Bierce

A detailed Summary of Bierce

Serving as a union soldier in the Civil War, Bierce

learned of war' s savageness, and how stupid and degrading

it was. His writing style can be contributed to his war

time experiences. His works are blunt, brutally realistic,

and his attacks on others in the San Francisco Examiner,

(American Authors 1600-1900 76) were nowhere near

politically correct. Bierce's short stories "often hinge on

an ironic surprising conclusion" (Contemporary Authors 48),

as in one of his better known works "An Occurrence At Owl

Creek Bridge", were the sudden death of a Confederate spy

catches us by surprise. A forerunner of the realist

movement, Ambrose Bierce's cynical views of live and human

existence gave him the nickname, "the wickedest

man in San Francisco" (Contemporary Authors 41).

Although often portrayed as a realist for his accounts

on the Civil War, "Bierce was not striving for documentary

realism, as he himself admitted"(Short Story Criticism 48).

Instead, Bierce was interested in manipulating the reader's

viewpoint. The perspective in which the story is written is

used to manipulate the reader's viewpoint, for example in

"Chickamauga", where a bloody battlefield is seen through

Bierce gained a different perspective on war than earlier

Bierce who was often considered bitter, opened a

For all of this, why is Bierce remembered? This

human kindness in old Ambrose; he did not get the nickname

with his war depictions. He painted in our mind, its

forerunner of the realist movement, Ambrose Bierce's cynical

that they might almost as well be trapped animals."

at last like hogs"(Discovering Authors Mencken, H.L.).

Approximate Word count = 828
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History

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