Comments by
Rachel Shocket
I don’t know why the filmmaker decided to include the part with the soldier taking Farquhar’s watch. I think it may have been a way to show that the ticking sound we heard was actually coming from the watch.
In this video clip, I like how the camera shows what Farquhar is looking at. It shows this by setting the scene, then cutting back to his face to show that his eyes were viewing that sight.
I was surprised by the horns in the opening of this video clip. It seems like the hanging was a quiet and hidden affair, and the fanfare seemed out of place.
In the film clip, it’s also interesting how the camera seems to slow down and wait for Farquhar after he falls. The camera had been backing up and zooming in on Farquhar up until that point, so when the camera stalls, it gives you a feeling of being in the scene yourself.
This video clip utilizes background music, which is hard to relate to a written story. It’s interesting how a filmmaker relies on auditory effects to create a tone, while an author relies on vivid, descriptive imagery.
Another aspect of the video clip is how the filmmaker has chosen to fill the frame. At times, the frame is wide and you can see many faceless soldiers. At other times, the camera cuts and the frame is zoomed-in and filled with Farquhar’s face. This technique shows that the identity of the main character is important, while the identity of the soldiers are unimportant.
Here the writing tense changes again- this time back to the past tense. It give closure and a sense of finality to the story.
Also, I’d like to mention that this paragraph is written in the historic present. Although the story takes place in the past, this passage is written in a present tense. It makes the reader get “caught” in the action of the story, and makes it feel like it is actually happening right at that moment.
The phrase “merely recovered from a delirium” acts as irony in this point of the story, since we are about to find out that Farquhar is in fact in a sort of delirium, but has yet to recover from it.
I like the use of alliteration in this paragraph- “fatigued, footsore, famished”. The alliteration supports the author’s purpose of describing Farquhar’s state of being- it’s almost as if he was too tired to include conjunctions in the writing.
Aeolus was the Greek god of wind. Here, “Aelolian harps” acts as both auditory imagery and a mythical allusion. It also reinforces how majestic the “enchanted spot” was for Farquhar.
Used in this context, “grape” refers to the “grapeshot”, an artillery ammunition consisting of a number of medium-sized iron balls.
I’m just surprised that Farquhar, who is just one sole man too old to fight against the Union, caused so much trouble that the Union would know about him and trick him into going to burn the bridge. Maybe the scout showing up at his house was just a coincidence, but the author makes it seems like it was a trap.
This is a clever way of informing the reader why Farquhar was being hanged at the beginning of the story. Instead of telling us outright, the reason is hidden in Part II of the story.
At this point in the story, we see some of the only true dialogue. You can see the direct way of speaking that both Farquhar and the soldier use- they are both all business.
I agree with the previous comments- when I read this paragraph, I wondered why the soldier was being so obvious. He definitely wants Farquhar to damage the Union building projects, but we are still unsure if he is asking for help, or trying to trick him into getting caught.
I think the most interesting phrase in this paragraph is that Mrs. Farquhar served the soldier with “her own white hands”. Oftentimes color imagery is used in stories to act as imagery (white = purity), but here I think it shows that the South was so important to the Farquhars, and the soldier so respected, that any old slave wasn’t worthy to serve him… Mrs. Farquhar reserved that honor for herself.
I agree with Soham- the story really does sort of circle back to a time in the past. Once again, this paragraph could have been the opening paragraph of the short story, but the background information on the main character would be less interesting as a beginning paragraph than the scene of a hanging. This paragraph finally allows the reader to feel connected to Farquhar, to see him as a real person, and to like him as a character in the story.
When I read this passage the first time in the story, I didn’t think it had much significance in the overall work. I only thought that it acted to increase the suspense. On second thought, I think the passage does work as foreshadowing for how Farquhar has increased sensory imagery in the rest of the story. How loudly he heard his watch relates to how strongly he felt his injuries and how closely he sees things in nature.
I think that this passage also introduces the first instance of Farquhar’s heightened senses. Throughout the story, he is able to see, hear, and feel things with unnatural intensity. In this instance, he comments that the stream was “racing madly”, yet he was able to see the driftwood following the “sluggish stream’s” slow current. The contradictory phrases make the reader realize something strange is going on.
Taking a look of some of the literary elements of this passage, it’s interesting to see how repetitive the author is here. The phrases “not a man moved”, “staring stonily”, “motionless”, “statues”, and “folded arms, silent, observing…” all work together to add visual imagery of the still scene and reinforce the author’s purpose of describing the formal deference of the men.
I think it was wise of the author to include this exposition at this point in the story. Had this been the first paragraph of the story, it may have been effective, but not as attention-grabbing as the actual beginning paragraph. By describing the character after describing the entire setting and situation, the reader gets the sense that the man may not be the most important part of the entire scene.
In this final paragraph of Part I, I think that the narrator brings the reader back to reality. We had become wrapped up in the story, especially in the direct thoughts of the previous paragraph, and now by saying “set down in words”, the reader once again becomes completely aware that he is reading a story.
This paragraph is also interesting because the focalization of the narrator first shifts. Previously, the reader knew of the man, knew of his appearance, and knew of what he saw and heard. Now, the narrator focuses on the man as a dynamic character and the reader discovers the man’s direct thoughts. In this short paragraph, the reader realizes the man is a quick thinker, brave, self-assured, perhaps religious, and loving.