Author Question: Paraphrase the story. What is revealed in the final sentence? What will be an ideal ... (Read 176 times)

laurencescou · **on:** Jul 20, 2018

Paraphrase the story. What is revealed in the final sentence?

What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

When Eckels returns to the altered present, when does he first sense thatsomething has changed?

What will be an ideal response?

AmberC1996 · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 20, 2018

Answer to Question 1

An unnamed narrator describes his life in the confinement of a dark, dungeon-like enclosure, with no knowledge of his background or his upbringing. Eager to experience the beautiful world he knows only from books, he painfully makes his way into the open air and to a brightly lit hall where a gala affair is taking place. At his arrival the partygoers scream in terror and begin to flee. Making his way to the other side of the hall, he perceives the horrible creature that terrified them. In the final sentence, he realizes that he is looking into a mirror. From the description of his appearance at the end of the story, the most likely conclusion to be drawn is that the narrator is one of the undead, a ghoul, or, at the very least, abhuman (a term describing someone who is separate from normal human existence).

Answer to Question 2

Both Eckels and Travis realize immediately that the present is altered by Eckelss momentary step off the path. The first clue comes from the man behind the desk, who is, paradoxically, the same man as when they left and yet not the same man (par. 131). After the group returns to the present, Eckels smells a subtle chemical taint that he did not recognize before his trip. He notices colors on the furniture and walls of the room that were not previously there. And there was a feel. His flesh twitched. His hands twitched. He stood drinking the oddness with the pores of his body. Somewhere, someone must have been screaming one of those whistles that only a dog can hear. His body screamed silence in return (par. 136).