Ambrose Bierce illustrates effectively how to hold the reader’s attention through suspenseful narration in the short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”. Not only is it a very powerful and suspense filled story, but the fine characterization of the ill-fated protagonist, as well as the stylishly crafted approach of the narrative, flows together to create the irony that so often illustrates Bierce’s writing; and forces us to marvel at its composition. Through descriptive adjectives, detail of events, the structure of the story and inviting the reader into the personal thoughts and life of Peyton Farquhar, Bierce draws out one of the most suspenseful narratives in short story history. “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” begins by capturing the reader’s attention with the shocking revelation that a man is to be hanged on Owl Creek Bridge. The reader does not know why or who the convicted man is, but immediately curiosity is peeked by such a brutal occurrence.
We will be exploring the combined use of persona, fate, point of view, flashbacks, epiphanies and irony towards further contributing towards the authors’ visions. The texts “The Things They Carried” and “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” both share the conflict of individual versus self. The pair both vary greatly in their presentation as well as what substantiates them. They however, simultaneously both touch on the universally shared trait of human emotion in extenuating circumstances. O’Brien and Thomas both depict situations where the concept of death is always lurking just around the corner.
Jennings use of foreshadowing helps readers unveil a deep understanding of Robin’s dark thoughts through literary techniques, “My high spirits dissolve like salt in water,” The use of red herrings throughout the novel help represent the use of significant and powerful themes through the use of the thriller conventions. Throughout this novel Paul Jennings use of short stories through the first person narration of Robin, reveals to readers the dark thoughts that continuously surface into Robins mind. Each story reflects upon the problems and obsessions that Robin is experiencing, showing the need to confront the darkness within him, before it completely dominates his mind. "I
These layers of suspense greatly add in looking into Tom’s head and understanding if Tom can comprehends the peril he put himself into. In the end, Tom brought the entire ordeal upon himself. Had he decided to not be so greedy and selfish, he would have gone out with his wife and enjoyed the night, rather than experiencing one of the most horrific events of his life. Instead, he finds himself on this narrow little ledge, very much regretting the past few decisions he had made. The author does a great job of making this apparent, and chooses to show it through irony, cause and effect, and suspense.
He subjects the poor characters of his novel to every imaginable evil that man has been wont to commit in order to prove that this could not be the best of all worlds. Secondarily, Voltaire also seems to have other bones to pick. Hardly a paragraph is written that does not contain a sarcastic comment about or outright mockery of some person, idea, or institution. It is a credit to the skill of the author that he is able to present his criticisms with a humor that is as intoxicating as it is relentless and controversial. The sheer number of insults and implications made by the author coupled with a healthy sprinkling of aristocratic inside jokes would indicate that he essentially wrote this book for himself and other like-minded intellectuals of the enlightenment that disapproved of the status quo or could at least appreciate his cheeky sense of humor.
Addie's genuine character as a living human will be a mystery; a few may view her as someone who was playing with the devil and others might see her as someone with admiration because she was one to believe that actions speak louder than words. The different characters throughout the novel and the difficulty stream-of-consciousness method all work together to create a novel that is open-ended and a matter of understanding. There is no intent truth to the narrative any more than there is any ideal certainty to the events that happen in it. The way that Faulkner uses the multiple narrators serves the purpose of trying to figure out what is the truth of these events that took place throughout the story and this is what makes this novel such a success. Faulkner desires to enchant his audience and grasp their mind.
Through this, the composer enables the reader to understand how dreams usually do not come true and when they seem so close, they slip away. Just like when Crooks had finally ‘reduced himself to nothing’, after being insulted. Overall, the idea of the ‘American dream’ is portrayed as false hopes and pain. Which Steinbeck effectively, demonstrates through the various characters and scenes in the novel, allowing the responder to clearly understand that all men have dreams; however the likeliness of them eventuating is awfully
He presents himself with only limited information about his motivations, and his ambition to finish off his master piece and careful manipulation of Fortunato indicates the care with which he has planned his execution. However, we again have a classic case of Poe's unreliable narrator, whose guilt and occasional irrationality prevents him from presenting himself truthfully to the reader. However, we can see that Montresor shows a particularly black sense of humor, with which he amuses both himself and the horrified reader as he leads Fortunato into his trap. He informs the audience of his intentions before he begins the story of his encounter with Fortunato, and Poe employs both verbal and dramatic irony to convey the darkness of the story. A very good example of black humor can be found at the very beginning of the story itself: Montresor’s had "vowed revenge" against Fortunato, but he decided to mask his real feelings by outwardly appearing friendly towards him.
“I knew enough about hell to stop me from stealing.” He uses this quote in a way to tell that he knew it was wrong but it didn’t stop him. Diction is more of the tone in the writing. In the writing, Gary Soto’s tone was more of a nervous edge. “A car honked and the driver knew.” You can tell from how he wrote it at the time he was very scared and fearful that he was going to get caught. Another tone that could see was guilt.
2) Summary: Charles May states in his article that Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado is a clear example of unity in short stories, and the reason for this is due to the use of irony; he mainly argues that even though the plot seems relatively simple, the irony filled story turns out to be decidedly complex. May supports his claim by providing numerous examples of some of the ironic situations that prevail in the story, such as some exchanges between Montresor and Fortunato, Montresor’s family motto and coat of arms, and other ironic elements. Furthermore, May does not only state these situations but also explains the true meanings behind these ironies. However, Charles overlooks some of the most obvious and relevant ironies: such as the title of the story and the ambiguity of the word Cask, meaning wine barrel and close relation to the word casket; also, the meaning of the name Fortunato, which means fortunate or lucky. Nevertheless, despite the omission of these and many other distinct and relevant ironies, May draws attention to certain situations that might be easily overlooked and raises relevant points that reinforce his statement that this short story’s plot is not