Days of Heaven ending explained

What happens

Bill kills the farmer, and the three flee down the river. Police shoot Bill dead on the bank. Abby leaves Linda at a boarding school and goes off with a friend. Linda walks away alone along the railway tracks.

The last image

Linda walks off along the railway tracks, on her own at last, to make her own way.

What it says

The film ends as it began, in Linda's remembering. The fall from paradise has no moral verdict, only loss. The grown-ups' schemes burn out, and the child who watched it all quietly walks on.