Group work: “John Mortonson's Funeral” by Ambrose Bierce

1: Student A starts by summarizing the story, and the rest of the group ad details where necessary.
The story is first and forward about a funeral. Its starts pretty normal and has a certain silence. But it takes a turn when a cat jumped up from the coffin
2: What does “in the presence of death reason and philosophy are silent” (p. 21, l. 16-17) mean?
The opposite of reason Heart= feelings, no thinking things through. We think it means that wimping won’t get John mortonson back so there is no reason for philosophy wimping over the coffin.
3: How do we see Bierce's motto, “nothing matters”, in the story?
It really means nothing matters, like in question number 2 that nothing matters when you lose someone, it all stops and sadness takes over.
4: What makes “John Mortonson's Funeral” a horror story?
In the 3 last lines in the story, we hear something about the cat have a bloody noise so it’s could very much be that the cat have been eating of John Mortonson
5: Do you think the story would have become popular if it had been written today? Why? Why not?
No I don’t think it would have been. The today world is much more cruel and horrible. One of the scary movies that are having success is saw. A movie like that is popular because of its mind twisted and crazy. Even crime shows like CSI would be more horrifying then this story. I don’t think people would find it that intersting. It takes a lot to scar people today.