All because he accepted everything at last, accepted the carnival, the hills beyond, the people in the hills, Jim, Will, and above all himself and all of life, and, accepting, threw back his head for the second time tonight and showed his acceptance with sound.

Mr. Halloway destroys the Mirror Maze with a laugh. He is no longer worried about his age, and he is simply content with being a fifty-four year old janitor. Although such contentment may seem like nothing special, the strength that Charles Halloway gains from feeling at home in his own skin is the strength that allows him to defeat the carnival. He is immune to its threats because he does not desire the undesirable. He cannot be tempted into wanting to be what he is not, and so the carnival has nothing to offer him. Once the carnival has nothing to offer someone, then it loses all control over them, for all of its evils are based upon using people's desires to destroy them. Fully comfortable with himself, Charles Halloway is free to laugh at the carnival, and his laughter destroys it.