"He was now in full possession of his physical senses. They were, indeed, preternaturally keen and alert. Something in the awful disturbance of his organic system had so exalted and refined them that they made record of things never before perceived. He felt the ripples upon his face and heard their separate sounds as they struck. He looked at the forest on the bank of the stream, saw the individual trees, the leaves and the veining of each leaf—he saw the very insects upon them: the locusts, the brilliant-bodied flies, the gray spiders stretching their webs from twig to twig. He noted the prismatic colors in all the dewdrops upon a million blades of grass. The humming of the gnats that danced above the eddies of the stream, the beating of the dragon-flies’ wings, the strokes of the water spiders’ legs, like oars which had lifted their boat—all these made audible music. A fish slid along beneath his eyes and he heard the rush of its body parting the water" (Chapter 3)
I think it is interesting that Mr. Farhquar in this passage is taking in things that he never has before. His senses are on overload and it's as if has supernatural ability to see, hear and feel. After finishing the story and realizing that all of it was a dream, and that his mind was imagining all of these details before he actually was hung, I think its like he was almost in a trance. He knew he was about to die, and his body was taking it's last moments to feel and see while it still had time to experience life. Why do you think this was happening to him?
It makes me wonder if this is normal when people die. I'm curious if they see, smell, hear, and taste in a way that they never have before. But then, because it is all a dream, maybe it's just that the imagination experiences spectacular things before one dies. He is hoping to survive the hanging, and so his imagination is feeding into that hope.
Great comment, Ethan! We will talk about this subject in class. Do you think oxygen deprivation to Farhquar's brain had anything to do with his heightened senses? And were you surprised at the ending?
ReplyDeleteWell it said near the beginning of the quote "they made record of things never before perceived." He wanted to be a soldier and was very active so I doubt this was the first time he was in danger and it probably wasn't the first time he was wounded in some way. So it most likely had something to do with being about to die or simply because it was in his imagination.
ReplyDeleteThat's so interesting, I didn't pay much attention to his senses sharpening. So after some searching off the web I found out that oxygen deprivation definitely messes with you brain. When you are extremely deprived of oxygen you get deadly symptoms, and those symptoms consist of, ataxia, confusion, disorientation, and hallucinations. Its also really not good for your health so I would suggest not having a rope around your neck.
ReplyDeleteThat's a really good point, Brooke. It almost seems like oxygen deprivation would severely dull his senses, rather than sharpening them, between the disorientation and hallucination. It makes me wonder how much of the observations made by his "heightened senses" are actually real, and how many are hallucinations or otherwise warped views of reality.
DeleteHopefully, a discussion of Farquhar's crime will happen on Justin's blog in response to my question :) So to follow that here on Ethan's blog, do you all think Farquhar's punishment was fair & just?
ReplyDeleteThat is a really tricky question. I think that, in the context of war, hanging as punishment for interfering with a military operation is understandable. In addition, Peyton knew exactly what he was getting himself into. He heard from the soldier what the punishment would be for any civilian caught interfering with the railroad, etc., yet he went ahead with his plan to do just that. While I might not use the words fair or just to describe a hanging of any kind, I agree that in this situation, the Union soldiers were right in carrying it out.
DeleteI would need more information about Farquhar's actions in the war before this to really make an opinion. If he had been helping out the south a lot and the Unionists wanted him out of the way it makes sense what they did. On the other hand he was a civilian and they sought him out and tricked him into doing an impossible task, even though they warned him that the punishment was hanging I don't think this was right.
DeleteWell yes I agree but wasn't he tricked into destroying it? And then he was caught for meddling around the bridge. So did they at least listen to his story?
ReplyDelete