an occurance on owl creek
Death is an intriguing thing. From time immemorial we have feared it, used it, pondered it. Frequently, stories allow the reader into the minds of those immediatly surrounding the one who will die; but all of us "will die." Our morbid interest is in dying, the going, that threshold between death and life. What happens there? There are similiarities and differences in how death appears to the protagonist, written by Ambrose Bierce in An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge, and Ernest Hemingway in The Snows of Kilimanjaro.Bierce offers An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge to show the incredible fantasy that passes through the mind of a man as he dies. Hemingway's engrossing description lies in The Snows of Kilimanjaro. Here, on the African savannah, a man encounters death slowly and with excruciating lucidness. While the differences between the two stories are easy to enumerate, it is the simliarities that may offer the most insight into the minds of the authors and, perhaps, into the minds of us all.The setting for An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge is northern Alabama during the Civil War. Peyton Farquhar (Peyton) is said to be a planter who is left behind by the Confederate A
" All these things are noted within the last four paragraphs of the story, just prior to the end of his life. The mind of Peyton tries to deny reality and invents a fantasy that shields itself from deaths appearance until the bitter end. Peyton also experiences several distortions in what appears to be reality. As a result, death has no form or character for him. Peytons's mind races so fast that even the ticking of his watch seems like a far away hammer falling on an anvil. It clangs slower and slower until the delays become maddening. He is certain that he will die very soon. What seems to be a mundane catalog of a dying man's thoughts is suddenly interrupted by Harry's realization that he is going to die. As he is nearing the end of his journey home, he happens upon a road that he knows will take him in the right direction. The interesting thing about each of these fantasies is the dream-like quality in each. He knows the mistake that has sealed his fate. In The Snows of Kilimanjaro Harry's perception of death offers a breath-stopping description for the reader.
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Acceptance Essays
