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Question # 1
1. This creates suspense because there is a lot of unknown which makes the reader want to know why he is being hung.Ê
It allows the reader to imagine the best and the worse outcome of his perdicimate, and make their thoughts a reality.Ê The
details that are given make the reader suspect that he is not a common criminal but just a normal man, but we don't know why
he is there.
Question # 2
Before the condemned man is hanged he thinks about his wife and children.Ê He also observes that there is a river down
below him.Ê He thinks there might be a way to escape.Ê His distorted perceptions are important because what he thinks of before
he gets hanged is what he believes is happening while he is hanged.Ê While he is falling toÊhis death heÊbelives that he is
getting away from the people and getting toÊsafety with his wife and kids.Ê In reality he is justÊbeing hanged but his time
and motionÊareÊcompletly distorted.Ê
Question # 3
3. The narratorÕs attitude towards Farquhar is that he is not very heroic or successful. The first time Farquhar tries
to get involved into the war and be a hero he fails and gets hung. The narratorÕs attitude towards the war, however, is that
anything is fair in love and war. So basically the war is nothing to just mess around with, you can just be in the war, you
have to be committed to it and be willing to die for your country. In FarquharÕs mind war is all just fun and games, and an
easy way to become a hero. The reality of it doesnÕt hit him until he is getting hung.
Question # 4
The irony of Farquhar longing to be a Òlarger then life soldierÓ is that the time he tries to be a larger then life soldier
he is captured by the Union army for trying to burn the bridge. He is then taken to the train tracks by the Union army and
hung. Farquhar wants to be a hero, be a soldier of the Confederate army. The difference is what he sees in his head and what
real life is. He thinks that the plight of the Confederate army is a glorious battle for freedom from tyranny. But really
it is bloody and brutal, and his reality check is to late for him top be saved from a gruesome grave. Also his motto of ÒAll
is fair in love and warÓ, comes back to bite him in the butt. This motto is true, but he did not take it to heart, he just
saw what he wanted in his head. By not weighing the risks and just wanting to be a soldier he hurries away to a doomed fate
with not a care in the world, and ready for the Confederates to renown him as a hero.
Question # 5
ÊThat after he fell he came back to life, also that he said that the river was swift flowing but when he hit it he was
able to swim out.Ê Also how his hands were trying to take off the noose with out him even doing it like a spectator watching
a juggler.Ê Then when he was spinning in the vortex he was actually spinning at the bottom of the rope.Ê When he looked up
at the stars and they were all shifting he was lousing conscious.Ê Then when he skipped to the house with his wife and kids
was the final clue, and then he was dead.
Question # 6
6.His thoughts and sensations are unrealistic because during the story he gives many hints that the things he is saying
are not happening. In the beginning of part 3 in the story it says that Farquhar drops under the bridge and passes out; left
for dead. After, that happens he then begins to imagine all the things he does think about but it proves that there not true
because he has already passed out and not come too yet. Then, he starts seeing stuff and noticing things that he would not
be able to see, such as a soldiers grey eyes and the veins in the leaves. ??
Question # 7
7.Before the condemned man is hanged he thinks about his wife and children.Ê He also observes that there is a river down
below him.Ê He thinks there might be a way to escape.Ê His distorted perceptions are important because what he thinks of before
he gets hanged is what he believes is happening while he is hanged.Ê While he is falling toÊhis death heÊbelives that he is
getting away from the people and getting toÊsafety with his wife and kids.Ê In reality he is justÊbeing hanged but his time
and motion isÊcompletly distorted.
Question # 8
8. How does BierceÕs use of flashback contribute to the effectiveness of the story?
The information from the flashback being told in the second part helps create suspense for the reader during the first
part, where Farquhar is being hung, and causes you to be curious of what is happening to him.Ê He creates a suspense during
the first scene, and also adds an interesting twist into the description of him, as you are trying to figure out what he did
that made it so that he was going to be hung by the Northern Army.Ê The flashback is also used to split the parts where he
is being hung, and is still in tact with reality, and the part where he is in a dream where he breaks loose and gets away
from the army and sees his family.
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