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short summary in an occurrence at owl creek bridge
short summary in an occurrence at owl creek bridge
short summary in an occurrence at owl creek bridge
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Ambrose Bierces Ise of Flashbacks and the Supernatural in his Short Stories
AMBROSE BIERCE'S: USE OF FLASHBACKS AND THE SUPERNATURAL IN HIS SHORT STORIES
Ambrose Bierce is known for using both flashbacks and the supernatural in his
short stories "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and "The Death of Haplin Frayser."
Bierce was born on June 24, 1842, in House Cave Creek, Meigs County, Ohio. He also
disappeared in Mexico while acting as an observer of that country's civil war in January
1, 1914. Beirce's literary reputation is based primarily on his short stories about the Civil War and the supernatural. "Mancken considered him to be the "First writer of fiction ever to treat war realistically." Bierce grew up around the military, he entered a military academy in his teen years and then later on in his life was involved in war. He was involved in the U.S. Army, served with the Ninth Indiana Infantry Regiment as a drummer boy and Buell's Army of the Ohio. Many believe Bierce wrote about wars so realistically because he experienced war first hand. Many of Bierce's works are compared to Edgar Allan Poe because their stories share an attraction to death in its more bizarre forms. Bierce also worked as a novelist, journalist, poet, essayist, and a critic. Bierce has also written many other works which include The Devil's Dictionary, "The Secret of Macarger's Gulch" and "The Middle Toe of the Right Foot."
In the short story "An Occurrance atOwl Creek Bridge" Bierce uses flashbacks of
the soldiers in war to descibe what happened to them throught out the course of war.
Many of the soldiers have scary flash backs. In the short story "An Occurrance at Owl
Creek Bridge" Bierce describes exactly what the soldiers went through in battle and gives details of deaths that happened. Although Beirce's figures are not very well
developed in any of his short stories, each story expresses a deep psychological trauma,
one that ends in madness or loss. In war the characters become part of the military.
Bierce either tells alot about the hero in his short stories or as little as he pleases. So the hero in "An Occurrance at Owl Creek Bridge" is a spy who is about to be hanged. In this short story many people take for granted the reason he is being hanged and what his beliefs are. Bierce provides the minimum of character description: Peyton Farquhar was a well-to-do planter of an old and highly respected Alabama family.
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.
The next four years were spent traveling the states fighting in some of the most well known battles of the Civil War . Ambrose Bierce’s experience during the Civil War where he faced the dangers of nature and man influenced his writing.
During the period of realism, authors carefully treaded the line between fiction and reality. Bierce is successful in doing this, and at times pushes that boundary. His use of literary devices and his previous experiences at war both add to the authenticity of the story. His excessive use of detail provides a sense of security that lures the reader in and later keeps them reading. Overall, Bierce brought his readers into a world that was not real but also not fictional.
“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” by Ambrose Bierce, is the story of the hanging of a Civil War era Southern gentleman by the name of Peyton Farquhar. The story begins with an unidentified man being prepared to be hanged by a company of Union soldiers on a railroad bridge that runs over a river. He is then identified as Peyton Farquhar, a man who attempted to destroy the very bridge they are standing on based on information he was given by a Federal scout posing as a Confederate soldier. As he is dropped from the bridge to hang, the rope snaps and he falls into the river. After freeing himself and returning to the surface of the river, he realizes that his senses are all much heightened and he even “noted the prismatic colors in all the dewdrops upon a million blades of grass” (153). Peyton then begins to swim downstream as he is being shot at by the soldiers and a cannon as well. He soon pulls himself ashore and begins the long journey home. After walking all day and night, to the point where “his tongue was swollen with thirst” and “he could no longer feel the roadway beneath his feet” he finally makes it to his home (155). Just as he is about to embrace his wife he feels a sharp pain in his neck and hears a loud snap. He is dead from the hanging, and all this was just a dream. “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” shows the potential strength that a person’s will to live can have, and that we often don’t appreciate...
