I found this story extremely depressing, but I think I liked it the best out of all the stories we have read in college lit. Yes, it is about a man getting hung in front of Yankees, but the story was rather good. I think it was written extremely well. When you first start reading it you wonder, what did this man do that was bad enough for him to be hung? As you read on, you find out that he even has a wife and children which makes you feel even worse for this poor man.
As you continue reading, the author tells of this man being hung meeting a Yankee soldier. The soldier informed this man and his wife that "the Yanks are repairing the railroad" and that, "any civilian caught interfering with the railroad, its bridges, tunnels or trains will be summarily hanged". I believe that this is the reason this man is in this situation. He was with the South and tried to interfere with the Yankes and this bridge.
When describing the actual act of when he was being hung, a very vivid image is put into your head. Then all of a sudden he hits the water. Although the men are shooting at him they keep missing! He is going to live! Then it arrives at the part where he is walking down the street to his house. I actually believed at first that he actually made it out of the Yankes' hands, however now I believe differently. I think that this man died at the hanging. He never even made it into the water. Those thoughts of escaping were his last before he died. He imagined them all as he was hanging there. He died just as he reached the gate to his home in his dream.
How freaking sad and depressing! However, I do like the writing style of Ambrose Bierce and this story was definitely one of my favorites.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
I also really liked the writing style and enjoyed the story. The imagery Bierce used was so vivid; the parts describing everything the character saw and heard in such clarity were cool. Like you, I believed he had made a death-defying escape at first. I mean, the main character in our last book turned into a giant bug, so I decided to go along with it. When I expected him to die was actually when the writer describes how tired he was after trudging through the forest. I was thinking, he made it through all that, and now he’ll die? It would have been ironic—he would’ve died because he escaped to live.
I also liked this story a lot, and i thought the exact same thing you did at first! I was so convinced he lived, untill we talked about it in class and realized that made a lot more sense! GOod job Kels!
Haha I COMPLETELY forgot we even read this story!! I looked at the title of your blog and I was like What the HECK is she writing about?!
Haha!! Well I too thought this story was quite depressing but I actually enjoyed it. I loved how the author was so vivid with his details. It made me feel bad for the man, and how unfortunate his death was (or was it?) It was a little mysterious because I didn't know at first if the way he was suddenly floating down the river was real or not.
Lovely Blog my lady! =)
I thought the story was pretty sad as well, but showed the reality of war. I think that Bierce actually might have experienced something like this having served as a federalist soldier during the civil war. It is also one of my favorite stories so far because of the interesting writing style.
i agree, this is one of my favorite stories so far as well. I was right there with ya on the him escaping. I thought it was quite ironic that he wanted it to happen and then it it. foolish me. good blog.
Post a Comment