One example of
literaryoccurs when the story opens with the narrator's description of the setting. We get very
straightforward images of the "swift water" some twenty feet below the railroad
bridge, the placement of the hanging rope, the boards that have been "laid upon the ties
supporting the rails of the railway [that] supplied a footing for [Farquhar] and his
executioners," the officers and sentinels, and so forth. There are no artistic flourishes
or figurative language; instead, these descriptions are, well, realistic,
and lack any embellishments that would make the objects and people describe seem anything other
than relatively ordinary.
Part of what makes literary realism interesting,
however, is its portrayal of regular people whose lives are still filled with drama and
interest. As Farquhar is about to be hanged, he opens his eyes and looks down at the water,
thinking, "'If I could free my hands . . . I might throw off the noose and spring into the
stream. By diving I...
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