Symbolism In One Kind Of Officer By Ambrose Bierce

Authors have various types of literary devices at their disposal to assist them in producing written work, whether fiction or non-fiction. Many will use one or several and at times combinations of these literary devices for character development, setting, and plots to express whatever it is they’re trying to convey to the reader. One of the more powerful and diverse of these literary devices, symbolism, “contains several layers of meaning, often concealed at first sight, and is representative of several other aspects, concepts or traits than those that are visible in the literal translation alone” (Literary Devices). As an illustration, Ambrose Bierce uses strong symbolism in his short story, “One Kind of Officer” to convey to the reader …show more content…
In the opening dialogue between General Cameron and Captain Ransome, the reader gets a sense that they stumbled in on an awkward, tense exchange between two quarreling adults. This uneasiness between the two is obvious by the way the general barks his orders, almost abusively, giving the captain no reason for them. The captain accepts the orders then passes them to his lieutenant. After a silent, momentary stare down, the general rides away on his horse, the captain renders a mocking salute. Then, Bierce in his first use of symbolism, foreshadows the end scene of the story by describing how after everyone left and Captain Ransome was alone “The gray fog, thickening every moment, closed in about him like a visible doom.” This use of the worsening weather and how the fog envelops the lone military officer with the description of a “visible doom” (Bierce), gives the reader somewhat of a preview that something bleak is coming. Comparatively, one could assume that Bierce was using a metaphor previously coined by the Prussian military analyst, Carl von Clausewitz, where he states, “War is the realm of uncertainty; three quarters of the factors on which action in war is based are wrapped in a fog of greater …show more content…
This is everything from the overly authoritarian demeanor of General Cameron in response to an apparent arrogance from Captain Ransome, to the apathetic way in which he describes the scenes where the troops are mustered in preparation for their impeding skirmish. Having served for a majority of the American Civil War and fought in various battles and served in different capacities, the author probably witnessed undulating levels of morale from troop to troop and battle to battle. He starts off the very first line in scene II describing how the fighting was “desultory and indecisive” (Bierce); the reader is immediately being told how this is an inglorious and dispirited war. He goes on to describe a gruesome battlefield scene where the soldiers, officer and enlisted alike, walk amongst dead bodies and weather beaten equipment, waiting arbitrarily for another incursion. Moreover, the author tells of how General Cameron, when looking for his Division commander, could not locate him due to the fact that he went looking for the brigade commander, “It seemed that everybody was looking for his immediate superior — an ominous circumstance. It meant that nobody was quite at ease” (Bierce). The leaders don’t want to make decisions and the foot soldiers have no motivation to be there, this is not a good recipe for a