How Does When The Cranes Fly South End?

Question

I'm at the climax now, but the webnovel's ambiguous finale has me overthinking every symbol. Does their final choice mean separation or hope after the journey south?

Rachel Sutjiono · Answer

The final chapters of the series have not yet been uploaded by the author so there is currently no official ending to the story. This is how I’m feeling right now and it’s really frustrating because I was completely invested in the story and it just stops. The central hook of ‘Beneath the Immortal Sky: A Heart Left Burning’ is the female protagonist who is trapped in a centuries-long cycle, desperately searching for the end of her own cursed story. It’s a premise that builds anticipation of closure to an almost painful degree.

Jack · Answer

I really appreciate how When the Cranes Fly South ended. The cranes, whom we had come to associate with freedom and with exile, complete their annual migration and find their way to their seasonal home. But the protagonist does not. Instead, the protagonist is left alone to watch the cranes disappear into the distance, realizing that their journey is not to a place but rather along a path. The writing is very sparse in the ending, almost haiku-like in its evocative power and in its refusal to explain further than that.

It’s interesting that the story uses ‘south’ in two different ways: literally for the cranes, and metaphorically for the main character. I really appreciate that the story doesn’t provide any answers to the questions that it poses, because that’s really rare. It’s also really respect for the reader’s intelligence that it leaves them with so many questions. I lent this to a friend and we had a really long conversation about whether the main character is still or content at the end of the book. It was a really great conversation and I think it’s really the mark of a great ending to a book.

Jessica Rutkoski · Answer

I realize I care more about the journey of the book than the ending. The scene in the ghost-forest was amazing as was the scene on the raft. The end was fine but the middle of the book is where all the good stuff is. The characters fight to survive together. There are lots of betrayals but also unexpected alliances. The end of the book was like turning off a light. It was necessary but not really memorable.

Cooper · Answer

The ending of 'When the Cranes Fly South' is hauntingly beautiful. Instead of a huge climax and exciting ending to the physical journey and internal struggles of the main character, the ending is a calm moment of observation. When the main character and the rest of the cranes finally complete their huge migration, the main character comes to a stop, having been searching for so long for some kind of answer. What he finds is not the answer he was searching for in the form of a huge epiphany, but a new way of looking at things. The fact that not every journey is going to end up exactly where we had hoped to be was the message he received. The last shot of the film is of the main character alone, unchanged but rooted in a new way. The image of the cranes disappearing into the distance stuck with me for days. It’s so true to life: unresolve and beautiful.

Zane · Answer

This story is just SO DEEP, man. 'When the Cranes Fly South' reached a bittersweet close to the tale of migration, of finding home, of belonging. It was so nice to follow the protag through all of his physically and emotionally grueling journeys, and then – finally! – arrive at his destination. Although the whole story followed the flight of the cranes, in the end it was really the protag who learned to accept change, to let go, and to find peace in the quiet, forsaken landscape. I feel so inspired, staring up at the ceiling of my room hours after finishing, this profound and melancholy story wandering through my mind like some sad song.

It was also really poignant that the protagonist didn’t get to return to his home or find a new home in the end. Instead he came to realize that some journeys are not meant to have an end and that sometimes change is just transition. The ending was a really quiet realization by the protagonist of life’s impermanence. And the way that was conveyed at the end was really powerful. The last line or so of the story was ‘the sky swallowed them whole’. I’ve gone back and read that a number of times since finishing the story, and each time I seem to find new layers of symbolism in it. It’s a very patient and rewarding story.

Ellen Difuntorum · Answer

It is a beautiful study in thematic payoff. Each motif in the first chapter is expertly drawn out to develop in full by the third chapter. The yearly migrations of the cranes as a never-ending, unsatisfying cycle; the decay of the “promised land”’s underpinnings; the buried weight of the Hero’s guilt and fear. And in the end, the Hero comes to a place where he makes a choice that reverses the typical trajectory of the Hero’s journey: instead of coming back to his society and sharing his newfound wisdom with it, he turns on it instead, recognizing it as the source of all the corruption in the world. The last image we are left with is of the Hero out in the wilderness of Canada, alone, watching the cranes in a new and different light. The Hero finds freedom not by arriving at a destination, but by realizing that the journey itself was the trap. A rich and satisfying conclusion for those able to follow the author’s various motifs, but a confounding and disappointing end to a potentially great adventure story for those who don’t.

Jaide Sammut · Answer

The plot of seeking ends and is replaced by the practice of dwelling in this final section. Every action of Aris’ – helping to mend a fence of a farmer, learning the names of local plants, studying the weather – becomes a means of being in the place, a practice of dwelling. This is a very different ending to The Story of Many as a plot-driven narrative than it would be as a character- and theme-driven novel. While as a plot-driven story this is the point at which the engine runs out of gas, as a character- and theme-driven novel this is the point at which the engine is transformed into a garden.

CeeCee · Answer

I kind of wrote a really long analysis of the ending of The Prisoner on a fan forum. Basically, the cranes fly south, then north, then south again. The story starts with a protagonist who leaves a burned village, and ends with a protagonist who is founding a very small village. The last chapter of the book describes a landscape which mirrors the description of the landscape in the prologue, but with certain key differences that show growth through decay. Instead of a tree that was stricken by lightning being dead, it's now nourishing new moss. It's not a happy ending, but it's generative. The protagonist of the book becomes part of the ecosystem's cycle, rather than trying to conquer it. If you read it looking for plot resolution, you'll be confused. But if you read it as a tone poem about human resilience within the cycles of nature, it's really beautiful.

How Does When The Cranes Fly South End?

8 Answers

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