The style and motives of Ambrose Bierce are those of a great intellect and cynic. Ambrose Bierce used graphic images to get his message across in a lot of his stories such as "Chicamauga" and "The Affair at Coulter's Notch". A good portion of his short stories were stories of innocent people and soldiers and their experiences. He also wrote a book called "The Devil's Dictionary," which reinterprets a few terms in the English language. Ambrose Bierce's cynical perspective, which can be seen within his literary works, actually masks a sensitive idealist, who wants to create an awareness in the readers of the horrors of war as well as the injustices and insensitivities in people and society.
To start off, Ambrose Bierce used a lot of graphic images to deglorify war. There were many graphic images in the story ?Chicamauga?, for example, ? - lacked a lower jaw - from the upper teeth to the throat was a great red gap fringed with hanging shreds of flesh and splinters of bone?. ?The unnatural prominence of nose, the absence of chin, the fierce eyes, gave this man the appearance of a great...
In the short story “Chickamauga,” by Ambrose Bierce, there are several examples of imagery throughout the passages that help to describe the horrors of war. Bierce sets the story with a young boy playing war in a forest, who is then approached by a “formidable enemy,” a rabbit. The sudden appearance startles the boy into fleeing, calling for his mother in “inarticulate cries,” and his skin getting “cruelly torn by brambles.” The selection of these details leaves a lucid image in the mind of the reader, allowing them to see a sobbing boy running through the forest, covered in cuts and scratches. It represents the innocence and fear of a child, lost and alone in an unknown place. The birds above his head “sang merrily” as the boy was “overcome
Many war stories today have happy, romantic, and cliche ending; many authors skip the sad, groosom, and realistic part of the story. W. D. Howell’s story, Editha and Ambrose Bierce’s story, An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge both undercut the romantic plots and unrealistic conclusions brought on by many stories today. Both stories start out leading the reader to believe it is just another tpyical love-war senario, but what makes them different is the one-hundred and eighty degrees plot twist at the end of each story.
War as seen through the eyes of Ambrose Bierce in An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge depicts it as truly gritty. The author successfully sends a message of how death is a part of war, and it is not as noble or glorious as one would think it is. Due to popular media, we have this attitude that the protagonist is going to go down in a blaze of glory, and while it may be true for some, it is not like that for everyone. War is rough, dark, and gritty but no one ever wants to talk about those parts of war because it would ruin the fantasy of it.
In his book The Ethics of Moral Resistance: Ambrose Bierce and General William B. Haze; author Peter J. Marrone, states “[…] Bierce’s primary intention in compos...
In Shirley Jackson’s short story The Lottery, the people of a small American town struggle to hold onto a gruesome tradition, one which has greatly affected the moral values of the society. In writing this story, Jackson is commenting on tradition; how, when taken to extremes, it can hinder society. THis horrible tradition of stoning people to death is a normal event from the perspective of the townspeople; one which is practised by the whole town. Early on in the story, the narrator states that the lottery “was conducted - as were the square dances, the teen club, the Halloween program - by Mr. Summer…” (Jackson 1). As evidenced by this quote, the lottery was just another event comparable to other events that society deems normal. In other words:
In Winesburg Ohio, the reader is first introduced to “The Book of the Grotesque”. This introductory chapter, provides the reader with what might be considered a summary of the characters in the novel itself. The elderly writer, who has obviously seen and experienced a lot of the world’s turmoils, e.g. The Civil War , has been haunted by the faces of all the people he has ever known. The faces of these people are twisted and distorted, and ultimately appear “grotesque” to the elderly writer: It was his notion that the moment one of the people took one of the truths to himself, called it his truth, and tried to live his life by it, he became a grotesque and the truth he embraced became a falsehood.” (p.24).
In Voltaire’s Candide, we are taken by the hand through an adventure which spanned two continents, several countries, and to a multitude of adverse characters. The protagonist, Candide, became the recipient of the horrors which would be faced by any person in the 18th century. But Candide was always accompanied with fellows sufferers, two of which our focus will lay, Pangloss and Martin. In equal respects, both are embodiments of different philosophies of the time: Pangloss the proponent of Optimism and Martin the proponent of Pessimism. Each of the two travelers is never together with Candide, until the end, but both entice him to picture the world in one of their two philosophies. Throughout the story there is an apparent ebb and flow from Candide on how to think of the world. By the end of his journey, Candide will be presented with evidence to lead to his agreement of either Optimism or Pessimism. But I submit, Candide does not become a firm believer in either philosophies but rather retains a philosophy in between Optimism and Pessimism, somewhat of a stoic mentality. Thus Voltaire’s opinion on philosophy will be predicated upon his character, Candide.
Vivid imagery is one way with which writers protest war. Crane uses imagery to glorify, and shortly thereafter demean and undercut war, through the use of imagery, by placing positive and negative images of war close to eachother. “Blazing flag of the regiment,” and “the great battle God,” are placed before “A field where a thousand corpses lie.” (A) These lines’ purposes are to put images into the reader’s head, of how great war may appear, and then displaying that there are too many casualties involved with it. In Dulce Et Decorum Est, a man is described dyin...
Within The Inferno Dante, the protagonist wanders off the moral path and gets lost in the dark woods. Almost attacked by wild animals he is saved by the ghost of Virgil, a popular Roman poet. Virgil guides Dante through the nine circles of Hell and through this journey Dante unveils his true feelings toward the political world during the medieval time. While Dante unleashes his hatred towards clericalism, in the epic poem of Canterbury Tales, Chaucer documents various social tensions in the 1300’s due to the explicit portrayal of thirty- four characters. Within The Inferno and Canterbury Tales, these vernacular writings illuminate anti-clericalism inspired by personal experiences during the medieval time.
Ambrose Bierce wrote short stories based on his personal experiences and observations during the American Civil War. Although it looks like Bierce’s stories are about bravery and nobility of war, in reality Bierce sends a message to his readers about the cruelty of war through different points. In each story, Bierce writes about bravery and nobility of his character but actually exposes his or her personality flaw by use of gallows humor. One of Bierce’s stories “Killed at Resaca” (Bierce 63-68) clearly shows the personality flaw, selfishness, of the main character Lieutenant Herman Brayle.
What exactly is evil? Is it a tangible object or just an unperceivable idea? There are many theories to these two simple questions anywhere from a physical evil presence to one’s personal concept of what is evil to them. In literature, evil can take many different forms, including physical evil, inner evil, and a combination of the two. No matter what mode it takes though, the presence of evil in literature has always been influential in the plot and always has the same ending: death.
Though graphic novels are not recognized as literature by many literary critics, they have the distinction of communicating with pictures in a way that may not be possible with words alone. Themes that would be lost if they were merely sentences on a page are highlighted when set to a graphic novel’s illustration, and graphic novels can connect deeply with the reader through images of war and suffering, such as in the graphic novels Persepolis and Fables.
Mr Birling is the father, and leader of the Birling family. He is described by Priestly as a ''Portentous'' man. Throughout the first act, we see Arthur Birling being conveyed by the play write as a rather pompous and foolish character. He shows no remorse or concern for his wrongful actions, unless they affect his reputation. Birling is also portrayed as a defiant capitalist and extremely narrow minded.
people’s ruin. The scarlet letter set off a course of events one right after another that
The short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce, exemplifies the idea of dream versus reality. A dream is believe that comes from the deepest stage of your mind. Is based on ideas, emotions and sensations that sometimes are related to our real life or just a fantasy. Reality is a succession of events that exist.