Jason Gielow answers “I'm not sure I quite understand the...”

Megan asked this question about Long Way Down:

I'm not sure I quite understand the ending, could someone explain to me what happened?

Jason Gielow At the end of the story we know that Will chooses to stay in the elevator and lives. He's enlightened and changed by this ride down the elevator. In t…moreAt the end of the story we know that Will chooses to stay in the elevator and lives. He's enlightened and changed by this ride down the elevator. In the beginning of the book Will is flashing back to tell us of this event. "I haven't told nobody about the story I'm about to tell you." So it is clear that at the end of the story when all of the smoke and the ghosts exit the elevator, he remains "alone in the empty box." When Shawn speaks his only two words, "You coming?" we know this is the voice of all these dead souls. Will needs to decide if he is going to go with them, to do and act they way they did, to follow them into the valley of the shadow of death. The fact that he is retelling all of this story as a flashback makes it clear that he remains in the elevator to live another day. If he followed them out and down their path, he would kill Riggs, and somebody come and kill Will later following "the rules". And then he truly would be "coming" with Buck, Dani, Uncle Mark, Pop, Frick, and Shawn to the afterlife.
A beautiful story showing how somebody has to stop the violence, and break the rules. MORAL: respect and value human life no matter how difficult that may be for you.(less)

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