Ambrose Bierce: A Realist

1209 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: What is the authors tone on an occurrence at owl creek bridge

Literary movements are defined by the contributed philosophies of the poets, screenwriters, and authors of a certain time period. As an editor, journalist, philosopher, and author, Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) contended the Romantic movement style in many ways, which some people considered harsh and bland. The themes of his works usually involved the brutality of war, perception of time, and reality of certain situations. Bierce used incredibly precise detail and everyday diction to depict unidealized life events to their most validity. Bierce’s life experiences aided in the creation of his Realistic philosophy and style of writing, which is ideally exemplified in his short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.”
The meticulous view of life that Bierce had in both his philosophy and his writings classifies him as a Realist writer. Realism is thought to have started in France in the mid 1800s as a reaction to the preceding Romanticism movement. Realism minds, similar to the philosophies of Descartes and Locke, believe that the truth should be discovered through the senses. This doctrine created Realism authors’ main focus: to express the basic truth of an experience without any artificiality or artistic conventions that altered the meaning. “In American literature, the term ‘realism’ encompasses the period of time from the Civil War to the turn of the century during which others wrote fiction devoted to accurate representation and an exploration of American lives in various contexts” (Campbell par. 3). Authors of this time created very precise works with scanty tangents from the real event itself. Characters in Realism writings were not extravagant people seen in the Romantic movement, but ordinary humans partaking in basic eve...

... middle of paper ...

...glish, Washington State University. 7 July 2013. Web. 17 April 2014.

Evans, Robert C.. "Robert C. Evans, Annotated Critical Edition of "An Occurrence at Owl
Creek Bridge"."Robert C. Evans, Annotated Critical Edition of "An Occurrence at
Owl Creek Bridge". The Ambrose Bierce Project, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
.
"Fiction." : An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. Fiction The Eserver Collection, n.d. Web.
5 May 2014. .
Gullette, Alan. "ABAS: The Life of Bierce."ABAS: The Life of Bierce. The Ambrose Bierce
Appreciation Society, n.d. Web. 6 May 2014. .
Peers, Michele. "Ambrose Bierce." Intro To The Short Story. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 May 2014.
.

Show More
Related

  • An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge: A Manipulation of Time

    698 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ambrose Bierce’s An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, which is a short story released in 1890, gained much popularity over the years. It is most famous for it’s manipulation of time. Though the events in the book only take seconds, the story is over eight pages long. Time seems to slow for the man in the noose and at the same time speed up for the reader. In this way, Bierce presents his manipulation of time in the story.

    Read More

  • Ambrose Bierce’s Experience During the Civil War and Its Influence on His Writing

    921 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hopkins, Ernest Jerome. The complete Short Stories of Ambrose Bierce. Nebraska: University of Nebraska, 1970. 305-319. Print.

    Read More

  • Chickamauga; Editha: Tales of Anti-Romanticism

    1682 Words  | 4 Pages

    During the time period that Ambrose Bierce and William Dean Howells lived, war was a part of life. Both the US Civil War and the Spanish –American War were realities they had to deal with and as realists they set out to highlight the truths of warfare. Their disillusionment with the romanticism’s approach about war in literature was expressed in their popular works, “Chickamauga” and “Editha”. Both authors use the “strong” points of romanticism against itself, the usage of symbolism, along with the role of gender are replete throughout the two short stories.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Realism In An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge

    1325 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” brings upon many questions relating to its change in perspectives and the focus on the character. The story is classified as realism based on the fact that the author, Bierce, focuses more on the character than the plot itself. Readers worry about the characters hanging, not about the war and the chicanery used by both opponents. Bierce also uses a change in perspective throughout the story to show emphasis on the character and his thoughts. The change alters the reality in the readers minds, in a way they truly believe that he will survive the hanging and escape free to his family. Sadly, that wouldn’t have given readers the opportunity to classify it as realism and it wouldn’t have given Bierce the chance to show the readers the way our brains play tricks on us.

    Read More

  • Human Oppressiveness in Two Kinds and A&P

    2353 Words  | 5 Pages

    Updike, John “A&P.” Exploring Literature: Writing and Arguing About Fiction, Poetry, Drama and The Essay.4th e. Ed. Frank Madden. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009. 496-501. Print.

    Read More

  • Realism In Gustave Flaubert's 'A Simple Heart'

    935 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gustave Flaubert incorporates and composes a realistic piece of literature using realistic literature techniques in his short story, “A Simple Heart.” Flaubert accomplishes this through telling a story that mimics the real life of Félicité, and writing fiction that deliberately cuts across different class hierarchies; through this method, Flaubert

    Read More

  • Writers During The Age of Discovery and The Romantic Period

    1169 Words  | 3 Pages

    Writers throughout history have always influenced or have been influenced by the era that which they live in. Many famous authors arose during The Age of Discovery and The Romantic Period all of whom had very distinctive writing styles that held true to their era. To find the differences between the two eras, it is important to understand the era at which time the literature was wrote, the writing style, and the subject matter.

