"As Peyton Fahrquhar fell straight downward through the bridge he lost consciousness and was as one already dead."
I believe this quote to be the most important in the story because it's stated right before the explanations of
everything that Peyton sees. Everything seems so real to not only Peyton, but also the reader. The nature
he sees creates a perfect image in our minds. The trees are lush and the water is crisp.
He's hallucinating something that is almost like heaven. He's safe and where he wants to be. Right before
he embraced his wife, reality hit and he felt a blow to his back. His mind went black. I wonder if the
reason why he saw his wife but not his kids in his hallucination is because his wife is dead.
I would have to say that I was definitely fooled into believing that the hallucination was true and was surprised by the sudden death. Also when I read the last sentence of your blog Summer, the audible words of "Uhhhh NO!" Because that thought never crossed my mind but could definitely be true. Although you could also assume that Peyton loved his wife much more then his children and that's why he imagined her. If Peyton was rich, then he probably would have rarely seen his children and perhaps didn't care much about them.
ReplyDeleteInteresting question, Summer. So why do you guys think we ignore the clues that Bierce leaves us that all is not as it seems?
ReplyDeleteI think I believed it because Bierce doesn't specifically say when it goes from reality to day dream/imagination. So even when I thought it was weird or odd I still said to myself "I guess that is just the way it is." So I just didn't doubt anything Bierce really wrote.
ReplyDeleteI thought that something was off when he managed to break free from his bonds. Also the chance of surviving all of the gunshots and the cannon fire would have been very low. I know that muskets were very inaccurate, but when you have more than 10 of them shooting at you, the chances of you dodging all of them is highly unlikely.
ReplyDeleteThat is very true, but they all fired at the same time which raises your chance of survival. Cannons are actually pretty accurate which makes them a war machine that you do not want to tangle with. Experienced artillerymen can fire a cannon 3-5 times a minute. That is not good for Farquhar. You cannot dodge 15 muskets and a cannon for 10 min. Good point, I like it.
ReplyDeleteImagine trying to dodge cannonballs that that are fired in your direction every 12 seconds while each cannonball is going at speed of over 100 mph. Who thinks they can do that for 2-3 min? How about 10 minutes?
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