Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Week 4- Some Of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Colby
Although the somewhat ironic tone was touched on in the class discussion today, I would like to further elaborate on the ironies that I picked up on when reading this piece. First of all, I thought it was very ironic when the speaker was justifying the act to kill Colby due to the fact that he had the "moral right" to do so and also because Colby was his "friend" who "belonged to" him and the rest of the speaker's group. This section made me pause and continually think about the fact that if this speaker was really Colby's "friend", wouldn't he be trying to stop Colby's hanging? I also found a very ironic spot when the speaker was discussing the possibility of rain at the hanging ceremony and how it would make the scene, "look kind of dismal". This really highlighted how cruel and close-minded the society in which the speaker was living in when I read it. This is because a hanging is dismal in itself; yet the speaker would only see it that way if it were to rain. One question I had about this piece was about the title. "Some Of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Colby" does not seem fitting to the speaker's perspective because the speaker continually discusses how Colby was the one to go too far, yet in the title, it almost puts blame on the speaker and his group by saying "Some of Us Had Been Threatening.." Does anyone have any thoughts on the meaning of the title?
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The question you pose is one I've been wondering about myself. In my opinion, it's possible that the speaker has realized that perhaps the group had gone too far in their execution of Colby, while all the time they had been saying how he had gone "too far". Did they have the right to take his life? I think the difficulty in trying to answer this question is that the reader does not know what Colby has done to deserve his punishment.
ReplyDeleteThe ironies that you point out interested me as well. It seems like the speaker and his crew are making such an elaborate ceremony for something Colby apparently did, but we are never told what he did. It is strange as a reader to try and picture a society where people justify themselves in committing murder based on another person's crime. The whole piece was new and innovative and interesting to read and I like how you pointed out the title as well. The people in the story don't seem to be exactly threatening Colby, but rather building up this shame on him. I have no answer for your question for I as well am still pondering.
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