The short story an Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge takes place during the civil war in the United States. “A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama… The man’s hand were behind his back, the wrists bound with cord.” (Bierce) The narrator is in a very precarious situation. He is being taken to his own execution. As he walks closer to the hangman’s noose he begins to contemplate how he can escape. He notices the guards and the forest that the railroad track leads to. The rope is tied around his neck but as he falls to his death the rope snaps and he makes a desperate attempt to escape from his captors. This attempt last most of the short story, but it is revealed that the rope did not actually snap and he dies on the end of the hangman’s
…show more content…
This is seen when right before the narrator dies “His neck was in pain and lifting his hand to it found it horribly swollen” (Bierce) even in his vision he feels a stiffness and pain in his neck from the noose, but his brain even though it can’t explain the pain in his hallucination attempt to ignore it and justify it as soreness from the rope breaking. Then just a few lines later he does a similar thing with his tong. “His tongue was swollen with thirst; he relived its fever by thrusting it forward from between his teeth into the cold air.” (Bierce) This show the reader that the author is showing the strength of the brain even when multiple information sources like Eyes, Ears, and pain nerves send contradictory info. The brain attempts to justify all the information to fit the narrative it is desperately trying to create and even when all the evidence goes against the narrative the brain still tries to believe in it created …show more content…
The author is not a scientist, but he is using his ability as an author to express his beliefs in the human body and especially the conscious and the sub consciousness of the human brain. The author uses the book to discuss the strength of the human brain in general and I terms of this specific situation. The final and most important statement of the author is that even in its desperate attempts the brained failed to prevent the death of the narrator. The brain used everything it had at it availability to try and stop
This is seen when right before the narrator dies “His neck was in pain and lifting his hand to it found it horribly swollen” (Bierce) even in his vision he feels a stiffness and pain in his neck from the noose, but his brain even though it can’t explain the pain in his hallucination attempt to ignore it and justify it as soreness from the rope breaking. Then just a few lines later he does a similar thing with his tong. “His tongue was swollen with thirst; he relived its fever by thrusting it forward from between his teeth into the cold air.” (Bierce) This show the reader that the author is showing the strength of the brain even when multiple information sources like Eyes, Ears, and pain nerves send contradictory info. The brain attempts to justify all the information to fit the narrative it is desperately trying to create and even when all the evidence goes against the narrative the brain still tries to believe in it created …show more content…
The author is not a scientist, but he is using his ability as an author to express his beliefs in the human body and especially the conscious and the sub consciousness of the human brain. The author uses the book to discuss the strength of the human brain in general and I terms of this specific situation. The final and most important statement of the author is that even in its desperate attempts the brained failed to prevent the death of the narrator. The brain used everything it had at it availability to try and stop