Many people are intrigued by Kurt Vonnegut’s borderline sci-fi, anti-war book Slaughterhouse-Five, and how it has survived throughout the ages. Kurt Vonnegut is an innovative best selling, award winning author of many book such as; Cat’s Cradle, Breakfast of Champions, Slaughterhouse-Five etc.The book Slaughterhouse-Five has no beginning, middle or end past the first chapter so it is very common for Billy Pilgrim to “time bounce” from his childhood, to the war, and to his elderly years and not all in that order. Billy Pilgrim is a man that did not have the greatest luck when it came to being a soldier.For instance “He was a scrawny, untrained private with scraps for a uniform such a creature could walk through war, oblivious yet unscathed, while so many others with more appropriate attire and provisions perish”(Sparknotes Editor). Mr. Vonnegut lived through some of the events portrayed in the book Slaughterhouse-Five such as the American air raid of Dresden, Germany. On February 13-14, 1945 nearly 135,000 Germans were killed from the tragic firebombing of the city of Dresden,Germany. In the book Billy claims to have lived this tragic event several times over. Mr. Vonnegut was a soldier of the 423rd Infantry Regiment, and 106 Infantry Division and earned a Purple Heart for his service after being injured at the Battle of The Bulge (Vonnegut.com). Many soldier in our day and age that fought in WWII and after have suffered from PTSD. An estimated 7.8 percent of Americans will experience PTSD at some point in their lives, with women (10.4%) twice as likely as men (5%) to develop PTSD. About 3.6 percent of U.S. adults aged 18 to 54 (5.2 mil...
Throughout literary history, one of the most amazing mysteries that still lingers in great literary minds today is about Ambrose Gwinett Bierce. He disappeared in the early 1900s never to be found again. He is remarkably remembered by his literary works of sarcasm and illusion. Throught his lasting life he wrote many fascinating short stories that reflected his experiences during his time as a soldier in combat during the American Civil War. His two most famous works being “Killed at Resaca” and “An Occurrence at Owl Creek”. Through the use of war-like scenarios, sarcasm and the use of personification, Ambrose Bierce implies them all in his two most famous short stories of his time. “ Killed At Resaca and “An Occurrence At Owl Creek”.
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:
...war), but in a way that really strove to show the effects of war on one man from his point of view (far more personal and disheartening).
“Now every road and highway…was littered with the corpses of human beings and animals…the wounded were left to die. Children ran frantically, shrieking for their mothers…there was no food, water, soap, or medical supplies. Like polluted waters became carriers of disease (Kasenkina 93).” This is a typical scene of war demonstrated in literary works. In literature war is a very common, yet important subject and it is generally demonstrated in plays, short stories, and novels. Some of the pieces of literature in where war is shown include: The Crucible by Arthur Miller, “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, and Leap to Freedom by Kasenkina. In these pieces of literature war is shown as a horrid event that always has both physically and psychologically bad outcomes. In many literary works including the ones mentioned above the good outcomes in war are misrepresented and suppressed by the bad outcomes in war.
...n amnesiac nation into “working through” its troubled past.” (Bly ,189) Story telling was the soldier’s salvation, their survival method. Being able to tell their stories let them express everything they were feeling and ultimately cope with the horrors of war and the guilt the carried.
The setting of the story is in a small area of Northern Alabama, but the setting has multiple locations within the different scenes of the story. In the first section of the story, Farquhar is in preparation to be hung at Owl Creek Bridge. Before Farquhar’s dreadful hanging, Bierce takes the audience back to the past where Farquhar seems to be the owner of a plantation. In this scene, Farquhar is consulting with a spy from the union who has effectively disguised himself as a thirsty confederate soldier. The
6 The battle in which Captain Michael Pierce lost his life is detailed in Drakes Indian Chronicles (pp. 220-222) (http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/conn.river/massacre.html)
O’Brien, Tim. “How To Tell a True War Story.” The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford St. Martins, 2003. p. 420-429.
Several stories into the novel, in the section, “How to tell a true war story”, O’Brien begins to warn readers of the lies and exaggerations that may occur when veterans tell war stories.
An example of suspenseful writing in the story was when the enemy sniper shoots the Republican sniper. “Suddenly from the opposite roof a shot rang out and the sniper dropped his rifle with a curse. The rifle clattered to the roof. The sniper thought the noise would wake the dead. He stooped to pick the rifle up. He couldn 't lift it. His forearm was dead. "I 'm hit," he muttered.” This Short story can show how sudden things can change, and how scary it can be trying to figure out what to do next. Mr. O’Flaherty tells his short story to inform others how difficult and scary war can be when someone gets shot at or wounded. In his short story he also shows how fast and smart you have to be, and know how to take care of yourself if something happens. In the story, after the sniper got shot in the arm he knew how to temporarily fix it. “Then taking out his field dressing, he ripped open the packet with his knife. He broke the neck of the iodine bottle and let the bitter fluid drip into the wound. A paroxysm of pain swept through him. He placed the cotton wadding over the wound and wrapped the dressing over it. He tied the ends with his teeth.” In war anything can happen at any certain