Review: Narration & Description, and the Writing Process

Review: Narration & Description, and the Writing Process

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Review: Narration & Description, and the Writing Process

Metaphors

            The first metaphor used by the author is “stroke of the blacksmith’s hammer upon the anvil” (Bierce, 1990). This metaphor is used to express the sounds made by the watch before the actual hanging. The second metaphor is “stream racing madly beneath his feet” (Bierce, 1990). This metaphor is used to describe how fast time was moving. “A sound like the shock of a canon” (Bierce, 1990) is a metaphor used to express death. The railroad bridge mentioned at the beginning of the sentence is used to differentiate the past from the present (Bierce, 1990). The author also describes death as dignitary. This shows how death was perceived in the past.

Themes

The author uses the theme of version of reality. This is because Farquhar drifts away into imagining an escape. This helps in the extension of time in reality, in his mind .The second theme used is time. This is evident because, at a point of death, time always seems to move very fast. The next theme used is that of justice and judgement. This is used to express time because of the current laws and forms of punishment. This means that laws and punishment for wrongdoing have greatly changed. The next theme is that of warfare, which is also used to express time. This means that the story is about a certain period during a war. The final theme is that of death. It is expressed in the duration between life and death. Time is expressed in the few minutes and seconds before death (Stoicheff, 1993).

Quotes

The first quote used by Bierce is “He looked a moment at his ‘unsteadfast footing’ then let his gaze wander to the swirling water of the stream racing madly beneath his feet. A piece of dancing driftwood caught his attention and his eyes followed it down the current. How slowly it appeared to move what a sluggish stream” (Bierce, 1990). Bierce writes that the water in the stream is moving so fast yet the piece of wood he notices is moving slowly. This means that Bierce is expressing time to be moving both fast and slow.

The second quote used is “striking through the thought of his dear ones was a sound which he could neither ignore nor understand, a sharp, distinct, metallic percussion like the stroke of a blacksmith’s hammer upon the anvil; it had the same ringing quality. He wondered what it was, and whether immeasurably distant or nearby—it seemed both. Its recurrence was regular, but as slow as the tolling of a death knell. He awaited each stroke with impatience and… He knew not why…apprehension. The intervals of silence grew progressively longer, the delays became maddening. With their greater infrequency the sounds increased in strength and sharpness. They hurt his ear like the thrust of a knife he feared he would shriek. What he heard was the ticking of his watch” (Bierce, 1990). Bierce uses the sound made by the ticking watch to express time. The recurrence of the ticking was regular but slow. This means that the victim felt like the time was moving slowly (Tabachnick, 2013).

The other quote used to express time is “From this state he was awakened… ages later, it seemed to him… by the pain of a sharp pressure upon his throat, followed by a sense of suffocation” (Bierce, 1990). The author uses the pain felt and loss of breath to signify the time of hanging of the person. In this quote, the actual hanging is used to perceive time (Ames, 1987).

References

Ames, C. R. (1987). Do I Wake or Sleep? Technique as Content in Ambrose Bierce’s Short Story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”. American Literary Realism, 1870-1910, 19, 3, 52-67.

Bierce, A. (1990). An occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. Champaign, Ill: Project Gutenberg.

Stoicheff, P. (1993). “Something Uncanny”: The Dream Structure in Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”. Studies in Short Fiction, 30, 3, 349.

Tabachnick, S. E. (2013). A possible source for the conclusion of Ambrose Bierce’s an occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. Anq – Quarterly Journal of Short Articles Notes and Reviews, 26, 1, 45-48.