The tone of this short story is both hopeful and unsettling. Since Farquhar himself is not the narrator, his thoughts throughout the story eerily contrast with the narrator’s tone. Toward the end, for example, Farquhar’s thoughts are full of hope and are self-congratulatory as he imagines evading the soldiers and running home:
What splendid effort! — what magnificent, what superhuman strength! Ah, that was a fine endeavor! Bravo! The cord fell away; his arms parted and floated upward, the hands dimly seen on each side in the growing light.
In this quote, Farquhar congratulates himself for throwing off his restraints in the water and seemingly escaping. His internal narration is removed from his physical experience as if he is observing himself from afar. While his thoughts are hopeful, the overall narration of this section is unsettling because of his bizarre, altered perception.
This leads to an overall contradictory tone throughout the story. On one hand, the narration is hopeful for Farqhuar’s survival. On the other hand, Farquhar is purposefully written not to be a compelling character, given the author’s emphasis on his nonchalant attitude about being an enslaver on the side of the Confederacy. Therefore, the narration and overall tone have a note of irony to them, especially when Farquhar’s hope is crushed at the end of the story as he is hit with the reality of death, coming back to the initial foreboding and unsettling tone.
