""Attention, company! . . Shoulder arms! . . . Ready! . . . Aim! . . . Fire!"
Farquhar dived--dived as deeply as he could. The water roared in his ears like the voice of Niagara, yet he heard the dulled 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." (Chapter 3)
This is an interesting passage. I personally, have shot many different kinds of black-powder rifles and pistols through Boy Scouts. This practice has shown me that when lead balls are shot into a body of water, especially at the distance suggested by the book, lead balls don't flatten. This brings up an interesting issue in my opinion, "Why did the lead balls in his dream (during the Civil War) flatten when they were shot into the water, and why do lead balls shot now, NOT flatten when they are shot into body's of water? This intrigued me, I have started thinking about all the different reasons the lead shot would have flattened then but not now. One possible conclusion I came to was maybe the lead was different? Is it possible that the lead they shot during the Civil War was softer because of their need for more bullets? Or, could the guns have had different firing power? But these were my thoughts as I was reading the story the first time through. After I finished the story, I realized that since the story was all imagined, the lead was maybe just something for me to think about as the reader, something to give me insight as to how it was all in the (soon to be) dead man's head, or imagination.
What do you think? Was it a stretch in the victim's imagination, or was it an experience that he had in a controlled area that's coming back to him in his death moments? Or, what?
My 'rookie' opinion is that Mr. Farquhar's imagination it a little out of whack, and the flattened bullets are just caused by his hysterical imagination and fear, mixed with other emotions; which are probably on a rollercoaster.
Interesting questions, Ben - What about the "oscillating" part? Have you observed whether bullets swing back & forth under water? BTW - I have some cool videos to show in class on Friday that show bullets fired under water!
ReplyDeleteCool, I can't wait to see the videos. Well, I haven't observed the "oscillating" of a lead bullet, but, I do know that when you drop a similar substance into a large amount of water it does swing back and forth. Bricks, rings, goggles, marbles, and rocks all seem to twist, turn, sway and swing like described in the book.
ReplyDeleteI'm a wondering why the bullets don't continue to go straight once they are in the water. Is it because of the current or wind?
DeleteIt doesn't seem that Farquhar would have had time to imagine that the bullets were flattened. My opinion is that the temperature of the water caused the bullets to flatten.
ReplyDeleteDidn't think of that, but that is a idea as well! There are so many possibilities with this one! Its crazy the detail of works of literature such as these, and the hidden meaning behind so many details they include. Sometime only the author themselves knows the true significance behind it all!
DeleteHmm. I really don't know much about lead or bullets, but this is an interesting thought! I think its very possible that the property of the bullets was different. Even thought they both were "lead" bullets there could be different amount of pure lead. Maybe one of them contained another mineral as well. I hadn't thought about this very interesting, I wonder what the true reasoning behind it is!!!
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