on raising a binary expectation in the reader, but it does require the early
pages to draw the reader into the narrative, setting up an expectation that
some sort of revelation will occur.z 2QH YDULHW\ RI WKLV NLQG RI HQGLQJ LV WKH HSLSKDQ\ H[HPSOL¿HGLQ
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stories, this one doesn’t have a plot, but like the best of them, it is
carefully constructed to deliver a devastating emotional blow at the end.
o Every sharply observed detail and every slight shift of
emotion in this story builds toward a single piercing epiphany.
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lives alone and whose most elegant possession is an old fox
stole, which reminds her of her youth.
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visits every Sunday and allows us to participate in what she
sees there. We see how she prides herself on her gift of quiet
observation, and we share the slight superiority she feels
toward the people she observes so sharply.o We share Miss Brill’s moment of communion with the people in
the park: She’s one of the players in a kind of play they all put on
each Sunday. She even takes a brief respite from her loneliness
by indulging in the fantasy of them all singing together. But then,
her illusions are shattered by two thoughtless lovers who sit on
the end of her park bench, and in the end, she sees herself as the
world sees her—old, unfashionable, and alone.o There’s no binary plot here, no situation to resolve, but the
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bit as precision engineered—and every bit as powerful—as the
ending of 7KH$VSHUQ3DSHUV.Hybrid Ending
z The hybrid ending exists halfway between the binary ending and the
epiphany. We see an example in Flannery O’Connor’s story “A Good