I enjoyed both the test and the darkness out there, however I did prefer the tests ending because it was very unpredictable, it had a twist, and the whole story was gripping from start to finish. The darkness out there however had less drastic ending but was still powerful in its own way. I will demonstrate this in my essay by comparing the build up to both endings and the endings themselves. I will conclude on which ending I prefer and why. The tests is written in third person narrative and potrays the test of a lawyer, trying to proove a teenage boy innocent of stabbing one of his enemies.
When all the evidence is stacked against him. Throught the story the writter gives you the impression that the boy is guilty , for example ; one of the witnesses testifys that ” I seen the boy, the one over there, running away with a knife in his hand. ” This evidence is compiled with other hard evidence which gives the reader reason to believe that proving the boy innocent would be near impossible . The boy however is adamant that he didn’t commit the crime, and will not plead guilty even when he knows that pleading innocent could result in the death penalty.
Time passes in the courtroom and the prosecution councils case seems to get stronger and stronger until Vernon Wedge ( the lawyer) has the idea of an extremely sophisticated blood test which could mean life or death for the boy. There is then a drastic twist in the ending of the story. When Vernon is about to use the test as evidence in the courtroom the prosecution objects, and his evidence is impermissible, this however is what Vernon had predicted and the prosecutions objection sways the decision of he jury.
Vernon is still curious to know whether the boy is innocent or not, and wishes to go ahead with the test in his private chambers, just as he is about to commence the Father of the defendant cuts his own hand with the knife leaving he reader in an ambiguous state, and you are left draw your own conclusions. The darkness out there is a much more subtle story it tells the tale of young girl and her fears of a nearby spinney, called Packers End. Sandra and her friends have always feared the wood, whether it was beasts and witches or nazis and gypsies, they were always weary when passing it.
Sandra works for a home help club where adolescents are sent in pairs to attend the houses of the elderley and it so happens that on that day she was to visit a house which backed onto Packers End. The thought of this stirs up all the fears which she had once had. She and a boy named Kerry reached the house of the old woman and began to do chores, after a while they sit down for tea and biscuits and the sweet frail old woman tells them the story of the day the nazi plane crashed in Packers End .
The womans’ tone soon shifts to a wicked unremoriseful fiend as she explains how she and a friend found the crashed german plane with living casualty on board and did nothing to help him, as he cried in pain for over a day. This infuriates kerry and gives Sandra a new meaning to life . She learns that there is a darker side to every person and that nobody is good through and through. The two endings are very differnt but in some sences are alike. The test is compelling and almost energetic. It makes you intrested triggers acctive and deep thought as does the darkness out there.
Both of the stories also convey the message that things ane not always as hey seem. The darkness out there is much subtler, it plays on mental fears, rather than physical fears as the test does and uses much more discriptive writting than the test. Both storys leave their readers in a state of thought, the test because you are left to dicide the verdict (giulty or not-giulty), the darkness out there because the reader is left pondering on weather Sandras thoughts are intirely realistic or not.
After compairing the two endings and reading both storys I have dicided that I prefer the ending of the test. At first I did not feel satisfied after the story as it left me with no sence of compleation, but after reveiwing my thoughts I dicided that rather than be fustraed I should come to my own conclusion of the boys inocence, wich in my case was that he was giulty and the father was aware of this, which is what possessed him to cut his hand and prevent Vernon from knoring the truth.
After comming to this conclusion I felt much mors rewarded and forfilled by reading the story. The darkness out there was not compelling enough and did not have enough body to test my thought pattern. I prefer storys wich have quite puzzling endings which this story did not have.
