{"id":3,"date":"2007-06-27T19:59:32","date_gmt":"2007-06-28T01:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/dasbolt\/2007\/06\/27\/the-symbolism-of-the-open-door\/"},"modified":"2007-07-01T13:58:24","modified_gmt":"2007-07-01T19:58:24","slug":"the-symbolism-of-the-open-door","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/dasbolt\/2007\/06\/27\/the-symbolism-of-the-open-door\/","title":{"rendered":"The Symbolism of the Open Door"},"content":{"rendered":"

calvinblog.jpg<\/a><\/p>\n

We didn’t have time to\u00c2\u00a0delve\u00c2\u00a0too deeply into it in\u00c2\u00a0class,\u00c2\u00a0so I wanted to write my thoughts on The Glass Key<\/em>‘s\u00c2\u00a0ending\u00c2\u00a0here.\u00c2\u00a0 Given its open-ended nature, there are\u00c2\u00a0numerous\u00c2\u00a0plausible interpretations. Here’s what I came away with:<\/p>\n

It seems to me that the “open door” at the end of the book\u00c2\u00a0is a reference to Janet’s nightmare about the snakes in the cabin.\u00c2\u00a0 If you recall,\u00c2\u00a0Janet tells Ned about\u00c2\u00a0a dream\/nightmare she had about\u00c2\u00a0the\u00c2\u00a0two of them\u00c2\u00a0at a snake-filled cabin in the woods.\u00c2\u00a0In her initial\u00c2\u00a0account, she said that she and Ned were able to lure the snakes out of the cabin and take refuge in it.\u00c2\u00a0Ned accuses her of making it up. Janet\u00c2\u00a0tells him that he’s only partially right.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finally, at\u00c2\u00a0the beginning of the\u00c2\u00a0final section of the book,\u00c2\u00a0Janet tells\u00c2\u00a0Ned what really happened in her dream: \u00c2\u00a0having shattered the glass key while\u00c2\u00a0unlocking the door, they were unable to keep the snakes inside and they\u00c2\u00a0slithered out all over them.<\/p>\n

How does this relate to the “open door” that Ned Beaumont\u00c2\u00a0stares at\u00c2\u00a0fixedly in the last\u00c2\u00a0sentence of the book? Well, in betraying Madvig (who leaves the\u00c2\u00a0apartment a\u00c2\u00a0shattered\u00c2\u00a0man), Ned has cast off the\u00c2\u00a0power,\u00c2\u00a0influence, and protection that came\u00c2\u00a0with being associated with him.\u00c2\u00a0Ned no longer has\u00c2\u00a0refuge against his gambling addiction,\u00c2\u00a0the police, his enemies\u00c2\u00a0in the criminal underworld, or even\u00c2\u00a0Madvig himself\u00c2\u00a0–\u00c2\u00a0the snakes\u00c2\u00a0on the other side of the\u00c2\u00a0door.<\/p>\n

It’ll be interesting to read what\u00c2\u00a0others thought of it.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We didn’t have time to\u00c2\u00a0delve\u00c2\u00a0too deeply into it in\u00c2\u00a0class,\u00c2\u00a0so I wanted to write my thoughts on The Glass Key‘s\u00c2\u00a0ending\u00c2\u00a0here.\u00c2\u00a0 Given its open-ended nature, there are\u00c2\u00a0numerous\u00c2\u00a0plausible interpretations. Here’s what I came away with: It seems to me that the “open door” … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/dasbolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/dasbolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/dasbolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/dasbolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/dasbolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/dasbolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/dasbolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/dasbolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/dasbolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}