"The last sentence in a piece of writing is an adventure. It should open the work up." Choosing either the closing line or lines, or a final section of the text, discuss the likelihood of endings opening up a text. Essay

„The Assault“ by Harry Mulisch is an episodic style novel about a Family living in Haarlem, Holland during the second World War, the whole family‘s life s changed by „six shots that suddenly rang out“, these shots are heard because Fake Ploeg, the Chief Inspector of Police being killed, the dead body is then put in front of the Steenwijk‘s house as Peter realises that his family may be accused of killing Fake Ploeg, he runs out to move the body, this is when the Germans catch him and even the author says that from here on „all the rest is a postscript“.

“The Color Purple” by Alice Walker is an epistolary style novel about a black woman – Celie – who suffers from the severe oppression of black women in the 1930’s. Alice Walker effectively depicts this oppression by giving a very detailed account of a woman who is oppressed by men and raped repeatedly.

In „The Assault“ by Harry Mulisch the ending strings the whole novel together as the novel starts with a metaphorical volcano eruption of mount vesuvius and the after effects of this are represented by the ash caused by the assault. When the intrusive narrator tells the reader in the last line that „there are no ashes in sight.“, it tells the reader that all of the after effects have now left their minds. The end unfolds the whole novel as it shows that Anton has now overcome all the trauma caused by the second World War.

In „The Color Purple“ by Alice Walker in the last part of the novel Celie strings the novel together as she writes the letter to not only God but also to the stars, the tress, the sky and the people. In the first letter Celie ‘sends‘ a letter to God and as mentioned in the last letter she sends a letter to God and his creations, showing that at first she only appreciated God itself, but now she appreciates not only God but also all of his creations. This shows that the time although being very challenging and hurtful at times, really made her appreciate life as such.

„The Assault“ is very...