LINE ILLUMINATOR
"Farquhar dived—dived as deeply as he could. The water roared in his ears like the voice of Niagara, yet he heard the dull thunder of the volley and, rising again toward the surface, met shining bits of metal, singularly flattened, oscillating slowly downward. Some of them touched him on the face and hands, then fell away, continuing their descent. One lodged between his collar and neck; it was uncomfortably warm and he snatched it out.
As he rose to the surface, gasping for breath, he saw that he had been a long time under water; he was perceptibly farther downstream—nearer to safety. The soldiers had almost finished reloading; the metal ramrods flashed all at once in the sunshine as they were drawn from the barrels, turned in the air, and thrust into their sockets. The two sentinels fired again, independently and ineffectually."
Chapter 3
I want everyone to think about possible hints Bierce gives us in this passage that COULD prepare us for the ending IF we are paying attention!
In this passage, we are plunged into Bierce's description of Farquhar's initial escape - was he saved by the breaking of the noose & the plunge underneath the water? - And now we see a plunge beneath the water saving him once again. Farquhar seems to miraculously evade death over & over again. He escapes harm from bullets in this passage & later manages to escape cannon fire, which seems rather unrealistic to me. WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Did anyone notice that the speed of the bullets slows and that the shape of the metal changes? The bullets are now flattened. Instead of hitting Farquhar with force, the bullets seem to be almost a soft caress. Are these clues for the discerning reader? Are these things describing more distortions of Farquhar's reality?
It IS true that the speed of a bullet slows when hitting water because water is more dense than air. Did you know that a replica Civil War rifle fired into water is fatal at a depth of 2 feet but not at 5 feet? How deep did Farquhar supposedly dive? We don't know, but it seems to me the description of the bullets could be one more hint that Farquhar is living a fantasy rather than experiencing reality at this point.
I personally believe that the death-defying escapes aren't incredibly unrealistic. The weaponry used during the civil war was incredibly inaccurate at long distances. Considering the bridge had to be high enough to hang someone off of it, I think that the distance between Peyton and the soldiers firing at him was large enough that both rifle and cannon shot would be inaccurate.
ReplyDeleteI also think that while there was a surreal feel to the whole scene, the physical distortion of the bullets as well as the bullets slowing down in the water makes sense. I think that the distortion can be caused by refraction within the water, and to me it seems like Peyton was probably deep enough that the bullets would have lost all momentum. This said, the ending took me completely by surprise.
"And none of this is real he died."
DeleteThe End
:D
DeleteIt is miraculous how he seemed to escape death again and again but there are ways to do it, however it does seem to be foreshadowing the end that's coming. For dodging bullets it says that the water roared in his ears which means he probably dove around 9 feet to get deep enough for the water to hurt his ears, so he could have escaped those. Since he said that the stream had been moving slowly just before this; unless it magically sped up its almost humanly impossible (especially after almost being chocked to death, and almost drowning) for him to hold his breath in order to make it that far down river so those things kinda contradicted which could also show that he's living in a fake reality. I think that the bullets speed and shape changes could have occurred normally since they were going into water, maybe that's just what bullets did in that era when mixed with water. The more danger that he escaped in the book, the clearer the ending became it started sounding a little too good to be true the further the book went.
ReplyDeleteIt is really interesting that you noted the 'roaring in his ears' and how deep he would have had to been. i wouldn't have noticed that.
DeleteI agree that the stunts Peyton pulls off to avoid his almost inevitable death seem rather unrealistic. It would take some serious trained lung power to hold your breath and consciousness under the water that long.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that it seemed quite extraordinary for Peyton to be able to hold his breath that long underwater, especially since when he fell in the water he would not have been able to take a good breath on account of the noose around his neck.
DeleteYes, the weapons were inaccurate but with so many shots being fired at him it does seem like he would get hit eventually. Plus I think the speed of the bullets coming through the water would be faster than what he portrayed because the water does slow them down but I think he would have to be very deep for them to slow down that much. Just thoughts. :)
ReplyDeleteI've been doing some research regarding the behavior of bullets shot into water, and it seems that if, as Emilee hypothesized, he was 9+ feet under the water, by the time the bullets reached a depth of 8 or 9 feet underwater, their velocity would not only be greatly diminished, but their trajectory would be way off from where it was intended (especially considering we are talking about a running stream and not standing water).
DeleteOf course, this is all assuming the stream is 9+ deep, which I have difficulty believing since it is called a stream and not a river.
Then again this whole sequence of events is taking place within Peyton's imagination, so I guess he can bend and/or break the laws of physics if he wants to.
Good job noticing that detail Abby. It doesn't seem like a stream would be deep enough for that to happen. -Ethan H
DeleteGood for you for doing the research, Abby! We'll talk more about bullets underwater in class!
DeleteI thought this was very interesting. it made me stop and think about the bullets especially. The part when it says "one lodged between his collar and his neck; it was uncomfortably warm and he snatched it out."
ReplyDeleteI found that interesting to Riss. So did the bullet just lodge kind of like a splinter? Because if it was lodged deep I don't think it'd be easy to pull that out. Especially under water when your concentrating on holding your breath, swimming, and trying to see. On another note I think it's very doubt full he could dodge all those canon like bullets. But I think it'd be fun to try with paint ball bullets.
