Summary Of Ending By Nella Larson

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When you read a book you expect it to have one definitive ending to the story. What if one book had its ending changed after a few of its original books were already published? The changes made for those endings were very small but radically changed the story. The book is passing by Nella Larson. The change in the ending of the book confused book historians because those two different endings give 2 different outcomes. The death of Clare also raises many questions. The book doesn't tell us how she fell off the 6 story building. Both of these different endings and theories also change the meaning of the book. The two different book endings are “...Everything was dark.”(147) and “...death by misadventure…”(147). We do not know if Larsen changed the endings herself or if she was forced into doing so. …show more content…

We do not know if she was forced to change the ending of her book to please the people and Knopf. She might have changed the ending herself because she felt like her book didn't send the right message or she didn't like the way she ended it. Clare's death raised many theories since the book makes it a secret. Irene said she fell off the building but we know that Irene is not a credible witness. We don't have a definitive answer since the cop at the end of the book calls her death a “Misadventure”. All these things cause the story to change its meaning. “Death by misadventure” could mean Clare died as a black woman and no one is responsible for her death. The ending with “Everything was dark” doesn't let us know if Clare died or if anyone is responsible. Nella Larsen decided to not answer questions after she was accused of plagiarism. She decided that it is up to us to look at the clues the book gives us and come to our own conclusion. A perfect quote that sums up this book wonderfully is John K. Young quoting Morrison saying “... It's not only a black story / It’s a very very dark one”(Young