Robert Harris’ actual death is looked upon as “nakedly barbaric” (paragraph 24) or as pacing because the author describes the murder with many graphic details explaining many minutes had past, but, he was not declared to be dead until sixteen minutes after the gas chamber had been turned on. Harris continues describing it as not “just, the cold-blooded killing of a human being...but the ritual of it, the participation of us...the witnessing itself of this most private and personal act” (Paragraph 24). Kroll discusses how this type of torture, everyone is going for. This “domestic violence” people think that is okay. “The implications of this filled me with fear – fear for myself and for all of us, a fear I am ashamed to confess – while my friend was being strangled slowly to death in front of me” (paragraph 24).
Through the mental anguish, physical pain, and actual death it is like Robert had already accepted the possibility of dying at any given second; he was mentally ready, and freely prepared of whatever they wanted to throw at him, to whatever was to come his way. Robert was a strong man. He knew what he did was wrong, and had to face the consequences that lead him to this dreadful day. But after all of this, at the end of his torture, the sun had finally come up. The morning had arrived. Kroll mean that Robert Alton Harris is finally at ease with himself. He can relax; he is in a better place now. So for Robert, everyday “...was a beautiful day” (Paragraph 29).