discussion of the ending of 1922 [spoilers]

[Daniel Lee Severn]

This is the world(s) of Stephen King we are discussing, a place where child-eating monsters, reanimated corpses, vehicles and hotels with minds of their own, vampires, werewolves, sh*t weasels, people who have telekinetic and pyrokinetic powers, and the devil himself dwell. I imagine anything can happen in a place like that.

[Jack Roman]

Didn't he

shoot himself 

at the end? I thought his death was pretty self explanitory. Rats cant fire a gun as far as I know.

[~Ally~]

Didn't he

shoot himself 

at the end? I thought his death was pretty self explanitory. Rats cant fire a gun as far as I know.

Nope, Wilf didn't shoot himself.

Show Spoiler

He did have a gun, and this was found next to him when his body was recovered, so the police initially thought he had shot himself. Yet the newspaper article revealed the gun contained no bullets, and it hadn't been fired. This led to the theory that he had bitten himself all over his body, and chewed through his own wrists...as well as chewed up all the paper he had written his "confession" on.

I like this ending as we are left to decide for ourselves what was Wilf's reality. Was he insane, haunted, or both? We won't ever truly know.

[TechnoBill]

My comments are a bit of a spoiler if you haven't finished the story.

Show Spoiler

If you read the description in the newspaper clipping of where the bites were located, it is curious that all them are reachable by a flexible human. There were none described as being on the face, back, or torso.

He was also found in a sitting position at the desk. This makes me think he was delusional and did the biting himself.

Then again, SK makes sure to mention via the newspaper clipping that the paper was chewed as by a rat making a nest thereby alluding to the rats Wilf said he saw.

The clipping is all quite twisted and leaves as many questions as it answers.

[effalumpkin]

My personal opinion is that Wilf was suffering from mental illness prior to killing his wife. This would explain why he found killing his wife to be a reasonable solution to a property dispute and why he chose to involve his son in the murder at all (he could easily have killed her without an accomplice). After he killed her, the guilt fueled his insanity even further and after he lost his son he simply fell apart mentally until he eventually committed suicide believing himself to be a haunted man. That is my favorite explanation, but what I love about this story are the possibilities.

[El Sabor Asiático]

For me, this was a good story that was comically derailed by a small but significant detail at the very end. Wilf screams in pain and horror as the rats (whether real or imagined, they are real to him) attack and kill him. Which is fine, and horrific, except for one thing: isn't this his written confession we're reading? If so, why would he write down things like "OW!" and his final agonized thoughts? I was reminded of a scene in Monty Python & the Holy Grail, when they come across the last words of Joseph of Aramathea carved into a cave wall:

MAYNARD: It reads, 'Here may be found the last words of Joseph of Aramathea. He who is valiant and pure of spirit may find the Holy Grail in the Castle of uuggggggh'.
ARTHUR: What?
MAYNARD: '... the Castle of uuggggggh'.
BEDEMIR: What is that?
MAYNARD: He must have died while carving it.
LAUNCELOT: Oh, come on!
MAYNARD: Well, that's what it says.
ARTHUR: Look, if he was dying, he wouldn't bother to carve 'aaggggh'. He'd just say it!
MAYNARD: Well, that's what's carved in the rock!
GALAHAD: Perhaps he was dictating.

I guess it can be rationalized if the whole confession is actually only taking place in his mind, but by the time I got to the epilogue, it was too late, I was already laughing and the effect of the story was pretty well roont.

[AchtungBaby]

Bump

Powerful, powerful story...I'm gonna go with number 2...

[Evil Queen]

This story was my favorite! I prefer to think #2 happened, his dead wife did visit him & the rats chased him down & chewed him up, that was his punishment for murdering her & ruining his son's life. It is an awesome ghost story!

[Gazou]

I just got the book and finished reading 1922 for the 1st time and I loved that tale.

I think it's mostly real. For the death in the hotel, I don't think people would confuse human teeth bites with rat bites so I believe most of it was in his head. But maybe he really was haunted by the spirit of his dead wife.

This tale of crime and madness reminds me a lot of Poe, the tell-tale heart like someone above said and also the Black Cat. Like many of Poe's tale it is horrible, but without obvious supernatural. King wrote many short stories without any supernatural and I think any interpretation is possible for this one.


Two details that struck me:

A- The dad's middle name: Leland, (as in Leland Gaunt). Like people in Needful Things he lost his soul and sanity to keep his most valuable Thing.

B- The boy, Henry, (as in Henry Bowers from IT). Different situations, but two children corrupted by the madness by their dad.
It's harder to feel sorry for Bowers because he's a mean bully from the start, but there's a clear parrallel. Interestingly Henry gets his first beer after killing his mom, and Bowers got his after killing Spot. For both of them that's the point of no return.

One detail that's wrong: he says his cows are too old to have calves, yet they still produce milk. This could mean he is crazy and milking cows that are too old to give any milk or more likely a mistake on the part of King.

What I find ironic, he killed his wife because she would not be a "good wife" and do what her husband wants, but Shannon died for the opposite reason.

ARTHUR: Look, if he was dying, he wouldn't bother to carve 'aaggggh'. He'd just say it!

Maybe we are not reading his papers directly (which are torn to pieces) but hearing his thought while he writes.

[Lina]

I would go with the third variant. I am of the opinion that after killing his wife and losing his son as a result Wilf became mentally ill. At the same time, I somehow believe that maybe his wife really came to him after her death... well, after all, who knows? But as about rats, I really think that he was just hallucinating,

Show Spoiler

he saw this awful picture when rats were in the well eating his wife's dead body

, and, sure, it left a big impression on him, so in the end he saw these ats everywhere as a symbol of what he has done with their lives. Well, that is just what I believe in...