The Last Sentence – the Answer and the Fruit
Written by Ana Bilić
While writing, I came to two conclusions regarding the last sentence of a literary work: the last sentence is as important as the so-called famous first sentence, and the successful last sentence should have a connection to the first sentence in the book.
My novel “Anatomy of an Intention” is about a woman who has decided to kill her husband by serving him poisonous mushrooms for dinner. The first sentence is: „I decided to kill my husband.“ In her confession, she describes soberly and emotionlessly why she is going to do it, what made her think such things, what her married life was like and what she thinks went wrong.
It is about a plan involving several people and it is important for the reader to know how the drama ends. The last sentence is: „The poor thing completely forgot that I don’t like Chinese food.“ Misunderstanding and misperception of reality – symbolizing the entire relationship between the protagonist and her husband. Of course, the story also tells us whether the plan came true. But the last sentence follows on from the first sentence. The last and the first sentence form a circle. The end corresponds to the beginning and tells of a period of life and some facets of human nature. Everything is connected: where everything begins, everything ends, because every question must have an answer.
In my poetry collection “The Golden Station”, the last thought is written in verse: “every departure is just a step / to return to the beginning / to return home / to ourselves”. The subject of the collection is the search for ultimate happiness, and the last thought provides an answer, which in turn is a matter of reflection and self-perception. My second poetry collection “Of Clarity and Other Errors” is about the predetermined and unthinkingly accepted way of thinking in everyday life, which is now viewed in unusual and strange combinations or wants to be seen in a different light. The last thought in verse is: “Everyone benefits from this: / Siberia will be better integrated into the world, / the shamans will get a challenging clientele, and people will be freed from superfluous clarity, / without prejudice and flexible, / as befits them as true citizens of the world.” The last thought also provides an answer to the topic of discussion – a citizen of the world goes beyond their borders.
In these two works of poetry, another form of connection can be seen: a tree with the root in the title and the final thought as the fruit of the tree. All the poems in these volumes represent the foliage through individual leaves and what remains at the end is the fruit. But the fruit is not only the end, but also the existing circle, which begins with the core within itself.
Conclusion: Not only what kind of story the author wants to tell, but also whether his story imitates a circle of life can be seen in the last sentence.
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