Examples Of Trauma In An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge

Gerry Hehir

Mr. Eberhardt

Acl English 11

13 March 2023

Trauma in Fiction Trauma is something that impacts everyone. Author Ambrose Bierce, who wrote the short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, uses his experiences with trauma to influence his writings. The biographical lens is the easiest lens to look through when looking at Bierce’s short story because of how much his life had seeped into the pages of this work of fiction. Bierce had experienced a very tragic life, from start to finish. Because of Bierce’s tragic experiences, the trauma he was still dealing with as an author are visible in the pages of his stories. His cold cynicism and writings had contributed to his nickname “Bitter Bierce”. Because of his experiences from before,

Ambrose Bierce watched three of his siblings die before he even turned six. When he was older, Bierce joined the fight against the South in the Civil War. It is said that “the war made Bierce, but it also nearly unmade him…he was struck in the temple by a bullet behind his left ear…something else lodged in him; the war had made him a cynic” (Mason 82). The war was not the only thing that contributed to his coldness, but it was a major part of it. “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” was a story that dealt with the death of a Southerner during the Civil War. It was an interesting idea to have this person be a part of the opposing side, but Bierce still made the reader feel for Farquhar, the one who is hanged on the bridge. The final twist of the short story is that Farquhar did indeed die, because it makes it seem like he could have escaped and then revealed that he had been dead. This section of the story could have come from Bierce’s near death experience at Kennesaw Mountain, where he could have died from the gunshot that struck his temple. Just as Farquhar’s life flashed before his eyes, Bierce’s life must have flashed before his. This is just one of many instances where Bierce’s own experiences show up in the short story. Although the Civil War was one event that really affected his writings, it was not the only thing that contributed to

It is said that Bierce’s family were “...farmers-poor, obscure, and eccentric” (Dictionary of American Biography). Bierce had practically built himself up from nothing. He was “...the youngest of ten children, he saw three of his siblings die by the time he was six years old” (Mason 82). Even at a young age, Bierce had to grapple with death. To many, death is seen as a taboo subject but Bierce did not seem to have a problem writing an entire short story with the protagonist on the verge of death. If he had been dealing with deaths of close relatives and friends for such a long time, writing those types of stories would not be difficult for him to do. This is one of the reasons that contributed to the nickname, “Bitter Bierce”. He was seen as this cynical man who had such a bitter way of storytelling. The Civil War transformed him into the Bierce that wrote the stories known to