It isn't, I removed it from the list. Thanks for pointing that out.
Edited by Dark830
book ends are not the same thing as callbacks and a fair number of the examples are NOT bookends.
A callback is a reference back to something that came before. Which is what like 99% of the examples of bookends are.
Bookends are bits of story that begin and end the main one. It could be Grandpa opening the book to tell the tale and then closing it when he's done. It could be a narrator starting a voice over and then we go to a huge flashback of the real story and then back to 'now' where the narrator wraps it up. Sometimes there are mini bookends in the middle that bring us back to 'the present' to drive the story, often not. Princess Bride and Stand by Me are examples of true bookends.
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Book ends are a specific type of call back where something at the very beginning of the story is referenced at the very end. For example, the story starts with someone reading a newspaper, and ends with someone also reading a newspaper (bonus points if it's the exact same person in the exact same location). The reason why it's a book end and not a call back is because it's something that happens at the end that references the beginning.
Would a legitimate musical bookend include the way that the First Night Of The Proms (BBC Proms 2012) is winding up with Elgar's Coronation Ode, the ending of which is "Land of Hope and Glory", and this is usually the last thing belted out by audience and company alike at the Last Night?
The question of etymology is really killing me (and google is no help, since "bookends" turn out to be 2 different things related to books. One helps you read a book without having to hold it, the other holds the books upright on your shelf (without having to read them :-) ) it's interesting in it's own right, but beside the point.) How did the word "book end" come to denote this, uh... trope? It doesn't even seem to be confined to books- if anything it's more prominent in visual media!
Edited by a1s Hide / Show Replies
Because it symbolizes the book literally ending. The book begins with opening the cover, and it ends with closing the cover.
I think that this is a good trope allowing to put examples of JUST this in here. But this is really the arc device, if you look from the literary scholar's perspective. (Judging from the examples).
It's just the ultimate arc, the most conspicuous of them all - the one that connects the very beginning to the very end. Either it must be connected to Arc Words, or described as a variation of arcwords trope, i think.
After discussion on Ask the Tropers
, the proper spelling for this trope has been confirmed as "Bookends". Please correct any instance of "Book Ends" or Book-Ends" you may find.