Occurrence At Owl Creek Focalization Analysis

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Narrative have always traditionally been judged on plot, characterization and writing style to decided whether or not a book is considered “good”. One such writing style is focalization, the determination of perspective which changes discourse. It is believed that Internal Focalization is often the cause of a more interesting narrative, as shown with Violet and An Occurance at Owl Creek. Internal focalization allows for the narrative to advance the plot, creates an interesting and sympathetic characterizations and enforces the idea of the story world by making it immersive. This is shown with the focalization in Violet to further the plot, the forced perspective and biases in Occurrence in Owl Creek, and the importance put on the actions in both narratives to create an immersive and impressive story world. These characterizations …show more content…

In Occurrence at Owls creek, the main character Peyton Farquhar expresses his wishes of returning to his family, saying “"If I could free my hands," he thought, "I might throw off the noose and spring into the stream. By diving I could evade the bullets and, swimming vigorously, reach the bank, take to the woods and get away home. My home, thank God, is as yet outside their lines; my wife and little ones are still beyond the invader's farthest advance.””(Bierce). This passage of his speech starts the internal focalization of the narrative. The following internal focalization forces the audience to view Peyton Farquhar’s own personal anecdote as he is a homodiegetic narrator. This enforces a sympathy to the man who only wants to see his family again and portrays him in a positive light. However when the narrative is told in an external focalization, at the beginning and ending of the story Farquhar is revealed to be a confederate soldier and slave owner, the sympathetic perspective is lost onto the reality of the

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