To Question an End,to End a Question: Opening the Closure of the Book of Jonah *

Abstract

The narrative of Jonah's story lacks closure, a sense of completion, a sense that nothing necessary has been omitted from the work. The book ends without a resolution to the major conflict of the narrative's plot. The reader experiences the greatest sense of closure at the end of the third chapter, with the fourth chapter, containing the final scene, re-opening the closure experienced by the reader. The lack of closure at the end of the narrative is a literary device used to involve the reader in the ideological conflict that propels the plot. The final scene blurs the narrative frame, defocalizing the internal world of the text, to focalize on the external world of the reader.