¶ … Owl Creek Bridge
I have researched and written many essays and scholarly papers on the Civil War, and have nearly come to tears reading deeply personal stories by those who witnessed the carnage and bloodshed. The Battle of Gettysburg (in which 51,000 men lost their lives) seems unreal today, but it kills the heart to read about the horrific way in which a soldier slowly, painfully dies when stabbed with a bayonet, or shot in the torso with enough harm to bleed to death. But reading Bierce's short story, while very real and compelling, is in a perverse way an escape from the horror of that war that took over 600,000 lives, because a reader can come to the conclusion that Bierce's narrative is just fiction and may be a trick, a hoax, slight of literary hand -- but a very clever one that sucks the reader in emotionally in any case.
When the ticking of a watch becomes a "sharp, distinct, metallic percussion like the stroke of a blacksmith's hammer upon the anvil ... " the reader knows that the narrator is building up to something terribly dramatic. When a man is about to die, or a reader believes he is about to die, every sound of course is magnified...
Lottery" by Shirley Jackson The meaning of Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery' "It isn't fair, it isn't right." These are the last words expressed by the victim in Shirley Jackson's short story 'The Lottery', which provides a unique but shocking perspective of the innate evil that is part of human nature. The story starts off by describing a town scene that could not be more commonplace or predictable. The descriptions provided by
What is Science Fiction? Nightfall (Asimov, 1941) Q1. What is different about the world of the story from the “normal” world? What elements make the world of the story seem strange and different from our own? There are a number of elements in Nightfall that establish the planet’s difference from the normal world on earth. First, it is set on another planet, in a fictional universe. This universe is lighted by several, rather
female body -- the sum of its parts? In short story, novel, and poetic depictions of Gillman, Brooks, and Piercy despised flower, called a yellow weed by most observers. A trapped and voiceless bodily entity, like a ghost, perhaps behind a surface of peeling yellow wallpaper. A plastic doll with yellow hair with pneumatic dimensions and candied cherry lips. These three contrasting images all have been used to characterize
Achates McNeil The use of first person narration in T. Coraghessan Boyle's short story "Achates McNeil" is profoundly important in the effectiveness of the story, and critical to the story's ultimate success. First person narration allows the reader to sympathize with the narrator's anguish, and to see the events of the story clearly through Ake's eyes. In the story, Achates, or Ake (as he calls himself) gives the reader direct access his
Friendship (short Story): Wrestling with myself Sierra was one of those girls everyone hated and everyone secretly wanted to be except me. I just hated her. Even the teachers gave her a wide berth and never challenged her. She'd walk through the school, a cold expression on her face, wearing the latest and most fashionable clothes. She seemed to have a sixth sense about when something suddenly was no longer trendy and had
Gimpel the Fool In Isaac Bashevis Singer's short story "Gimpel the Fool," the character of the title has been given the nickname of fool by the people in his village because of his naivety. When someone tells him a lie, he believes them and does not doubt that what they say is the very truth, no matter how many times he has been deceived in the past. In general, the majority
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