The End

I’m neck-deep in Bob’s climax now; the end is so close I could drown in it. Still, I’m not completely satisfied with it, and I don’t think it’s completely satisfied with me (which is why it’s trying to drown me). Me and endings get along about as well as Edward and Jacob--which is to say, we’d really like to kill each other, but for our protagonists’ sake, we don’t.

As Abby Stevens mentioned in her comment on Myrna’s post, endings should flow naturally out of the storyline; they should be the inevitable crescendo the rest of the book has been driving at. They tie the interior and exterior action into one tidy bundle, and the best ones leave us with a soft sigh of satisfaction as we close the book for the last time.

So what makes endings so tricky? They should just pour straight out of the book, right? Maybe it’s this expectation, this fear of getting it wrong, that trips me up. So as much for me as anyone, I’m going to look at some classic books with classic endings, and describe how they got it right.

1. ENDER’S GAME by Orson Scott Card: The plot of Orson Scott Card’s masterpiece is riveting, the characters memorable, but it’s the ending that really takes this book from good to great. When it comes to endings with a twist, this is one of the first that springs to mind, and yet the ending doesn’t feel contrived. Ender and his team of child warriors do exactly what we think they’ll do: They annihilate the Bugger threat. It’s the how that takes us by surprise.

2. THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins: Another superb example of a climax that flows naturally out of the story’s setup. Because Suzanne Collins outlines the rules of the Hunger Games early on, we know exactly how the book will end: Every tribute, save one, will die. Still, the scene doesn’t disappoint. In fact, it is more complex, and has a much more far-reaching impact, than we ever could have imagined.

3. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee: Talk about tying the interior and exterior action into one tidy bundle, not to mention two seemingly divergent storylines. When I read this book in junior high, I didn’t appreciate how masterfully its climax resolves Scout’s years-long fascination with Boo Radley, the fallout from Tom Robinson’s trial, and Harper Lee’s overall theme about killing mockingbirds. It’s a not-too-big-not-too-small conclusion that is as beautiful as it is haunting. (That final scene on Boo Radley’s porch, in which Scout sees her world through his eyes, remains one of the finest moments in all of literature for me.)

Of course, there are hundreds more examples of fantastic endings, but I’ll leave those to you. What endings have left you with that satisfying sigh, and why?