Ambrose Bierce’s Experience During the Civil War and Its...

In becoming a printers devil for a Northern Indianapolis Abolitionist Newspaper gave background for the interest in writing and the agreement in the Abolistionist view point. Heeding to the call to arms to help defend the North.,Bierce joined the Army The next four years were spent traveling the states fighting in some of the most well known battles of the Civil War . Ambrose Bierce’s experience during the Civil War where he faced the dangers of nature and man influenced his writing. After being struck in the head by a bullet during a battle, the recouperating time gave Bierce time to write calling on his actual war time memories and experiences to fuel the ideas for these tales. Thes e stories were actually an outlet for the†¦show more content†¦As stated by critic Cathy Davidson, â€Å"he invented many literary techniques:the close examination of time ;an attention to mental fictions in order to avoid real life:the blending of fantasy and reality â€Å". Another example of this literary technique, is in the short story â€Å"Chicamuga†where the six year old character of the story ,has a vivid imagination about war and how it is fought . He sneaks away from his parents plantation armed with a toy wooden sword ready to engage in battle. In his imaginary battle he comes across wounded men . They were wounded and killed in a battle, nearby his home. The boy considers these men as just part of his imaginary play , running around and showing his wooden sword victoriously ,until he stumbles upon more dead in the nearby creek . He is still daydreaming about the battle he fought and won when he is intrigued by the glow of fire in the forest . Still not realizing that it was familiar surroundings he marches on thinking about the battle he just won, until he starts to recognize that the burning glow is his own home! When realization sets in , the boy s head starts to spin,He is desperately trying to get a grasp of the situation around him .He sees an intriguing glow in the forest, he focuses on that , and heads towards it. He sees flames and the buildings they consume,Then the reality .hit him, the reason theseShow MoreRelatedAnalysis of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Essay1035 Words   |  5 Pagesare other literary elements represented in the story. Perhaps Ambrose Bierce’s most famous works, he used imagery from his own personal experiences in the Civil War, which adds to the suspense of the short story. Imagination is a difficult word to define. The ability to have a daydream, or picture with vivid details, is what imagination could be. An imagination is key for some people, who escape real life into a fantasy world. Bierces â€Å"An Occurrence at Owl Creek† uses point of view, structure, andRead MoreHistory of the Development of the Short Story.3660 Words   |  15 Pagesattempt to resist categorization by genre as well as definition by numbers, finding such approaches limiting and counter-intuitive to artistic form and reasoning. As a result, definitions of the short story based upon length splinter even more when the writing process is t aken into consideration.[41] Short stories date back to oral story-telling traditions which originally produced epics such as Homers Iliad and Odyssey. Oral narratives were often told in the form of rhyming or rhythmic verse, often