“The Wickedest Man In San Francisco”
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 the eyes of a deaf
child(Short Story Criticism 48), or in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”,
The Essay on Commentary How to Tell True War Story
Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried is a work of metafiction that manages to test fiction in its very nature through the chapter, “How to Tell a True War Story.” The blurred line between reality and the imagination is explored by the given account—the reader is alienated and forced to think, does the truth matter in a war story? This chapter alternates in narration between O’Brien as a soldier ...
where a man about to be hanged for treason, dreams of his escape. Bierce’s
often ironic twists leave the reader stunned. As noted by Alfred Kazin,
“There is invariably a sudden reversal, usually in a few lines near the end,
that takes the story away from the reader, as it were, that overthrows his
confidence in the nature of what he has been reading, that indeed overthrows
his confidence” (Short Story Criticism 49).
For all of this, why is Bierce
considered a realist? Bierce, unlike any other short story author before him,
was not romantic with his war depictions. He painted in our mind, its
gruesomeness, its wastefulness. Bierce’s stories depict soldiers “as
bewildered fools, doing things without sense, submitting to torture and
outrage without resistance, dying at last like hogs”(Discovering Authors
Mencken, H.L.).
Nonetheless, as stated by Clifton Fadiman, a literary
critic, “what he writes has the bitter-aloes taste of truth. He helped blaze the
trail for later and doubtless better realists” (Discovering Authors Fadiman,
Clifton).
Bierce’s fascination, his focal point, in many of his literary works
is none other than death. One can even state he was obsessed with it. From
his gruesome descriptions of human suffering and decay, to the ironic deaths
of many of his characters, death was his only constant. “Death was Bierce’s
favorite character”(Discovering Authors Wilson, Edmund), and often
considered his only character. “In all Bierce’s fiction, there are no men or
women who are interesting as men or women — that is, by reason of their
passions, their aspirations or their personalities. They figure only as the
helpless butts of sadistic practical jokes, and their higher faculties are so
little involved that they might almost as well be trapped animals.”
(Discovering Authors Wilson, Edmund) Bierce placed humans “somewhere
The Essay on Haplin Frayser Bierce Short Story
Ambrose Bierce's Ise Of Flashbacks And The Ambrose Bierce's Ise Of Flashbacks And The Supernatural In His Short Stories AMBROSE BIERCE'S: USE OF FLASHBACKS AND THE SUPERNATURAL IN HIS SHORT STORIES Ambrose Bierce is known for using both flashbacks and the supernatural in his short stories "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge' and "The Death of Haplin Frayser.' Bierce was born on June 24, 1842, in ...
between the sheep and the horned cattle”, as stated by H.L. Mencken. “There
was nothing of the milk of human kindness in old Ambrose; he did not get
the nickname of Bitter Bierce for nothing. What delighted him most in this
life was the spectacle of human cowardice and folly” (Discovering Authors
Mencken, H. L.).
For all of this, why is Bierce remembered? This “pessimism
machine”(Discovering Authors Fadiman, Clifton), whose works grew
repetitive and dull with his continuous depictions of death and human
suffering, had a special gift. With, his use of irony, and his sometimes
brilliant use of words, he was capable of getting a laugh or a smile
out of the death or deterioration of one of his characters. As in two of his
works “My Favorite Murder” and “Oil of Dog”, Bierce was able to get a
chuckle out of the passing of another. Another reason for Bierce’s
remembrance is for his transformation of the short story. As stated by H. E.
Bates, “Bierce began to shorten the short story; he began to bring to it a
sharper, more compressed method”(Short Story Criticism 49).
Bierce who was often considered bitter, opened a door to a new type
of writing.[Unlike most of the authors before his time, his works did not
always feature an optimistic viewpoint.] From his wartime experiences
Bierce gained a different perspective on war than earlier war writers, and is
often labeled a realist for this. 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).
Works Cited
“Bierce, Ambrose Gwinett 1842-1914?” Contemporary Authors. Ed.
Frances C. Locher. New Revised Series, Vol. 9. Detroit: Gale
Research, 1982. 75-76.
“Bierce, Ambrose Gwinett 1842-1914?” Contemporary Authors. Ed.
Frances C. Locher. New Revised Series, Vol. 104. Detroit: Gale
Research, 1982. 41.
“Bierce, Ambrose” American Authors: 1600-1900. Sixth Edition. New
The Term Paper on Why Do Students Choose Human Resource Management
Why Do Students Choose Human Resource Management Outline: Introduction. Making right decisions at college is important for future career. What is Human Resource: The factors of production. Human capital as a fourth factor of production Human capital becomes more and more important Human Resource Management (HRM): The definition of Human Resource Management The main functions of HRM: Planning the ...
York : The N.W. Wilson Company, 1964. 76-77.
“Bierce, Ambrose 1842-1914.” DISCovering Authors, Gale Research Inc.,
1993.
