The October Killings Literary Analysis

The endings of stories are crucial to making a good tale. Endings are used for wrapping up the falling action, explaining the mysteries, and tying up loose ends. Without endings, stories would constantly have one event after another happen with no stopping point and the conclusion would be left of to a reader 's imagination. Due to the vitality of endings, readers must evaluate them based one whether or not they do a fine job at concluding the story instead of whether the ending is happy or not. In The October Killings by Wessel Ebersohn, the ending takes place over three chapters. In these chapters the story sometimes succeeds and sometimes does not succeed at explaining what happens to all of the characters.

Throughout the book, the reader …show more content…
These sections cover the endings of Yudel Gordon, another main character, and Abigail. In the book, a few passages are written that clue in the reader in on the fact that both Abigail and Yudel have been having trouble with their marriage. Yudel has not been telling Rosa everything and isolating himself from her and Abigail has refusing to give her to Robert at night due to something that happened in her past and she does not listen to Robert. Both of these issues come through in Abigail 's and Yudel 's conversations and actions to the point of where both of pick up on the other one 's problems. As a result, they both end up giving each other advice on it. Yudel tells Abigail not to mix together Michael and Robert. "Robert is here and he 's not going anywhere. What he is to you is one pole of the human compass; Michael Bishop is the opposite pole. There is no similarity between them." (Ebersohn 237). Abigail then returns the favor by telling Yudel exactly what he needs to do. "When you go home now, tell Rosa you love her...kiss her and make love to her after that." (Ebersohn 296). Both of follow the other’s advice as a way to make amends with there lovers. It is a beautiful ending to see characters repair broken relationships and fix their emotional state of …show more content…
In the book, Bishop is a very mysterious man. His role in the plot line is slowly discovered through bits and pieces of passages and the reader has to attempt to put all it together. How his past is related to the other characters and story is vague, much like his ending. Over half of his ending plays the "pronoun game" which is where the author does not reveal the subject 's name until later, only speaks of the person through pronouns. This game is played often through the book when referring to Bishop. Nothing eventful happens in his ending; only that Bishop gets on a private plan that takes him across the Zimbabwe border. No information is disclosed on why he did this. The last sentence is very confusing and does not have a direct meaning. "Matthew had died only hours before, but it was already the twenty-third." (Ebersohn 312). Matthew is only mentioned once in a few chapters prior and it is never confirmed who Matthew is, only an detectives speculation. Also the reader never knows why it being the twenty-third is important or if it is not important. Michael Bishops 's ending is unclear and undescriptive, and while he did need one, the ending he was given does not adequately conclude is