An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge And Chickamauga Analysis

All readers long for an exciting story; no one wants to read a boring book. Readers want a book that captivates them, rocks them to the core, changes the way they view things. Without a doubt, this is something Ambrose Bierce accomplishes in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and “Chickamauga.” In modern times, most readers are used to plot twists and expected endings; however, Bierce was one of the first authors to incorporate these into literary works. Because of this, the shock, violence, and gore used in his stories made his stories to become immensely influential at the time of their publication and still remain important literary works today. Shock. Bierce serves it to his readers abruptly and unexpectedly. Bierce’s most notorious shock is found in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” when he writes, “Peyton Farquhar was dead…”(Bierce 401). This is such a surprise to readers because the entire story up to this point has been about Farquhar surviving his execution. Bierce also uses shock in “Chickamauga”; he writes, “[t]he child was a deaf mute”(Bierce 406). To add some context, this child has been playing around in the forest while soldiers burned his home down and killed in mother. Readers

When he uses the tactic of shock, he often writes short, sudden sentences that mirror the human reaction of shock. Often times, when an individual feels shock in his or her every day life, he or she will often stop in their path and feel as though everything they once knew was a lie. Although this may seem like a dramatic interpretation of shock, humans have a tendency to be dramatic individuals who seemingly cannot handle shock. It is short, sudden, and unexpected. Bierce perfectly mirrors this in his work. Bierce’s execution of shock in his stories shake his readers awake and expose them to the horrors of war. To a lesser extent, the shock value these short stories have make them more popular and more interesting to