My thinking question is, why do you think the Author goes into so much detail on Peyton's swim down the creek, his walk through the forest, and his journey down the road; yet the Author "kills" Peyton right before he could hug his wife?
Peyton's whole journey was taking him home and his last thoughts were of his family. "...By diving I could evade the bullets and, swimming vigorously, reach the bank, take to the woods and get away home. My home, thank God, is as yet outside their lines; my wife and little ones are still beyond the invader's farthest advance." Yet just as he was reaching home and about to hug his wife Ambrosh ends it with Peyton experiencing a stunning blow, blinding lights, booming sounds, and finally stating that Peyton was dead.
The whole story is very strange and confusing, I must say. I commented in Ryan's blog on something very similar to your thinking question. If you haven't read it, it says that Peyton could've fallen asleep before he was hanged and it just so happened that he fell through the bridge right before he could dream of hugging his wife. What do you guys think?
ReplyDeleteI can't make up my mind as to wither Peyton had a dream where all this happened or by using an analogy of his traveling home he was really traveling "home" to heaven. But neither of those ideas answer my question as to why it ended right there.
DeleteFrom what I know of several authors during this time period, he may have made such an abrupt and disappointing ending to infuriate his readers. Kinda like how Louisa May Alcott wrote a few things in Little Women that made her fans mad. That type of thing, but with Ambrose Bierce.
DeleteI don't necessarily think that Peyton fell asleep, but his thoughts were some form of dream.. he was unconscious for a time, though. Also, I didn't really think of it as him reaching Heaven when he "reached" his home in the story, so good thought! If you think of it that way, it actually kind of has a happy ending :) It would mean that once he arrived home and saw that his family was safe, he was also arriving to Heaven and realizing the fight for life wasn't worth living for compared to the alternative. However, I was reading other people's blogs, and they believe the theme of the story to be about the nature of time when you are faced with death and how Bierce was afraid of death because he was an unbeliever. So I'm really not sure what to think of all of it. Hope that wasn't way off topic :)
DeleteIt's interesting that both of you are wondering what was going on with Farquhar. Was he dreaming? Did he fall asleep? Anne wondered if he had a vision? Interesting questions to think about. I'll share my opinions in class :)And also my opinion of why the ending came as it did. Abrupt!
ReplyDeleteMy answer is that Peyton was dreaming about what he would do if he would have gotten free and before he could finish his dream he was hung.
ReplyDeleteDose that answer your question.
As for why Ambrose wrote Peyton's swim down the creek, his walk through the woods, and the journey on the road in such explicit detail, I think that Ambrose went into so much detail to make it seem like it was actually happening. But, however, I think he went into too much detail aand made it seem almost not real, which it wasn't after all. Does that answer your question?
ReplyDeleteMy question is not so much why Ambrose wrote all about Peyton's "journey" but more of why did Ambrose end the story right before Peyton could hug his wife. That seems more important than the whole journey since it was his family.
DeleteYeah, you're saying, why would he go into so much detail about the escape when it's all a hallucination and when the purpose of the escape disappears when he dies and is therefore unable to be reunited with his family? I'm not sure if what I mentioned in response to the other comments really answered your question or not or if this will either, but Jonathan did mention something on Ryan's blog that might be helpful about the timing of it. I agree with Terren that he wasn't able to finish his dream. I guess Peyton died before he could hug his wife, because hugging her would've indicated his struggles ending in life rather than through death.. and the author had to bring us back to reality somehow. I've been trying to figure out how to answer this question, but it's pretty hard so I don't really know the answer :)Hopefully this helps somewhat.
DeleteYeah, I like your view on it, Carli. It does make sense.
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