Epilogue Summary

In the first part of the Epilogue, the characters from the various fables discuss their situations. Some reveal the endings to their stories - the Dangling Man, for example, reveals that after the First Man let go the rope, he "swam to shore, got another rope, and went back to wait for the next passer by". Meanwhile, other characters such as the Flower, the Magic-Ring Woman, the Fly express their hope for a different ending, while still others such as the Lamb, the Tiger, Jane, Jean, and the Dreaming Woman) wish to have been given different circumstances in which to function. Many of the characters refer, in one way or another, to "him." Finally, the Scavenger Fish comments that "what really burned her out was His scatological eschatology." In other words, "his" drawing parallels between shit, his scatological perspective, and eschatology, views of...