Student Question

Describe the ending of "The Grave."

Quick answer:

The ending of "The Grave" shifts to twenty years after the main events, where Miranda, now an adult, recalls the disturbing image of the unborn rabbits from her childhood. This memory resurfaces while she is in a market, making her acutely aware of the meat smells around her. The memory of the rabbits fades and is replaced by an image of her brother, Paul, from that day, holding the ornamental silver dove she gave him.

Expert Answers

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The main narrative in "The Grave" concerns a brother and a sister who go out hunting. The boy, Paul, is twelve years old and his sister, Miranda, is nine. Paul shoots a rabbit, and, after skinning it, he discovers that the rabbit was pregnant. He slices open the rabbit's belly and exposes "a bundle of tiny rabbits." When Miranda sees this bundle, she becomes upset and agitated. Paul makes her promise not to say anything to her father.

In the final paragraph of "The Grave," we join Miranda twenty years later, as she's walking through "a market street in a strange city of a strange country." All of a sudden, Miranda recalls the image of the tiny rabbits, lying next to the dead body of their mother. The image horrifies her and she suddenly becomes particularly sensitive to the smells of meat in the market. The vision of the rabbits then fades and is replaced by an image, also from her memory, of her brother. She sees her brother as the boy from the day they went hunting. He has "a pleased sober smile in his eyes," and in his hands he turns "over and over" the ornamental silver dove that she had given him earlier that same day.

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