    Read More

  • A Comparison Of Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, And Edgar Allan Poe

    1201 Words  | 3 Pages

    When a writer starts his work, most often than not, they think of ways they can catch their reader’s attention, but more importantly, how to awake emotions within them. They want to stand out from the rest and to do so, they must swim against the social trend that marks a specific society. That will make them significant; the way they write, how they make a reader feel, the specific way they write, and the devotion they have for their work. Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgard Allan Poe influenced significantly the American literary canon with their styles, themes, and forms, making them three important writers in America.

    Read More

  • An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge Literary Analysis

    653 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the fictional short story of “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” the author Ambrose Bierce does a superior job of making the mind of a reader wonder. Throughout the story, the reader is able to watch and experience the hanging of a local plantation owner Peyton Farquhar. The story contains three parts that show the present, a flash back to the past, and into an altered reality of Farquhar’s “getaway.” The story of “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” demonstrates the theme of how the nature of time is free-flowing. Bierce uses three elements of fiction to successfully support the story in its free flow of time. Ambrose Bierce uses the setting, point of view, and plot structure to help organize the theme and the story’s unique elements.

    Read More

  • Modernism: Hills Like White Elephants, by Ernest Hemingway

    1592 Words  | 4 Pages

    Some of the characteristics of Modernism are: a desire to break conventions and established traditions, reject history, experiment, remove relativity, remove any literal meaning, and create an identity that is fluid. The rejection of history sought to provide a narrative that could be completely up for interpretation. Any literal meaning no longer existed nor was it easily given; essence became synonymous. Narrative was transformed. Epic stories, like “Hills Like White Elephants”, could occur in the sequence of a day. Stories became pushed by a flow of thoughts. The narrative became skeptical of linear plots, preferring to function in fragments. These fragments often led to open unresolved inconclusive endings. This echoes in the short story’s format. The short story functions in fragmented dialogue. Focusing on subjectivity rather than objectivity. Creating characters with unfixed, mixed views to challenge readers.

    Read More

  • The Character of Phoenix Jackson in Eudora Welty's A Worn Path

    1360 Words  | 3 Pages

    Welty, Eudora. ?The Worn Path.? Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: PH, 2001. 150-155.

    Read More

  • Sight in Cathedral

    1493 Words  | 3 Pages

    Carver, Raymond. Cathedral. Exploring Literature: Writing and Arguing About Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay. Ed. Frank Madden. 4th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009. 1151-61. Print

    Read More

  • Disguised Motives for Murder in Short Stories by Edgar Allen Poe

    1419 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the mid 1800’s America was in full swing of the romanticism movement. During this time readers were entertained by the fresh new writing styles of the latest authors. There were several famous authors in this era such as: Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and William Cullen Bryant. One innovative author from this movement however, added a new dynamic writing style that still intrigues many readers today. Edgar Allen Poe, through his invention of detective stories, has become a house hold name to many. In his short stories “The Tell Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat,” Poe describes two heinous crimes committed by men whose motives can only be traced back to their deranged perception of reality, domestic relationships, and a soul whose thirst can only be quenched through violence.

    Read More

  • Social Realism In Huck Finn

    792 Words  | 2 Pages

    Writers like Mark Twain wrote about what really mattered to the majority of the population. His stories were not considered fairy tales, but narratives. Realism was an important change in literature, because it allowed the average Joe story to be alright. Instead of paying or reading a story about something you will never have, a person will read about the everyday problems. People saw that humans had more in common than they taught. Mark Twain’s narrative, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn expose the literary movement that is known today as Realism. Mark Twain also criticizes the “ills” of the American society, which he hopes he could be able to correct by raising awareness to the problem.

    Read More

  • Realism In Robinson Crusoe

    1590 Words  | 4 Pages

    Gavin argues, “During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, empirical philosophy recognized a perilous disconnect between knowledge and the actual existence of things in the world” (Gavin 301-325). These ideas of knowledge, and those of the real world, were shaped by Descartes’ theory that reality is perceived by the individual and is not attached to previous ideas of reality. Unlike the novels before, realistic novels appealed to middle-class readers who wanted to read about ordinary people; they could see themselves as main characters in the story (Mario). With the influence of Descartes, novels and the genre of realism came together forming realistic novels. Realism is the attempt to depict all characteristics of human life with such attention to detail that the events seem as realistic as possible, as if readers could perhaps know the characters personally or even be them. Regarding Crusoe, he faces many realistic chall...

    Read More

More about Ambrose Bierce: A Realist

Open Document