Endings and Beginnings

AP Exam Prompt: 1996. The British novelist Fay Weldon offers this observation about happy endings. "The writers, I do believe, who get the best and most lasting response from their readers are the writers who offer a happy ending through moral development. By a happy ending, I do not mean mere fortunate events -- a marriage or a last minute rescue from death -- but some kind of spiritual reassessment or moral reconciliation, even with the self, even at death." Choose a novel or play that has the kind of ending Weldon describes. In a well-written essay, identify the "spiritual reassessment or moral reconciliation" evident in the ending and explain its significance in the work as a whole.

I wrote my essay on Hamlet. Everyone dies at the end of Hamlet. I passed.

Next week I'll be teaching a sample lesson to an AP class that has already taken the test and is probably counting the days until graduation. As I sat in the waiting area of the administration office for my interview today, a stream of seniors lined up to pick up their caps and gowns.

It began to rain, and the saturated asphalt brought me back to the smell of the playground at my elementary school.

At once I felt the urgency and frivolity of a past, present and an uncertain future.