How would you explain the last sentence?
Mrs. Murphy began by telling me that back in that December, a black sedan had driven slowly through town. One of her friends had called her to tell her it was coming. The woman had seen the dress uniform of the man in the passenger seat and she told Mrs. Murphy that the men in the car seemed lost, but that they’d be there soon.
I tried to imagine Mr. and Mrs. Murphy watching from the kitchen window. Snow surely fell as it had fallen all through the evening, over the eaves of the porch and over the hills and lining the branches of the trees. The world clean and obtuse. No angles, nothing hard. The car coming around the last bend in the road, unacknowledged, as if it had not been seen.

How would you explain the last sentence: unacknowledged, as if it had not been seen?
Thanks!Why did the writer used past perfect tense here? Can I rephrase this sentence as: as if it had not been seen by the friend of Mrs. Murphy?

Question

How would you explain the last sentence?
Mrs. Murphy began by telling me that back in that December, a black sedan had driven slowly through town. One of her friends had called her to tell her it was coming. The woman had seen the dress uniform of the man in the passenger seat and she told Mrs. Murphy that the men in the car seemed lost, but that they’d be there soon.
I tried to imagine Mr. and Mrs. Murphy watching from the kitchen window. Snow surely fell as it had fallen all through the evening, over the eaves of the porch and over the hills and lining the branches of the trees. The world clean and obtuse. No angles, nothing hard. The car coming around the last bend in the road, unacknowledged, as if it had not been seen.

How would you explain the last sentence: unacknowledged, as if it had not been seen?
Thanks!Why did the writer used past perfect tense here? Can I rephrase this sentence as: as if it had not been seen by the friend of Mrs. Murphy?

Answer

No. I think the last sentence refers to Mrs. Murphy. I assume that the black sedan is bring them news about the death of their son. The narrator tries to imagine the reaction of  Mrs. Murphy when she sees the sedan.  Mrs. Murphy would see the sedan, but would not acknowledge it (accept the truth of what she had seen.) as if she hadn't seen it. Why? Because she would be naturally reluctant to accept the news about her son's death.

Answer

"...unacknowledged, even if it is not observed."

Another example 
(from Internet: http://archaeologica.boardbot.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3274&start=60) 
of the use: "as if it had not been seen":

"What we are looking at is a pattern, to understand the pattern I am looking at the lines that create it, and how those lines are made, By sketchiness, I am not talking about it looking like a sketch of something, or even that the lines are made inexactly, but in using a term that would be said about a students work referring to the lack of concern, in which that the lines are made, when a student does not think about the way they will be viewed. Now to understand that statement you would have to know that a difference can be discerned between a line which is not placed well, say by a student or child, from a line where its creator was not particularly bothered about its placement.
To depict that difference I would have to do a good deal of explanation as stated above, and not use terms as shorthand to mean concepts artists would be used to. As such I not only have to avoid the use of those sort of terms, but also think about how I am going to explain them with reference to these pieces of ochre.
As such the task for me would be not only explain every step of my reasoning in detail, but also translate each concept as if it had not been seen before. Some of these concepts I am so used to using I don't even think about them not being clear, such as a quality of sketchiness, which when I used it I did not even stop to consider might not be clear to everybody.
So do you want to start from the bottom and build things back up from a new beginning?"

Answers · 4

Still haven’t found your answers?

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to learn a language from the comfort of your own home. Browse our selection of experienced language tutors and enroll in your first lesson now!