January 2011 was an ordeal for the 60-year-old Fern. The woman was left without work and livelihood. The drywall factory, where the heroine worked for many years, was closed. In addition, her husband, with whom she lived for many years in Empire, Nevada, dies. Fern came to the conclusion that she had nothing more to lose. The woman took all the most valuable things and loaded them into the van. Now Fern is a modern nomad.
Coincidentally, Nomadland ends with Fern returning to his roots, if only for a moment. In the final shots of the film, she returns to the Empire to visit the factory where she worked and the house she used to share with her husband. She says goodbye to one static place that takes up a place in her heart before she gets back on the road. That’s what it means. Explanation of the meaning of the film & the ending.
True History of the Empire, Nevada
The opening sequence of the film refers to the real history of the Empire, Nevada. In 2011, the US plant shut down after 88 years in the city. After about six months, the Empire became something of a ghost town and the zip code was cancelled. The situation that Fern faced is based on reality, as the Empire was a real city that had effectively shut down. All the inhabitants of the Empire worked at this factory. But the organization could not survive the recession of the late 2000s, so it was forced to close.
When the factory stopped, the residents were forced to leave to find work. As of 2016, only a handful of citizens remain. That same year, Empire Mining purchased the city and partly opened it up. The company has only hired some of these residents, meaning things will never be the same again. Although Fern is a fictional character, her journey represents the real inhabitants of the Empire. They, too, considered the city their home and probably felt lost when it closed. The real inhabitants of the Empire, like Fern, were forced to become nomads.
Why Fern didn’t stay with David
David is one of the characters that Fern meets on the road. It’s clear from the start that he’s infatuated with her, so much so, in fact, that he wants her to come to him. Throughout the film, David does his best to keep Fern by his side. In the future, he gets her a job and asks her to live with him and his son’s family. She accepts his offer, but when David asks Fern to stay for a longer period of time on vacation, she doesn’t.
At first glance, this seems like a heartless and stupid act. David was clearly in love with Fern and she didn’t even say goodbye to him properly. Staying with him would provide her with a love relationship and a roof over her head. But that’s not what Fern needs at this stage of her life. Fern never got over her husband’s death. This was one of the reasons for her travel around the country. Beau’s death meant more to Fern than just the loss of a husband, it also meant the loss of a person and a city that made her feel at home. So while she clearly cared about David, he could never be Bo. Fern couldn’t imagine that after losing Bo, she would find another man, so her only option was to leave.
Why Fern is returning to the Empire
At the end of Nomadland, Fern returns to the Empire. The chronology of the film is not entirely clear, but it is implied that Bo died shortly before the events of the film. All this time, Fern tried to come to terms with Bo’s death. Near the end of the film, Fern meets Bob, who is the leader of the nomad community. Bob reveals that he was able to come to terms with his son’s death because of a common idea in their community. Instead of accepting death as the end point, the community sees the departure of a loved one more as a temporary separation.
This idea probably inspires Fern to return to the Empire one last time. Fern’s relationship with Bo in “Fern” was the first time she put down both emotional and physical roots, and both of them suddenly snapped out of her. Her nomadic spirit meant she wasn’t well prepared to say goodbye. But when Bob helps her change her mindset when it comes to saying goodbye, Fern finally feels ready to say goodbye to Bo and the city. After all, goodbyes aren’t really final.
The meaning of the ending Nomadland
The country of nomads is the embodiment of the saying: “Home is where the heart is.” As evidenced by her interactions with her sister, Fern was born with a nomadic spirit. She left home at the first opportunity and never looked back. Her house will never have four walls. Even when she lived in the Empire, the city wasn’t really her home – it was Bo. For the same reason, she was unable to reconcile with David and his family, because that would be disingenuous to her true spirit. The film shows that Fern is indeed the happiest of all on the road. She meets her closest friends and experiences boundless beauty. This is something she would never experience if she lived in one place. This suggests that the house is not the same for everyone. Home is what makes a person. The film simply shows that happiness takes a different form for everyone. Once Fern finally came to terms with the departure of Bo and the Empire, she was finally able to return to her home, the open road.
