Joshua's Jocund But Not Jejune Blog

 JOB#3 LITERATURE CONNECTIONS      In Ambrose Bierce's  An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge , Peyton Farquhar departs from his home and family in an attempt to aid the South by sabotaging the Owl Creek Railroad Bridge, which is important to the Union forces to get supplies across Owl Creek by railroad.  This attempt fails, however, and Farquhar is subsequently hanged. In  An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,  the author never suggests that Farquhar was out for glory or fame, but the fact that he left his family without a way to provide for them still indicates that Farquhar had misplaced values, thinking that carrying out a dangerous mission for the Confederacy was more important than providing for his own wife and children.     The theme of Peyton Farquhar willingly abandoning his family in a reckless mission that Farquhar knew  beforehand could get him killed reminded me of the first chapter of Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage...

 JOB #2 THINKING QUESTION "Suddenly he heard a sharp report and something struck the water smartly within a few inches of his head, spattering his face with spray. He heard a second report, and saw one of the sentinels with his rifle at his shoulder, a light cloud of blue smoke rising from the muzzle. The man in the water saw the eye of the man on the bridge gazing into his own through the sights of the rifle. He observed that it was a grey eye and remembered having read that grey eyes were keenest, and that all famous marksmen had them. Nevertheless, this one had missed" (Chapter III).     As I was reading the story, this odd little paragraph caught me by surprise. Prior to this, I have never even heard that grey eyes were the keenest and that all famous marksman had them.  Is this rumor that Peyton Farquhar read even true?  If so, how does eye color effect the quality of one's vision?  If not,  why does Farquhar think so?  I look forward to ...

JOB#1 LINE ILLUMINATOR      "At last he found a road which led him in what he knew to be the right direction. It was as wide and straight as a city street, yet it seemed untraveled. No fields bordered it, no dwelling anywhere. Not so much as the barking of a dog suggested human habitation. The black bodies of the trees formed a straight wall on both sides, terminating on the horizon in a point, like a diagram in a lesson in perspective. Overhead, as he looked up through this rift in the wood, shone great garden stars looking unfamiliar and grouped in strange constellations." (Chapter III)      The descriptions of the trees like "a diagram in a lesson in perspective" and the stars "looking unfamiliar and grouped in strange constellations" hint at the unreality of this sections, as trees seldom grow in exactly straight lines, and Peyton Farquhar should have been more familiar with the constellations of the South.          "His ...