Hiram McDowell's "deserved" end?

Use this forum to discuss the October Book of the Month "McDowell" by William H. Coles.
kdstrack
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Re: Hiram McDowell's "deserved" end?

Post by kdstrack »

I do not think Hiram "deserved" to be shot. He knew he was evading the law by the extraordinary steps he took to stay in hiding. The ending was not surprising.
Ashley Cremer
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Post by Ashley Cremer »

I truly hated the ending of the book. I felt that after all the redemption that McDowell had went through that he deserved a much better end. Maybe a quiet life with a few good friends at a cabin in the woods by a lake. I grew to love McDowell throughout part 2 of the novel and I wish that he could have met a less tragic end.
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Post by happynessc0 »

The ending made me sad. I think it would be awesome if he ended up in a hospital instead after being shot, then afterward, spend his life peacefully with his family.
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Post by María Andrea Fernández Sepúlveda »

My answer is probably make me seem like a cold and horrible human being but...
Ok, no, being objective he probably didn't deserve that kind of ending. However, I disliked Hiram so much from the beggining, that even if he redeemed himself, I was never able to feel much empathy for the character, so I didn't feel that sorry for him.
I know that sounds awful but it's how I experienced the book.
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Post by Davinasmith18 »

I did not think it was fair, but I think it made for a good finale to the story. I think the fact that he took the risk to go and save this woman made it harder to accept that his good deed led to his death.
It also goes to show that the author did a clever job of decriminializing McDowell throughout the book because I think I would have felt differently if he was a dangerous hard criminal on the loose.
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Post by Onyinye Excel »

I was disappointed with how he died. Infact I see a need for an investigation into his death. I don't trust that sheriff. I would have loved for him to get a second chance at life. I would have loved for his own side to be heard by the world while he was still alive. He wasn't a wicked man. Just a man who didn't know better.
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Post by P Reefer »

Hiriam's end was quite tragic and in no way deserved. I would have simply wished that he was never discovered and left to live his new low key life.
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Post by P Reefer »

LV2R wrote: 07 Oct 2018, 23:28 The ending actually made me almost cry because it didn't seem justified to shoot Hiram down like he was. We didn't get the actual scene of the gunning down of Hiram, but he was unarmed. The ending shows how the law and public might still be viewing Hiram as a murdered and a dangerous fugitive when many others did not see Hiram liked that at all.
I concur with these sentiments.
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Post by asere_maryanne »

He suddenly did not deserve to die the way he did. If he was unharmed, he wasn't that big of a threat, he could have been shot on the leg at least then be arrested, or just one bullet should have sufficed. I believe the sheriff was a sadist.
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Post by Radiant3 »

I did not appreciate the ending. It seemed inconsistent with the rest of the book.
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Post by Maria-Goretti Amarachi Okechi - Catherine »

In my own view, I would say that Hiram's death wasn't a deserving ending for him. For Christ sake, he was human, he had done many wrongs in his life time and he has come to repent from his bad ways. For me, I would say that he didn't deserve to die rather he was meant to be arrested and then his memoir and diary and the biography Paige was writing about him would have actually testified about his change. He would have continued living.
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Post by A G Darr »

I don't feel that his end was necessarily "deserved", but I most definitely saw it as poetic. Hiram spent his life blaming others for his misfortune, when his misfortune was actually him reaping what he had sown in his mistreatment of others. He became an actual victim of circumstance when, in the past, he had been the instrument of his own destruction.
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Post by ShailaSheshadri »

Absolutely no. I wanted a dignified death to McDowell. I never considered him as a bad guy. Though he showed a few shortcomings, there are many positive features to his character. He was an intelligent and honest surgeon. The circumstances would have forced him to take harsh decisions at times. But, he never destroyed any person or a family. He served the society as a surgeon and a philanthropist. He built a hospital in Nepal that treated poor patients. Even when roaming as a fugitive, he guided his children remotely and helped many people.
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Post by Hiruni Bhagya 81 »

I don't agree with the way Hiram met his end. Just when he was turning a new leaf and learning about the truth of life, he met an untimely death. It would have been better if he was given a chance at a new life away from his past.
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Post by edith38 »

I think the author went for the only possible ending, McDowell's death. Though the way he wrote it could have been better. For now, it reads as it aims to make a martyr out of him for a reader. There was very little heroic about Hiram. His one truly selfless act got him killed. Did he deserve this kind of ending? probably not. That's where the criticism for a society comes in. Wrongfully presenting partial or tilted info (calling an assisted suicide a shoot-on-sight murder) however is a different topic.
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