The Open Critic

Literate Discourse of Literary Works

1. susan vergara 09.30.07 / 11pm

   hello!
   i would want you to give me some information about the final secret of the book.
   it would be very useful for me
   please
   answer me as soon as possible!
   thanK you a lot for you website page!
2. Sammi 11.19.07 / 8am

   susan the secret is that :At the end of “After the first death”, the son, Ben is not talking to the father. Ben dies from everything that happens and that is the Father narrating through Ben. The father is in a mental institution because of Ben dying. He is living with the guilt and blaming himself that Ben is dead and he is “haunted” now by his son and the events that surrounded his death. He goes crazy at the end where “Ben” won’t leave, but it’s really him in his own mind. Ben’s father is schizophrenic.
3. anony 04.30.08 / 1am

   ben jumps off the bridge
4. anony 04.30.08 / 1am

   and hes father isnt schizophenic,, although he does blame himself for bens death.
5. Susanne 06.20.08 / 3pm

   But how do you explain their final conversation? Ben is already dead then, he can´t talk to his father in reality.
   I would say Ben jumps off the bridge during his father´s visit and after that he goes crazy. The question is the end: Does Mark also kill himself?
6. David 07.09.08 / 10am

   Yes the father does kill himself…

   In his mind, when “Ben” says goodbye, he is being pushed off of the cliff by his son in search for retribution, or he believes that is the way it should be…

   The General felt like he had betrayed his son, and thus made Ben take his own life, and for that reason he sought refuge at the bottom of the cliff…
7. David 07.09.08 / 10am

   That is even though Ben had taken his own life, after recovering from the gunshot, and thus wasn’t really there…
8. kerrin 11.16.09 / 5pm

   If you go back and read all of the sections that ben talks to his dad, you’ll see that he skips around in time in some of the chapters, but he will note that he did so. I think when he’s talking in past-tense he’s discussing the events before or during the hijjacking, not after. So when he’s talking about his father visiting, he’s still alive. However, upon his father returning to the room, Ben panics, feeling like a pathetic traitor, and flees to the bridge, where he ultimately kills himself. The father is sent to a mental institution, because he has had a few conversations with Ben in his mind, even though Ben is dead. At the end of the conversation when Ben says “Good-bye Dad.” Mark dies. So yes, to take ten minutes to answer your question, Mark dies in a way from the guilt. The book just doesn’t show us how. He leaves it open for interpertation.
9. kerrin 11.16.09 / 5pm

   Oh, and it’s not definate that Mark was in a mental institution (ending is left open to interpretation). Some people believe that he is just left to be insane in the mental institution, and others think that he killed himself at the bridge like his son. If you believe that Mark died, than it makes more sense to have him jump off the bridge, because crazy people are monitered in the cuckoo shack, and I imagine it would be quite difficult to kill one’s-self in there. Hope that helps anyone else who reads this :)