The man who was engaged in being hanged was apparently about thirty-five years of age. He was a civilian
Why was this civilian hung? Was he the victim of a lynching/a hate crime? Or was he in the wrong place at the wrong time? Why does the liberal military murder seemingly innocent civilians?
A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, looking down into the swift water twenty feet below. The man’s hands were behind his back, the wrists bound with a cord. A rope closely encircled his neck. It was attached to a stout cross-timber above his head and the slack fell to the level of his knees. Some loose boards laid upon the sleepers sup-porting the metals of the railway supplied a footing for him and his executioners
The author does not hesitate to get into the harsher unpleasant details, yet also quickly capturing the reader's attention. Making them wonder; "who is this man?" "why is he being executed?" "what did he do wrong?" "did he actually commit a crime?"
The significance of her eventually accepting the rose and hanging up on the surgeon calling about removing it is her accepting herself. The rose symbolizes both beauty and pain, the beautiful flower with its dangerous thorns. So she is accepting the painful and beautiful aspects of her life.
The first portion of the story when she is nonchalant about the fact that her father died and her siblings do not speak to each other and the doctor doesn't acknowledge this heartbreaking statement, the author is presenting how society and even medical practitioners brushed off any emotional pain women suffered.