Transcript Stephen Crane and Ambrose Bierce

 According
to the color of candy that you
received, please gather in groups.
 You
will be discussing the question that
corresponds to your group number.
 Please
thoroughly discuss your answer to
the question, digging deep into the
significance of the text, and how language
and message are working.
 Your
group will present your question and
answer to the class—please be prepared to
answer questions, and defend your
opinions.
1. There is a lot of “rank” in this story, but the hero
is a private. Do you believe this is significant in
any way?
2. What point, if any, can you see in the image of the
white linen trousers of the men of the battery?
3. Is there heroism in Collin’s behavior—in the
fetching of the water, or his return to the
wounded officer?
4. The ending of the story is ambiguous—what do
you think happened?
5. What significance do you read into the empty
bucket?
 Reaction?
surprise?
Did the ending take you by
 Did
you catch onto any clues as you
were reading that hinted that all was not
as it seemed? (The story is packed with
them…but sometimes it takes a second
reading to really catch on!)
 The
story is divided into three parts—
broadly, what occurred in each part?
Read the following description
of Peyton Farquhar from
section two, and on a clean
sheet of paper, record what
you learn about him from this
(both factually, and
inferentially).
“Circumstances of an imperious nature, which it is
unnecessary to relate here, had prevented him
from taking service with the gallant army…and
he chafed under the inglorious restraint, longing
for the release of his energies, the larger life of
the soldier, the opportunity for distinction. That
opportunity, he felt, would come, as it comes to
all in wartime. Meanwhile, he did what he could.
No service was too humble…no adventure too
perilous for him to undertake if consistent with
the character of a civilian who was at heart a
soldier, and who in good faith had without too
much qualification assented to at least a part of
the frankly villainous dictum that all is fair in
love and war.”
 Desperate
to contribute to the Southern
cause and prove his devotion
 Determined to achieve distinction, he is
vulnerable to the trap set for him
 Unprepared and foolish, allows his desire for
renown to lead him right into his captors’
hands
 Placed his own motives ahead of his
responsibility to his family
 Exhibits a damning gap between his true
character and inflated perception of his
abilities and role in the world
 Please
grab a buddy for the next few
questions
 You’ll
discuss the questions, then each
record your own answers on your own
paper
 You’ll
connect in beautiful ways and forge
a deep and lasting friendship
There is another “gap” in the story that mirrors
the gap between who Farquhar actually is, and
who he would like to be. What is it?
The fantasized escape that runs counter to the actual
execution in the story mirrors the gap between who
Farquhar actually is and who he would like to be. In
his world of illusion, he is able to outwit his captors
and make it back to the family fold—whereas the
reality of his situation is much more grim. Farquhar’s
overindulgence of fantasy in both his image of
himself and his reimagining of his fate ultimately
undoes him. He cannot realize his desires in the real
world, and at the end of his life, he is prey to the
same delusions and misinterpretations that led him
to the gallows to begin with.
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“A piece of dancing driftwood caught his attention and his
eyes followed it down the current. How slowly it appeared to
move! What a sluggish stream!”
“The intervals of silence grew progressively longer; the
delays became maddening. With their greater infrequency
the sounds increased in strength and sharpness…what he
heard was the ticking of his watch.”
“As these thoughts, which have here to be set down in
words, were flashed into the doomed man’s brain rather
than evolved from it the captain nodded to the sergeant.”
“From this state he was awakened—ages later, it seemed to
him—by the pain of a sharp pressure upon his throat…”
“Then all at once, with terrible suddenness, the light about
him shot upward…”
“in a moment the visible world seemed to wheel slowly
around…”
“gasping for breath, he saw that he had been a long time
under water…”
“All that day he traveled…”
“He must have traveled the entire night…”
If “the fluidity of time” is a theme of this
story, what do you see supports this?
What events in the story, what in the
story’s structure, bears this claim out?
 The
story’s structure, which moves from the
present to the past to what is revealed to be
the imagined present, reflects this fluidity.
 The
second section interrupts what at first
appears to be the continuous flow of the
execution taking place in the present
moment.
 Poised
on the edge of the bridge, Farquhar
closes his eyes, a signal of his slipping into
his own version of reality, one that is
unburdened by any responsibility to laws of
time. As the ticking of his watch slows and
more time elapses between the strokes, he
drifts into a timeless realm.
 In
the brief window of time between the
officer stepping off the plank and Farquhar’s
actual death, time slows and alters to
accommodate a comforting vision of
Farquhar’s safe return to his family.
If “the blurred line between reality and illusion” is a
theme, what evidence in the story supports this?



Farquhar creates his fantasy world out of desperation:
he is about to die, and imagining his escape is a way of
regaining control over the facts of his current state
This hybrid world of the real and fantastic is mirrored
in the figure of the Northern scout; he projects one
version of the truth while embodying another
By the time the fantasy world of the third section is in
full swing, Farquhar’s illusion has, for both him and
reader, become reality. Yet just as his belief that the
Northern scout is indeed a Confederate soldier leads
him to execution, his belief that he is escaping can
have but one outcome: the reality of his death.
We see the color gray
referenced throughout this
story…what might be the
significance of that color
choice?
 Please
collect the practice assessment
handout.
 Kindly
construct a thesis and compose a
thorough and in-depth literary analysis
(remembering all that we covered on
Wednesday!)
 If
you would like to deviate from the structure
provided, you are welcome to do so! Just text
me your idea, and I’ll provide feedback as
soon as I’m able. (Texts after 8:30 at night will
be ignored, and will make me resent you.
Yeah.)