Why don't authors ever kill main characters at the end of their stories?

Question

I know it happens sometimes but with both Twilight and Harry Potter I expected some important people to die. I dunno,but I always thought Harry would die. And with Twilight I thought Edward would die.Why not?

Answer 1

They do.  You don't usually hear of it, though, until you read the book -- people don't tell you, because it would spoil it!

Answer 2

they want that character to be in later books or something or they dont want to dissapoit you

Answer 3

You read the wrong books. Certain authors are only interested in producing series like on an assembly line. They won´t risk their heroes.

*SPOILERS ahead*

Many good authors let the main character die. "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy, "Fatherland" by Robert Harris, "The Human Stain" by Phillipe Roth, "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde, "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote, "The Godfather" by Mario Puzo or even "All Quiet on the Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque come to my mind.

And these are all excellent novels.

Answer 4

Have you ever read the Picture of Dorian Gray? Even in the Lord of the Rings, Tolkien tossed Gollum, and sent Gandalf, Frodo, Galadriel, and Elrond to the Gray Havens.

Answer 5

they do- read the Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki

Answer 6

It makes the readers mad then they won't read more of your books.  They get emotionally vested in these fictional characters and blame the author for killing them.

Answer 7

You've heard of Romeo and Juliet, right?

Answer 8

yeah when harry potter did die i was like WOW!!!! and then he came back to life i thought that was a bit silly.

In the Wicker Man (nic cage movie) the main character dies... really unexpected, your waiting for him to escape at the last second and then your like woah!

Answer 9

i dont want to give anything away because now you'll be expecting a main character to die but read The World According to Garp. it is soooooo good, i swear, it literally changed my life.

Answer 10

Why would they? I mean especially in Harry Potter, why let the bad guy win? They kill off a lot of main characters though, Like Snape and Sirius, Dumbledore, and Lupin and Tonks, to name a very very few...