“Farquhar
dived—dived as deeply as he could. The water roared in his ears like the voice of Niagara , yet he heard the dulled thunder
of the volley and, rising again toward the surface, met shining bits of metal,
singularly flattened, oscillating slowly downward. Some of them touched him
on the face and hands, then fell away, continuing their descent. One lodged
between his collar and neck; it was uncomfortably warm and he snatched it out.
As he rose to the surface, gasping for breath, he saw that he had been a long time under water; he was perceptibly farther down stream nearer to safety. The soldiers had almost finished reloading; the metal ramrods flashed all at once in the sunshine as they were drawn from the barrels turned in the air, and thrust into their sockets. The two sentinels fired again, independently and ineffectually.” Chapter 3
I want
everyone to think about possible hints that Bierce gives us in this passage
& passages through-out the story that COULD prepare us for the ending IF we
are paying close attention! As he rose to the surface, gasping for breath, he saw that he had been a long time under water; he was perceptibly farther down stream nearer to safety. The soldiers had almost finished reloading; the metal ramrods flashed all at once in the sunshine as they were drawn from the barrels turned in the air, and thrust into their sockets. The two sentinels fired again, independently and ineffectually.” Chapter 3
In this passage, we are plunged into Bierce’s description of Farquhar’s initial escape – he was saved by the breaking of the noose & the plunge underneath the water – and now we see a plunge beneath the water saving him once again. Farquhar seems to miraculously evade death over & over again. He escapes harm from bullets in this passage, & later, manages to escape cannon fire, which seems a bit unrealistic to me. What do you think?
Did anyone notice that the speed of the bullets slows & that the shape of the metal changes? The metal is now flattened. Instead of striking Farquhar with force, Bierce’s words almost sound as if the bullets are caressing him. Are these clues for discerning readers? Are these things describing more distortions of Farquhar’s reality?
It IS true that the speed of a bullet slows when hitting water, because water is denser than air. Did you know that a replica Civil War rifle fired into water is fatal at a depth of 2 feet but not at 5 feet? How deep did Farquhar dive? We don’t really know, but it seems to me the description of the bullets could be one more hint that Farquhar is living a fantasy rather than experiencing reality at this point.
When Farquhar unrealistically escaped every little thing, it did throw me off but I did not catch on to the fact that this all was a dream. I was paying too much attention to whether he would make it or not. Even his escape, as a whole, went far past being narrow into being impossible.Bierce did such a great job of weaving the aspects of a dream into his story, without giving it all away.
ReplyDeleteI thought that maybe Farqhuar was dead, but I wasn't sure exactly where he died. Was it when he was shot at, or did he really get hung? I couldn't really figure it out. I also didn't catch that it was dream. I'm not really sure what I thought!! :) I think that it is very interesting that if Farquhar was under the water five feet down he could have survived all of the shots the being fired at him, but if he was three feet higher he would have been killed.
ReplyDeleteI certainly didn't think this deeply. I agree with Rebecca - I was definitely trying to figure out whether he lived or died, instead of figuring out the minute details. I guess this just goes to show how much you can glean from the small intricacies of a story when you take the time to consider the worth of every word.
ReplyDeleteAlso, this small font is saddening. It looks like I left behind hardly a comment at all. :D
ReplyDeleteI'm with Rebecca.. His escaping all those bullets certainly was unrealistic and a good hint that it was just a dream...( especially when he described the bullets as "oscillating slowly downward"... in reality, you would think they would be moving faster and with more force) however, when you're so wrapped up in the story of his escape, it is hard to pay attention to these details:)
ReplyDeleteWhen I read this, it did strike me as a bit strange and I re-read it. But I just assumed that he dove deep enough that the bullets flattened because of the water's resistance. It wasn't until he evaded the cannon that I realized it was all a fantasy.
ReplyDeleteHonestly I didn't recognize any of the clues because I was so in the story and hoping he would escape!:)
ReplyDeleteAhh, when I was reading this passage of the story, my sole concern was his making it home, and I was ignoring the tiny voice in my head that was telling me it was all too good to be true ((:. Thank you for pointing this out! I hadn't thought of that...
ReplyDelete