How do you respond to the ending of ‘When the Wasps Drowned’ and how does Wigfall make you respond the way that you do by the way she writes?
In ‘When the Wasps Drowned’ it ends on a highly disturbing enigmatic note, to which you aren’t surprised by because, of the oppressive and enclosed atmosphere throughout the story which may of lead to the withholding of information about the girl at the end.
There is a lack of resolution at the end of the story which seems to be the reason why the writer seems to be looking back at a past memory, perhaps to relieve the guilt she feels towards her actions now that she didn’t feel before. ‘We stepped back out into the sunlight of the garden.’ This shows that Eveline does not feel any guilt toward her actions as she is seen to be protecting her siblings. By the way the stepped into the sunlight it makes it seem that any blame that would have been put on her for concealing the truth is gone as she was doing the right thing by stopping her siblings from having to experience the adult world.
Also the closeness of the children suggests they may ‘close rank’ against adults. This is shown by the way Eveline acts like a mother towards her siblings, ‘Therese and Tyler were both clinging to my bare legs.’ This is showing the close relationship between the children, that even in front of the police who were at their door they still stand together as a unit to stop each other from getting into unwanted trouble.
The sinister nature of the ending to the story reflects the behaviour of the children throughout. The children seem to surround themselves with death from the start and do not seem to have any bad reaction to it. ‘Therese scoured the grass for wasps corpses…using a stone, pound its body to dust.’ This shows that the children have experienced death, even though they were just wasps. This natural behaviour about death is seen at the end when the photo of the dead girl is shown and all three siblings stand and deny any knowing of the girl ‘we all shook our heads’ they don’t show any emotion, keeping a natural look upon them so not to create any suspicion.
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There is a lack of resolution at the end of the story which seems to be the reason why the writer seems to be looking back at a past memory, perhaps to relieve the guilt she feels towards her actions now that she didn’t feel before. ‘We stepped back out into the sunlight of the garden.’ This shows that Eveline does not feel any guilt toward her actions as she is seen to be protecting her siblings. By the way the stepped into the sunlight it makes it seem that any blame that would have been put on her for concealing the truth is gone as she was doing the right thing by stopping her siblings from having to experience the adult world.
Also the closeness of the children suggests they may ‘close rank’ against adults. This is shown by the way Eveline acts like a mother towards her siblings, ‘Therese and Tyler were both clinging to my bare legs.’ This is showing the close relationship between the children, that even in front of the police who were at their door they still stand together as a unit to stop each other from getting into unwanted trouble.
The sinister nature of the ending to the story reflects the behaviour of the children throughout. The children seem to surround themselves with death from the start and do not seem to have any bad reaction to it. ‘Therese scoured the grass for wasps corpses…using a stone, pound its body to dust.’ This shows that the children have experienced death, even though they were just wasps. This natural behaviour about death is seen at the end when the photo of the dead girl is shown and all three siblings stand and deny any knowing of the girl ‘we all shook our heads’ they don’t show any emotion, keeping a natural look upon them so not to create any suspicion.
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