Kira’s answer to “Can someone explain the ending to me? I'm confused.” > Likes and Comments

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message 1: by Daisy (new)

Daisy (view spoiler)


message 2: by Tia (new)

Tia The bit about the pigs actually has a HUGE significance to the book. They are used to symbolize Jake's suffering. "Both pigs being eaten alive. From the inside out. Ans you'd never really know if you just looked at them from afar. From a distance, they seem content, relaxed..." These lines are saying that Jake is in immense emotional pain and he is suffering, but no one noticed because 1) he hid it behind a mask and 2) no one ever bothered to really check on him just like the parents got lazy and never bothered to check the pigs. This led to the lines, "...Dad had to put the pigs down. That was his only choice." By the time the dad discovered the two pigs it was too late. They could not be helped or saved. His only choice was to kill them. Just like Jake. He had been suffering for so long, all alone, that the wounds were too deep to heal making suicide "his only choice." Then the girl states, "...I get it. I do. They had to be put down and put out of their misery. Suffering like that is unendurable...Maybe they were lucky, to go like that after what they'd been through. To at least be liberated from some suffering." Since the girl is the part of Jake's psyche that is contemplating suicide this is where it shows the pros of going through with it. At least Jake will no longer have to endure the "unendurable" emotional pain he feels. Then the entire next paragraph is Jake's anxiety about dying and death. "What if suffering doesn't end with death?...What if it doesn't get better?...What if the maggots continue to feed...and continue to be felt? This possibility scares me." These are the cons. Ultimately, these are the concerns that has kept him alive as long as it has and are reasons he hadn't killed himself sooner. The bit about the pigs basically foreshadows the ending of the book where Jake commits suicide and is finally "liberated from some of the suffering." It was "his only choice." Sorry that was so long, but that entire scene has a big impact on the girl's contemplation and is a major contributor to her ultimate decision at the end of the book.


message 3: by Amanda (new)

Amanda Tia, that is such an interesting analysis of the symbolism of the pigs! Their significance hadn't fully occurred to me, and now I realize how important they were to the story. Gracias!


message 4: by Kira (new)

Kira FlowerChild Tia, you are probably right about the symbolism of the pigs but somehow having that happen to animals that depend on their human caretakers to keep them healthy makes it a thousand times worse than if, for example, the author had used the metaphor of cancer eating up a human from the inside. I am extremely sensitive when it comes to mistreatment of animals and children. If there had been any warning about this ahead of time, I seriously would not have read the book. When Stephen King's Pet Sematary came out, I quit reading his books for DECADES. He had already messed with children and animals in Cujo, but that was a situation which could actually have occurred in real life, although it is unlikely because it depended on a confluence of events. Still, dogs do get rabies and dogs do bite children. But Pet Sematary deliberately took harm to children and animals to a much, much darker place. I realize not everyone is this sensitive but I am who I am and I say what I feel. Your analysis is excellent and probably what the author intended. Still, this is the type of book - the whole book, not just that scene - that turns me off an author.


message 5: by Poetniknowit (new)

Poetniknowit I don't think that theory is entirely accurate. The stain on the shirt is paint, not blood. The girlherself was never his girlfriend- it was all made up in hishead, a multiple personality disorder sort of thing.
There are many nods implying multiple personality disorder.

The scene where a man is waving to a young girl through her window is like symbolism. He is waving at this girl's fake memories in his own mind. Bc she never existed.


Nothing Like A Great Book Glad I read this Spoiler before purchasing this book. It's too dismal for words, regardless of how 'clever' some seem to think it. It should come with more Warnings imo. I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. I need a HEA or at least a HFN. Thanks. 🌹


message 7: by Kira (new)

Kira FlowerChild Poetniknowit, if he was a pedophile, he could very well have seen the child as his "girlfriend." I don't think it is coincidence that the adult "girlfriend" found the blouse worn by the little girl. Yes, the adult girlfriend was likely one of his alters, but the incident where he was looking through the window of the little girl's bedroom could have been real. I am extrapolating from there that he climbed through the window and abducted the child but I think the author leaves that as an open possibility. I think also many things in this book are open to interpretation and each reader will have his or her own opinion about it.


message 8: by Kira (new)

Kira FlowerChild Nothing Like A Great Book, glad I could help. I just wish I'd heeded the hints in the Goodreads reviews that some people hated this book. In the description it is called a "smart, suspenseful, and intense literary thriller." Puh-leeze!! And now there is a movie version out on Netflix which I did watch (am I a masochist?). It is surprisingly true to the book except at the very end, but the end of the movie is reasonably true to the demented spirit of the book.


message 9: by Ana (new)

Ana wow. you're. a. genius.


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