In a society in which the best
ending is a closed one, one where all loose strings are tied up, the bad guys
in jail, the victim avenged, and the hero standing tall, proud, and awash in
praise from his colleagues, an ambiguous ending is all at once refreshing,
intriguing, and frustrating.
In Life of Pi,
after being rescued, Pi is asked about what happened on the boat and tells the
story that we had been reading: Pi and the tiger, stranded on a lifeboat in the
middle of the ocean, surrounded by flying fish and coming upon an island of carnivorous algae before arriving in Mexico. When he is doubted, he recounts a story full
of parallels and cannibalism. As Pi points out, neither cannot be proven true, so which
would his interviewers prefer?
Ambiguity is not always the choice between a
story of survival and friendship or fear and cannibalism. Often, symbols and
ambiguity go hand in hand. As Thomas C. Foster pointed out, authors often come up with
their own symbols, symbols that no other author has ever used before and thus
the reader does not have the context for what this symbol could mean outside of
the story in which it appears. And, having no context for these
newfound symbols, a reader can apply whatever meaning they want to them.
Ambiguity also allows for a bit of a custom reading
experience. One person may believe that Pi was a liar and did indeed eat the Taiwanese
sailor that ate his mother while another may believe that Pi experienced both
stories he told, with the Taiwanese sailor having been eaten by Richard Parker who
had been hiding and lying in wait for the humans to dwindle down to a small
enough number to be easy prey.
Another example of ambiguity is The Grapes of Wrath. Where does Connie go after leaving the Joad
family? He never gets a formal exit, simply a mention by Tom and Al later on
that he had walked away from the camp and they had assumed him going off to
relieve himself in peace. Rose of Sharon mentions his wishes to stay home and
study machines rather than coming to California. The reader never finds out if
Connie had abandoned his wife and her family or had gotten lost and separated (although the latter is a belief held only by Rose of Sharon) and must make assumptions on their
own.
Films have also had their own amount of ambiguity, notably Rosemary’s Baby, when Rosemary sees her
baby for the first time and demands to know what had happened to its eyes, and The Usual Suspects, as the real Keyser Söze
is revealed and the reliability of Verbal’s story must be questioned.
Ambiguity allows for the author to send a message without
being obvious while also allowing the reader to be left thinking over what they
have just read, molding the open ending into their own ending. That’s the
beauty of an ambiguous ending. It can be anything anyone wants it to be.
Raven, I like how you called it a "custom reading experience". The idea that every reader can have a different experience from the same story because of ambiguity is fascinating. I agree with how you said the ending can be "anything anyone wants it to be". This open interpretation of endings leads to a whole new experience of a book on its own. Also, Grapes of Wrath truly is a perfect example of ambiguity and loose ends. There is Muley Graves who they left back at their house before leaving for California, Connie who disappeared, Noah who stayed behind after they entered California, and most of all the end of the book entirely. Did the family ever get to buy a house? Did they die? It's all up to the reader.
ReplyDeleteI had never realized how many books have parts where the reader never gets answers. It can get truly frustrating not knowing completely what happens in a story, but many times I do not even think about the questions that are not answered because of all that happens after. I never thought about what happened to Connie because the family had all moved on like it was nothing except for Rose of Sharon so I did the same. I liked how you said that it allows for a “custom reading experience” because readers truly do make decisions in their minds about the book while they are reading that an author might not have envisioned. I might have envisioned Connie going back home because he said he would rather be there, but the author could have thought that Connie got lost. Readers fill in the blanks on their own and turn the story into what they want it to be.
ReplyDeleteThe amount of ambiguity that we see in films and movies has always frustrated me, personally. This changed for me after I read Foster's book. I had always taken it as a way for the author to end the story while not ending the reader’s thoughts about it, allowing them more publicity. But now, I see it as a more personal experience, similar to what you pointed out. The ambiguity of the ending allows the readers to form their own ending and continue the story in different ways, which could make the book very personal and very different for each reader, which is something I now appreciate.
ReplyDeleteThe connection you made about ambiguity in films and ambiguity in books is something I never realized. The reader enjoys the unknown in books because it lets their mind wander off and create their own views of what they are reading. When a person goes to watch a movie, they expect all the details and parts that would have been unknown in the book to be shown. Films should give the viewer the answers to the unknown, unlike books or pieces of writing. In Grapes of Wrath, the unknown leaves the reader wanting to know more, like the whereabouts of Connie.
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