Ambrose Gwinnette Bierce Essay, Research Paper

Born on June 24, 1842, in Meigs County, Ohio, Ambrose Gwinnette Bierce

was one of thirteen children of Marcus Aurelius and Laura Bierce. At seventeen,

Bierce attended the Kentucky Military Institute and two years later he served

in the Union army of the Civil War. It was in the war that Bierce discovered

death, destruction, physical, and the mental anguish associated with it. All

this experiences had great, lasting impact into his life that influenced his

writings into powerful short stories such as "An Occurrence at Owl Creek

Bridge" Bierce flourished as editor and newspaper columnist for the San

Francisco Examiner?? Ambrose Bierce is also famous for the circumstances surrounding the end

of his life In 1913, after the breakup of his marriage and the death of his

sons, he set out for Mexico to meet Mexican revel Pancho Villa and observe the

Mexican Revolution at first hand and this was the end chapter of his own life

because after that his fate still remain unknown? Ambrose Bierce divides this episode into three parts. Part I were he

introduces the reader to the situation and Part III tells all that is happening

in-between Farquhar’s falling through to the end of his rope and his actual

death from the hanging, both are in the??

present while Part II is a flashback and tells the background

information of Farquhar and how he arrived in such a predicament.? In reading the opening paragraphs of the story Bierce seems to be

describing a photograph or a dream everything is static. Is the mastering of

this element what made the story for me his distortions of time and space, the

effects of the story?? the abrupt and

very rapid shift from stasis to action, from timelessness to time. As Farquar

is yanked from one state to the other, so are we. He flees across country until he finally reaches home and as he

approaches his open armed wife…the rope snaps tight and we realize that he

had imagined the whole episode on his way down that it only happened in

Farquar’s mind. Here in one tidy package is the brutality of war, the futility of life

and the bitter wit that characterizes Bierce?s work as well as irony and a

cynical view of the world and humanity ? Some have a natural dislike of

the surprise ending and think it is cheating. However, the trick ending, in

this case, is the very point of the story. For those of you who felt cheated

and suckered by this ending, I wonder if that wasn’t exactly the point Bierce

were trying to make. He no doubt felt cheated and suckered by life, and I

suspect he was suggesting that most of us are cheated and suckered by life. We

have these delusions that we will find happiness, love, and caring,and just as

we seem to approach it, we find ourselves at the end of a rope. That may be a cynical point of view for some, but for others that may be Realism. He wasn’t called Bitter Bierce for nothing.