The Seventh Prompt

            Ambiguity can come into a reading experience in several situations.  Sometimes it is the resolution that is left unclear, sometimes it is events preceding the story that are never made clear, and even more rarely, entire plot points are left unclear.    One thing that remains constant throughout, however, is that it leaves meaning open to interpretation.

            Leaving their works ambiguous and open to interpretation is part of what creates engagement between the reader and the writer.  There is no one way to interpret a piece of art, and even when there is a clear way to interpret it, there is never a “correct” way.  Take, for instance, Quentin Tarantino’s film Pulp Fiction.  This film features a briefcase as a central plot point but never gives any clear indication as to what is contained inside.  The most that is shown is a glowing golden light emanating from within.  One of the most popular theories is that this briefcase contains the soul of one of the film’s characters, Marsellus Wallace.  There is plenty of evidence to support it, but does that make it correct?  No, part of the beauty in the film is that what’s inside the briefcase is whatever the audience thinks it is.

            Ambiguity makes a text more personal because the meaning is just as much the reader’s as it is the author’s.  The author does not tell anybody exactly what to think, they simply push the reader in a certain direction and the reader arrives at their own conclusion.  This makes it applicable to a wider variety of situations and time periods.  Readers will often see a reflection of themselves and their own struggles where something is left unclear.  Maybe it was society’s fault that this character turned evil, maybe it was his own personal insecurities that tore him apart, and maybe it was the fault of the failed prison system that he did not reform.  The bottom line is that ambiguity allows a text to be appreciated from many more angles.