Hannah Greendale (Hello, Bookworm) answers “Okay so why was her stomach bloating? I...”

Sarah asked this question about Peach:

Okay so why was her stomach bloating? I thought the final chapter may address it but I actually didn't understand what was happening in that chapter at all, except she's in water and taking out the last stitch in the cut she sewed up. Is she dead? What is the ending saying?

Hannah Greendale (Hello, Bookworm) What I like about this book is that myriad aspects of it are open to interpretation. Is my view of the conclusion correct? I'm not sure, but I'll shar…moreWhat I like about this book is that myriad aspects of it are open to interpretation. Is my view of the conclusion correct? I'm not sure, but I'll share my take on what happens: <spoiler>Peach's name has meaning; it's symbolic. She is young, ripe fruit, and her flesh has been desecrated by her assailant. By ravaging her flesh, the rapist robs her of safety, of sanity, of her sense of being, so that - by the end - she's nothing more than a discarded peach pit. (Her stomach bloating is merely figurative).

In literature, water often symoblises a baptism, a new beginning, or death and rebirth. So there's some murkiness in this finale that sees Peach sinking in a swimming pool. What does the water symoblize for her? Is she succumbing to madness? Is she sinking in death? Or is she finally facing the harshes realities of what happened to her so that she can emerge from the water and start anew?

I don't think Glass is clear on the right answer. By leaving it open-ended, she lets the reader fill in the gaps. And how we, as readers, fill in the blank, says more about us than it does about Peach, so this is a very invasive narrative, one that asks us to examine ourselves as well as Peach's story.</spoiler> Pretty powerful stuff. (less)

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deleted user Love this, Hannah.
Mar 16, 2019 09:55PM · flag

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