We didn’t have time to delve too deeply into it in class, so I wanted to write my thoughts on The Glass Key‘s ending here. Given its open-ended nature, there are numerous plausible interpretations. Here’s what I came away with:
It seems to me that the “open door” at the end of the book is a reference to Janet’s nightmare about the snakes in the cabin. If you recall, Janet tells Ned about a dream/nightmare she had about the two of them at a snake-filled cabin in the woods. In her initial account, she said that she and Ned were able to lure the snakes out of the cabin and take refuge in it. Ned accuses her of making it up. Janet tells him that he’s only partially right.
Finally, at the beginning of the final section of the book, Janet tells Ned what really happened in her dream: having shattered the glass key while unlocking the door, they were unable to keep the snakes inside and they slithered out all over them.
How does this relate to the “open door” that Ned Beaumont stares at fixedly in the last sentence of the book? Well, in betraying Madvig (who leaves the apartment a shattered man), Ned has cast off the power, influence, and protection that came with being associated with him. Ned no longer has refuge against his gambling addiction, the police, his enemies in the criminal underworld, or even Madvig himself — the snakes on the other side of the door.
It’ll be interesting to read what others thought of it.