Are you surprised by the story’s conclusion? Can you find hints along theway that Farquhar’s escape is an illusion? At what point in the story does the illusion begin?
What will be an ideal response?
- Bierce lays in enough hints to make most readers accept the surprise ending, though they may want to reread the story just to make sure. In paragraph 5, though Farquhar makes a conscious effort to think about his wife and children, he has already begun to experience an alteration in his sense of time. Recall the old general belief that at the moment of death we see our whole lives pass by again in a flash. As soon as an escape plot forms in Farquhar’s mind (par. 6), the sergeant moves off the plank and the noose tightens around the doomed man’s neck. Since we know from the ending that the rope does not break, what happens to Farquhar after the flashback (par. 8–17)—except for the physical sensations of hanging—has to be a fast-moving hallucination in the mind of a dying man.
Bierce has planted clues that this is so. With “superhuman” effort Farquhar manages to free his bound hands. His senses are “preternaturally keen and alert” (par. 20). His ability to dodge all the bullets fired at him seems miraculous. The forest through which he walks is unfamiliar and menacing; the stars above him are “grouped in strange constellations”; he hears “whispers in an unknown tongue” (par. 34). Soon “he could no longer feel the roadway beneath his feet” (par. 35). His wife greets him with “a smile of ineffable joy” (par. 36)—then he is dead.
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VII. ComposiciónUd. está buscando un nuevo banco para guardar su dinero. Piense en los servicios que usted necesita y pregúntele al gerente en una carta si su banco ofrece esos servicios. Pida el menos diez servicios distintos.
What will be an ideal response?
Where can you find a context clue in your reading?
a. In the rest of the sentence and the paragraph in which the unfamiliar word appears. b. In the surrounding words and sentences. c. In the introduction to the chapter d. a and b
An appendix
A. is essentially a part of the B category in the ABC format B. targets the needs of specific audience members but not necessarily all of them C. is placed last in a report D. all of the above
_____________________________ the area or region near or about a place;surrounding district; neighborhood
Fill in the blank(s) with correct word