My high school English teacher told me to never trust a book with a tidy ending

Mrs. Patterson back in 2004 said a perfect ending meant the author was hiding something. I laughed it off until I read The Giver again last month and realized that ambiguous final scene was way more honest than any neat bow. She was right about 1984 too, that ending still bugs me 20 years later. Has anyone else had a teacher who gave advice about endings that actually stuck with you?

2 comments

2 Comments

grant.margaret10d ago

That "neat bow" line got me. My friend Jenna had a college professor who told the class "if the ending wraps up too clean, someone in the story probably died for no good reason." She never forgot it. Years later she read The Lovely Bones and called me at 2am because the ending was so polished and she was convinced the author was covering up something awful. She still brings it up whenever we finish a book together.

reed.ray11d ago

You know, I used to think a happy ending was the whole point of reading a book. But that teacher of yours has a point. I finally read The Giver last year and I get what she meant now.