he had been called in once or twice to “demonstrate the folly of men striking, throwing down

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tools” as he puts it. “You hurt people,” Elizabeth remarks. “I’ll tell you this,” Booker replies. “Sometimes there’s precious need for folks like Fitzroy…’cause of folks like me.”

Bioshock Infinite takes an interesting turn at this point by neither siding with the Founders or the Vox Populi. Instead, the game seems to point out the follies of both, favoring more a criticism on extremism and how it consumes not only the people involved but the world around them. Founder and Vox alike no longer resemble individual people but embody the core, immoveable concepts that are driving them to battle. “Execute anybody who looks like they’d give us trouble,” a Vox announcer declares. “Anyone with a gun, anyone wearing glasses. Round up the rest.” Similarly, the fairgrounds at the Columbia Raffle have games in which people can shoot Vox caricatures for fun.

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nother popular movement during this time period was the birth of American Exceptionalism, the idea that America is superior to all other nations. This belief stemmed from the Industrial Revolution which helped place America at the

forefront in the world economy. A new sense of patriotism emerged in American communities and spear-headed the idea that it was the nation’s responsibility to spread democracy to the rest of the world. Another factor tying into this budding Exceptionalism, as well as the game, was the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair: the birthplace of Columbia. Historically, Columbia was the “White City” built to

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house the festivities of the World’s Fair. In the world of Bioshock Infinite, however, this was the location from which Columbia took to the sky. With it swelled the sense of superiority that would later grow into the Founder party. Somewhere between 1899 and 1901 Columbia intercedes in the Boxer Rebellion and effectively levels the rebel forces. After the events in Peking, the United States chastises Comstock for his brutal methods, which leads to Columbia seceding from the Union. With its isolation, Columbia adopts a new twist on Christian religion, one that ultimately adopts the Founding Fathers as deities along with a sense of righteous duty to defend the interests of its largely Caucasian populace.

Columbia flourishes under Comstock’s firm hand and Founder dogma, but underneath its quaint, Fourth of July charms lies something sinister. Columbia is, in fact, an immense warship driven by Comstock and fueled by Elizabeth’s powers. “The Seed of the Prophet shall sit the thrown, and drown in flame, the mountains of man” is Comstock’s sole desire for Columbia. With it emerges a new kind of belief that the only way for Columbia to spread its values is by

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domination and violence, a concept known as Jingoism. By destroying the “Sodom below” Comstock feels that it shall be cleansed and that Columbia’s people will repopulate the earth in its image, “for what is Columbia if not another ark, for another time.” As Levine demonstrated in the first Bioshock how Objectivism could sink the city of Rapture he also demonstrated how superiority and fanaticism can effectively clip the wings of a flying city.

n closing, I hope this essay has served to answer the questions that many gamers have had

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since their completion of the game. Naturally some questions will go unanswered. Theories will remain, but there lies the mark of a truly great story. Bioshock Infinite has left our minds

to wonder what happens next. By doing so it has endeared and endured. It has raised the bar for effective storytelling in the gaming medium and legitimized itself as something one could call art. The characters and themes demonstrate an evolution from mere entertainment to a level of importance akin to post-modern literature. Whatever the case may be, it will be interesting to see the impact it leaves on the gaming culture as well as future titles to come. Perhaps Lao Tzu said it best; maybe endings and beginnings are different names for the same thing, a tide that at once goes out only to return again, for what are endings but another beginning, in another time.

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Levine, Ken. BioShock Infinite. Novato, CA: Irrational Games/2K Games, 2013. Computer software.

Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc. 1986. IxXv. Print. A Clockwork Orange Resucked

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Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead-Tom Stoppard

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The Garden of Forking Paths -Jorge Luis Borges

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The Grapes of Wrath-John Steinbeck

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The Devil in the White City -Erik Larson

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Edited by-Julie Helmandollar