Prompt 6 on Ambiguity

Ambiguity enriches imagination. It fuels the discussion of plot, incites predictions, and finds answers for the luckiest of readers. With the best books, nothing is set in stone. As the story goes on, the author carves the winding path of uncertainty, and it is up to the reader to navigate it and figure out where the road takes him. If the artist simply fashioned a straight street, then the road would bore the reader. With ambiguity, the path to absolution is marked with electrifying story lines and with stimulating turn of events.

Wouldn’t it be a shame if every story began with its ending, thus spoiling the suspense? Romeo and Juliet would lose its charm. Tuck Everlasting, although we have a sense that they might live forever, would lose its trepidation. Charlotte’s Web would falter with its development. If the endings were mentioned definitively beforehand, then the works would lose pizzazz. Every novel in the genre of mystery would bore most people. With some ancient epics as exceptions, most stories prevent such direct resolution. They start from the beginning or in the middle of things. Ambiguity in this sense helps to highlight the development of a story and ensure readers’ general interest.

Both a story’s future and its past are ambiguous until the author reveals them, and the story uses that ambiguity to unfold either through rising and falling actions or through flashbacks. For example, in the Grapes of Wrath (spoiler alert for anyone not having read it), the Joads become evicted from their home and are forced to move off. If anything is ambiguous, it is their future. But that uncertainty is what defines the novel. The Joads know not about California’s economy or living conditions. They only know about their options, none of which let them stay. This rhetorical ambiguity shows how the Dust Bowl affected millions with exiles from their homes and set them off into the unknown. The story’s portrayal certainly demands ambiguity.

Some stories require uncertainty to function. How will it end? Will he succeed? Will he survive? Only the resolution should provide those answers since the audience only wants to truly know them then. As for the ending, some ambiguity can be helpful, such as with the Grapes of Wrath or Life of Pi. With both of the books however, some sure details create a sense of closure. After all, the Joads settle in California and Piscine steps foot on dry land. Even the ambiguous endings offer mundane gifts of partial absolution. As for their ambiguous futures, only debate and discussion ensue.