The End of the Road

John Barth’s The End of the Road repeatedly invokes Laocoön as an image of suffering, entanglement, and paralysis.

The placement of the name “Laocoön” is structurally significant. In one passage it appears as the final word, giving the classical reference unusual weight. Later, Rennie herself is compared to Laocoön.

Rennie’s predicament can also be understood through Barth’s idea of cosmopsis. She cannot return to Joe, but she cannot continue with Jake. Both available choices are unbearable, and suicide appears within the novel as the imagined escape from an impossible structure.

The Laocoön image may therefore function not merely as decoration but as a structural emblem for the novel.