Comparing The Exorcist And Young Goodman Brown

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Rachel Townsend March 26, 2012 Essay 2 As a reader it is common to hope that a books ending will be gratifying and feel complete. Readers are used to conclusions that tie up loose ends and resolve unanswered questions. When a novel or story does give a gratifying conclusion the readers are able to gain closure at the finish of the book. As the dictionary states, closure is defined as “a process of closing something” which is something that several of the horror books we have in class do not do. In both The Exorcist and Young Goodman Brown the reader finishes the book unsatisfied because there are many questions and problems left unfulfilled. The story is not completely closed because for the reader there are so many things left unknown to the imagination. In my opinion I view closure as almost a necessity to a good ending. However, I know many people would disagree with me on that. But the only times I make an exception to that thought is when the book is part of a series. If the book is part of a series then I wouldn’t expect the ending to give me closure because I am already anticipating a cliff hanger. For example, in the Harry Potter series the reader never received any full closure until the very last book. And at the end of that last book all loose ends were tied and the author left hardly any thought at all up to the readers imagination because she had a very specific way in which she wanted readers to walk away from it. None of the authors of these horror books planned to make a sequel to their book; therefore I did not like how the authors left a lot up to the reader’s imagination since they did not plan on explaining more later on. What bothered me so much about the ending of these two stories was the fact that I would never know the real answers to any of the questions I had. Before I got to the end of The Exorcist and the story of Young Goodman

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