I absolutely love the ending to this story. The ending's interpretation is reflective of the beliefs of the reader and thus the ending is less an ending thought to the story and more an inquirey into the reader. The reader becomes the focus instead of whatever is in the story.
Here is how it works:
There are three interpretations.
You can interpret that the protagonist rescues the man just before he heaves over the edge, and this is most reflective of people who believe that everything will work out in the end and there will always be someone there to save you (a romantic). These people can use the abruptiveness at the end as their defense since this indicates an interuption to the man's action--which could only be the protagonist saving him since the protagonist is the only (besides the angel who is not going to do anything) person to know of the man's actions/objective. This is actually very weak as you do not know what the interuption is--what happens next. If this interpretation is true then it would completely turn the rest of the story on its head. In fact this is misleading for those who are seeking a happy ending so that they think there is one. Now I did say "this is MOST reflective" since this is not all people. For a minority that see this option they might see the little indication that I gave just before--a switch in perspective. That is, at first I am describing the man's actions as being seen by the protagonist (this would be on the screen) and, shortly before the end, stop refering to the man's actions as being seen and simply saying they are happening. This could be indicatory that the protagonist is no longer watching the screen and is most likely racing to save the man. A far more reliable and solid reasoning behind the ending and now totally valid (not misleading). This is the second, and least likely, interpretation.
Just like the second interpretation you can validate that the protagonist does indeed race to save the man, but you can also realize the (sad but real) possiblility that the protagonist does not make it and sees the man heave himself over the edge (a realist). This interpretation is a step up as it still realizes that we do not actually know what happens, just that the man's action was interupted. This still reflects the belief that there are people around to save you, but shows the understanding of reality that not everyone is saved. There are people that go through life and do not have a knight in shinning armour so to speak. This interpretation also, unlike the second, follows suit with the rest of the story since the story is really about the man full of despair. If so much of the story is building a sense of despair then is it not only natural that the ending is also despair? Thus the whole story stays consistently talking about despair; and what better despair is there then to see someone essentially committ suicide (or the alternate to hell when he is rejected) in the afterlife in frount of your eyes? This is the third interpretation.
Now there are only the slightest and quite sudtle hints that the protagonist chased after the man. In reality most people would miss all of that and so the most obvious interpretation is that the man simply heaves himself over the edge. This is what the story is leading up to and what the story strongly indicates will happen. You are given clues such as the angel telling you were the man is going and what his intention is. There are many people in real life who demonstrate this belief quite effectively; loners who complain the world is against them and so many examples of dreary events that are covered as most news articles. This is that there is no hope in the world and we are all doomed. Extreme examples, though this is vaguely so as I am not saying this with any mean intentions and with the realization that it is less true then it is more true, are atheists since if there is no hope then there is no heaven et cetera. If they may be atheists then this is ironic because of the direct mentions of heaven and hell in the story itself. There are countless people who have, sadly, committed suicide because they lost hope and nobody saved them. This is the first, and most likely to be seen, interpretation.
Now, although I say what the interpretation is indicating I do realize that this will not be true for everyone--but never automatically assume you are the exception. Also I do realized that although I said there are three interpretations there could very well be more and I just have not thought of them; but be wary, most interpretations are not exactly (word for word) the ones a specified but along the same lines.
Enjoy the rest of your short life and I hope you get to go to heaven!
