Themes and message

Loss

The main theme explored in Jan Carson’s short story “The World Ending in Fire” is grief and the tragic consequences it can have. This theme is represented through Mrs Agnew’s strange behavior that starts after her husband’s sudden death. 

After she loses her husband in a car bombing, Mrs Agnew becomes afraid that the world is going to end in fire. She tries to protect herself from this by living in a paddling pool in the middle of the living room and refusing to move. This delusion ultimately takes over her entire life.

This behavior is incomprehensible to the young narrator at first. However, looking back from an adult’s perspective she understands it was caused by Mrs Agnew’s loss and grief: “I was not yet old enough to understand loss; the way it coul...