# Three and One Are One explained — Can Such Things Be?

> Chapter companion for Can Such Things Be? by Ambrose Bierce.

## What happens

Barr Lassiter, a Union soldier from a divided Tennessee family, returns home after two years to find his family cold and unresponsive. His father rebuffs him, his mother ignores him, and his sister passes without recognition. The next day he discovers his family home was destroyed by a Federal shell a year earlier, killing his entire family. The apparitions he encountered were ghosts.

## Themes in this chapter

### Death and the Supernatural

Lassiter's family appears alive and present, but they are revealed to be ghosts, having been killed by a Federal shell a year earlier.

### Guilt and Retribution

Lassiter's guilt over his family's rejection and his Union allegiance is compounded by the revelation that his own side destroyed his home and killed his family.

### Isolation and Terror

Lassiter experiences profound isolation as his family refuses to acknowledge him, and later terror upon learning they were already dead.

## Character check-ins

### Barr Lassiter

A Union soldier returning to his family home after two years, only to find his family dead and their house destroyed.

### Bushrod Albro

A former playfellow and schoolmate who meets Lassiter and informs him of the family's death and the destruction of the house.

## Key lines

> By both heredity and environment something of the man's inflexible character had touched the other members of the family; the Lassiter home, though not devoid of domestic affection, was a veritable citadel of duty, and duty—ah, duty is as cruel as death!

The family's strict sense of duty, inherited from the father, made their home a fortress of obligation, and duty can be as merciless as death itself.

_Highlights the theme of duty and its harsh consequences in the family dynamic._

> When the war came on it found in the family, as in so many others in that State, a divided sentiment; the young man was loyal to the Union, the others savagely hostile.

The Civil War split the family, with Barr supporting the Union while his parents and sister fiercely opposed it.

_Illustrates the historical context of divided loyalties in Tennessee during the Civil War._

> In the fight a year ago your house was burned by a Federal shell.

A Union artillery shell set fire to the Lassiter home a year earlier, killing the entire family.

_Reveals the supernatural twist that the family Lassiter saw were ghosts._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/can_such_things_be_se/chapters/three-and-one-are-one
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/can_such_things_be_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/can_such_things_be_se/chapters