ReplyDeleteOther than holding his breath for like 10 minutes and the bullets traveling so slowly out of the water I thought this escape was very believable. It said he dove under water while he was getting shot at and bullets are much much slower when traveling through water. Also after leaving a gun bullets tend to change shape especially after hitting the surface of the water. And even though they slowed way down and dropped into cold water air friction makes bullets very hot explaining why it was uncomfortable when it touched his skin. By the time the soldiers realized shooting one at a time would be more effective he was much further down stream due to the fast current which with the guns of the time would've made the bullets inaccurate enough for an escape.
ReplyDeleteI definitely thought along the same lines of this assessment. Most of it seem realistic enough that it never made me doubt reality. The fact that they slowed down in water made sense to me, and the hot bullet seems realistic enough and it was such an odd little detail that it seemed like it was real.
DeleteI've watched videos of people shooting modern weapons under water that would be much more powerful that the weapons used at the time of the story. In the video they used an AK-47 which is a pretty powerful gun and the bullet went less than 10 feet before coming to a complete stop at the bottom of the pool.
DeleteJustin, I've seen that video too. Too bad they didn't choose to shoot any Civil War weapons so we could compare it to weapons of today.
DeleteThe ending took my a little bit by surprise and i didn't get much warning until he was out of the water. However high power rifles only can penetrate the water up to 3 feet deep and i am sure that a civil war musket would be much less. Also, bullets do not flatten when entering into the water from what i know. Although it would definitely be possible to dodge the muskets, it is highly improbable that he would just "dodge" the cannon shot.
ReplyDeleteI find the mechanic of time to be very intriguing in this story. Often time appears to slow down whenever Fahrquhar is in grave danger and return to normal once the danger has passed. Back to your question, the fact that Fahrquhar manages to evade death so many times is incredibly unrealistic. If an entire army of soldiers is shooting at one person, chances are one of them is going to strike the intended target. The fact that Fahrquhar is not hit once is yet another reason why this part of the story is simply an illusion.
ReplyDeleteSomething else struck me as I read the passage. It said when he came up "He was perceptibly farther downstream". This verifies especially how long he was under water because when he noticed the drift wood floating in the stream he said the stream was slower moving than he thought. Thus, he would have to be underwater longer to move that far downstream.
ReplyDeleteHow did he move that far downstream that quickly? The stream would have to be deep enough and strong enough to carry Peyton that far in a short amount of time. The water would have to be free of obstacles such a rapids and underwater logs.
DeleteWhen I was reading, I found this part hare to believe, because of the many escapes he had. However, I was thinking that because of the lack of modern technology, their rifles and cannon would be less powerful and accurate as today's time. Also, I thought that the solider had less accuracy was because it was night time when all this happed. But, because it was night time, I found it weird that he saw the eye colors of the men that were shooting at him. This part confused me a lot, until the end of the book when Bierce told us that it was all Farquhar's imagination.
ReplyDeleteI was looking up how deep streams can be to see if it could be 9 feet deep, and I found one called The Bolton Strid. I'm pretty sure it's a stream cause that's what everything says but I'm not sure. No one knows how deep it is because no one who's ever fallen in has survived it's crazy. It's got crazy fast undercurrents that take you down to the bottom and the caverns if you fall in. As deadly as it is though it's so beautiful. This said from the research I've done I believe streams can be deeper than 9 feet.
ReplyDeleteHere's the link to what I found about the Bolton Strid:
https://www.amusingplanet.com/2015/11/bolton-strid-stream-that-swallows-people.html
These are very interesting thoughts. I know from personal experience when shooting into water, that it doesn't go very far. Even modern rifles. So, I think it is very unlikely that it could have actually happened the way he described. As Abby pointed out, this is a stream, so it's unlikely the bullets would have changed shape in real life.
ReplyDeleteI agree, especially when the bullets are that time was round, which decrease the chance of changing its' shape.
DeleteTHIS STORY IS ABOUT LIFE & DEATH, AMONG OTHER THINGS. AFTER READING OWL CREEK BRIDGE, DO YOU ALL HAVE AN IDEA IF AMBROSE BIERCE HAD A FAITH OF ANY KIND ?
ReplyDeleteHe seems to have a few things that can compare to the Bible like "the sand" the "walls of forest" and "golden stars" and a few other similarities that have been discussed in our group. So I would say he could be a Christian. If you think about the story it could almost resemble our walks, as Christians life can be hard sometimes and we're attacked by satan constantly but God still provides a way and a light to lead us to him till the day we make it home. I think that this is too much evidence to be a coincidence, so I think it was planned which makes me believe he's a Christian.
DeleteWow I was just reading all these comments and there's so much good information!! I think the quote that Mrs. Jones chose was amazing and I was up late last night thinking about it because there's just so much! Good job everyone!
ReplyDeleteAll of these comments are intriguing. In case anyone is wondering, I did a quick google search and apparently there really is a bridge that spans Owl Creek in Alabama, perhaps the inspiration for this story.
ReplyDeleteThat's really cool! I would love to do some research regarding Owl Creek. I know there has been a lot of discussion about its depth and size, and it would be nice to see some of those questions answered.
DeleteI was reading the comments too and I do think he had a faith of some kind. After searching the web he seems to be a part of the Agnosticism religion.
ReplyDeleteAgnosticism is:
The view that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable
So Ambrose Beirce did have a religion just not a christian view.
Good job for doing some further research, Brooke!
DeleteI agree with you Mrs. Jones that it was unrealistic that he was able to escape gun and cannon fire. From personal experience, I know that bullets are hot after being fired but I find it unrealistic that he was able to snatch it out of his collar. Are his hands are already untied at this point??
ReplyDelete