Final Lines in Literature

[realmenhatelife]

Totally ripping off the movies thread. Generally the last line of something written has some impact on the story and how you are supposed to interpret it. Knowing the line to end on is a trick for an author like a dismount for a gymnast- it's tricky. What are your favorites?

Mine is from the short story "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor.

"She would of been a good woman," The Misfit said, "if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life."
"Some fun!" Bobby Lee said.
"Shut up, Bobby Lee," The Misfit said. "It's no real pleasure in life."


Also, let me get an over/under on ammount of posts before Gatsby comes up.

[Knowledged_one]

Not sure about best final lines but for sure the best first line is

The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed

[King Hippos Bandaid]

The End

[Knowledged_one]

oh wait how about

Merry christmas to all and to all a good night

[donnie_darko]

i think of old dean moriarty, that father we never found....i think of dean moriarty.

[Spider]

...I walked back to the hotel in the rain.

[Chip196]

So it goes.

[Hottub]

Cradled thereby in the crucible of the hands of god, which is nothing but love, which is nothing but the universe, which is nothing but the self, which then in its fulfillment may be said to be comprised of this self-same trinity alone- of atoms, motion, and the void.

[WhistlePig]

"Then we shall have some pie!"

[BoondockSaint]

"I felt like a monster reincarnation of Horatio Alger...a Man on the Move, and just sick enough to be totally confident."

[Hottub]

I touch my blanket.
Good night.

[BoondockSaint]

"The old man was dreaming about the lions."

[The Chairman]

The Bishop crossed himself, and leaning over the ship's side, said:

'Your own prayer will reach the Lord, men of God. It is not for me to teach you. Pray for us sinners.

And the Bishop bowed low before the old men; and they turned and went back across the sea. And a light shone until daybreak on the spot where they were lost to sight.

[Badinia]

Totally ripping off the movies thread. Generally the last line of something written has some impact on the story and how you are supposed to interpret it. Knowing the line to end on is a trick for an author like a dismount for a gymnast- it's tricky. What are your favorites?

Mine is from the short story "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor.

"She would of been a good woman," The Misfit said, "if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life."
"Some fun!" Bobby Lee said.
"Shut up, Bobby Lee," The Misfit said. "It's no real pleasure in life."


Also, let me get an over/under on amount of posts before Gatsby comes up.

I like the Flannery O'Connor.

I also like:

"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

And:

"Somewhere in the gray wood by the river is the huntsman and in the brooming corn and in the castellated press of cities. His work lies all wheres and his hounds tire not. I have seen them in a dream, slaverous and wild and their eyes crazed with ravening for souls in this world. Fly them."