The Cabin at the End of the World

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-2

Part 2, Chapters 3-4

Part 3, Chapters 5-6

Part 4, Chapter 7

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Part 4, Chapter 7Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 4: “This is the End”

Part 4, Chapter 7 Summary: “Andrew and Eric”

Content Warning: This section of the guide features death by suicide.

Sabrina pulls a white mask over Leonard’s face. She insists on helping Andrew and Eric find the truck keys, after which she says they can abandon her or take her to the police. Andrew reluctantly agrees, tying Sabrina’s hands behind her back. Carrying Wen’s body, Eric privately considers walking into the lake until he drowns.

Andrew and Eric agree that the SUV is undrivable. Andrew reloads the gun but promises to throw the weapon away once they’re safe. Eric admits that he fears Leonard’s prophecies are accurate. Andrew points out that the group’s references to falling skies were deliberately vague and could be interpreted in many ways. He also suggests that if Leonard’s death caused the air disasters, they wouldn’t have been reported on the news so quickly.

Storm clouds gather and rain falls as Eric, Andrew, and Sabrina walk away from the cabin. Eric interprets the unusually dark sky and rumble of thunder as signs of the end of the world. Sabrina breaks into a run, and the rope falls from her hands. Andrew points his gun at her but doesn’t shoot. She appears to be arguing with herself as she turns over a large rock and pulls a drawstring bag from the earth. She throws Andrew the truck keys and tells them that the vehicle is a mile down the road. Feeling inside the bag, she takes out a gun and pulls a white mask over her face. Before shooting herself, she tells Eric that he still has a chance to save humanity. Eric picks up Sabrina’s weapon, intending to shoot himself. However, Andrew grabs the gun’s barrel and points it at his own chest, insisting that if one of them is to die, it’ll be him. Andrew argues that if a divine force requires a sacrifice from them, that God isn’t worth placating. Eric drops the gun, and they agree to go on together.

Part 4, Chapter 7 Analysis

In the final chapter, the novel shifts to an unusual first-person plural point of view, as evident from the statement that “even after we walk out the front door, part of us will be trapped in the cabin and these positions forever” (243). The author’s use of “we” encompasses Andrew, Eric, and Tremblay’s readers, whom he intends to feel as if they’ve shared the protagonists’ traumatic experiences.

Andrew and Eric emerge from the claustrophobic environment of the cabin with physical and emotional scars. By presenting Eric carrying Wen’s body, the author provides a physical reminder of their burden of loss. Tremblay again uses the symbol of the grasshopper jar—this time to convey the uncertainty of the characters’ future. Lacking a view of the wider landscape, the front yard is metaphorically described as “the bottom of a grasshopper jar” (245). It provides no clues about what the world may look like beyond its confines.

Sabrina’s erratic behavior and unexpected acquisition of a buried gun create a final peak of suspense. The introduction of a second gun suggests that Andrew and Eric’s lives may be further devastated by violence. In a prolonged moment of tension, the text conveys uncertainty about whether Sabrina intends to kill the couple and whether Eric will succumb to the impulse to sacrifice himself. While Andrew and Eric ultimately survive, the text retains its ambiguity to the end, given that the ominous shade of the sky and the rumblings that sound “like the earth dying” could be signs of an apocalypse or simply a storm (264). The final line, “We will go on” (264), ends the novel on a note of subdued hope. Uncertain of the fate of humanity, Andrew and Eric place their trust in each other. The strength of their love transcends the fear and doubt that permeates the narrative.