Reality and Unreality: The Journey through the mind of a Writer"
Aaron Christopher Espinosa
Summer 2014
Kathleen Dawson
Los Angeles Community College
“Reality and Unreality: The Journey through the mind of a writer.”
Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and Emily Dickenson’s “I Felt a Funeral in My Brain”.
Two different styles of literature with a theme in common... We will evaluate Ambrose Bierce’s short story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, and Emily Dickenson’s poem, “I Felt A Funeral in My Brain”. The evaluation will begin with Bierce and will end with Dickenson. Through the evaluation we will prove at end, the two pieces of literature share a common theme - reality and unreality. Therefore my thesis is that both Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and Emily Dickenson’s “I Felt a Funeral in My Brain” both share the theme, reality and unreality.
In several ways, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is all about meaning and understanding. Farquhar’s interpretation of the world around him and the reader’s belief of what happens to Farquhar are equally connected to each other. Impressions of reality become more and more controversial as the story progresses, as what occurs to him becomes less imaginable. By giving attention to Farquhar’s interpretation of reality, Bierce encourage’s his readers to question what about their lives is and is not real.
“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is a complicated to conceive account of the shifting of time. The story’s formation, which moves from the present to the past to what is made known to be the imagined present, demonstrates the shifting as well as the pressure that exist among competing perceptions of time. The second section intervenes what at first looks to be the constant flow of the execution-taking place in the present moment. Motionless on the edge of the bridge, Farquhar closes his eyes, an indication of his own interpretation of reality, one that is free from any responsibility to laws of time. As the stroke of his watch slows
Summer 2014
Kathleen Dawson
Los Angeles Community College
“Reality and Unreality: The Journey through the mind of a writer.”
Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and Emily Dickenson’s “I Felt a Funeral in My Brain”.
Two different styles of literature with a theme in common... We will evaluate Ambrose Bierce’s short story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, and Emily Dickenson’s poem, “I Felt A Funeral in My Brain”. The evaluation will begin with Bierce and will end with Dickenson. Through the evaluation we will prove at end, the two pieces of literature share a common theme - reality and unreality. Therefore my thesis is that both Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and Emily Dickenson’s “I Felt a Funeral in My Brain” both share the theme, reality and unreality.
In several ways, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is all about meaning and understanding. Farquhar’s interpretation of the world around him and the reader’s belief of what happens to Farquhar are equally connected to each other. Impressions of reality become more and more controversial as the story progresses, as what occurs to him becomes less imaginable. By giving attention to Farquhar’s interpretation of reality, Bierce encourage’s his readers to question what about their lives is and is not real.
“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is a complicated to conceive account of the shifting of time. The story’s formation, which moves from the present to the past to what is made known to be the imagined present, demonstrates the shifting as well as the pressure that exist among competing perceptions of time. The second section intervenes what at first looks to be the constant flow of the execution-taking place in the present moment. Motionless on the edge of the bridge, Farquhar closes his eyes, an indication of his own interpretation of reality, one that is free from any responsibility to laws of time. As the stroke of his watch slows