The Downward Spiral: Beginnings and Endings tells a story about numerous characters and their lives and how they cope with the ups and downs of the world they live in. One scene in particular is pivotal and brings them together on a snowy day in Schaumburg Illinois. Life will change forever for some in this tale. Music plays a large part along with the day to day life that people live and their jobs they report to and how they communicate with others and how they deal with loss. It focuses on a mother and a husband and then a son. Then it becomes just a mother and son. They go through life with problems like everyone and you see how they deal with them and how they get through the difficult times. The arguments they have and the love that they find and lose. You see how a boy grows up into a teenager and see his likes and dislikes and what he seems to want in life. A mother who deals with things not always going her way and just adjusting to it and hoping things turn out for the best. We learn about other characters who have smaller roles in this tale but they are as well very important and you fell for them and what they have in relationships and their careers and their families. They are out doing the most normal tasks and talking with friends and communicating with their pets. They are dealing with the snow and the winter in the Midwest. A world can be cruel and it can tear things apart if you're not careful. They have no idea what is to come but they are real people with problems and issues and some are in love and some are in the process of fixing their mistakes and they will be in the same place on a cool snowy February Saturday. Beginnings and Endings, this is true in many senses as this novel goes on. Lives and relationships and love and events they all are part of this cycle. Some of these things end and some of these begin. This world is filled with sadness and darkness and then at the same time it is filled with some happiness and the characters are set to these feelings and that day. A boy and his mother wait outside and wonder what just happened and you have no real answer for him. What do you say? That wasn't what you expected to see and you didn't expect to hear screams. Her husband, his father picks them up and they drive off with a new sense of life and a feeling of sadness has taken over them.