4. The story starts with Ed, building the foundation of his basement, he leaves the house and heads toward his store, on the way he sees a dead man hanging on a lamppost. The author starts the story with Ed being in the basement to show the absence of Ed from the scene or to show us that Ed is innocent and was not there at the time the stranger was killed and hanged. It also shows Ed’s absence from what was happening outside. He also starts the story like this to show how hardworking man Ed is. Using the basement building shows Ed character and way of uthinking. The building of the basement by Ed and not any other person is significant to the plot of the story since Ed looks for what happened throughout the story so the begining shapes the