Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” ends with this stark imagery: “Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of Owl Creek bridge” (151). This line presents a cold, distant, and annotative description of death; there is little to invoke the representation of the life that has been lost. Yet, Bierce’s narrative up to this point has succinctly painted the picture of that life, its final moments and its desire to keep living. Likewise, Arthur C. Clark’s “The Star,” grabbles with existence, presenting a narrator who evaluates his faith in the face of a destroyed alien civilization. In both instances, the facts of what have occurred can be described as harrowing, yet,
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This factual evaluation bears similarity with the way Bierce presents the death of Peyton Farquhar, pure objectivism. Yet, in another example, the short story by Ray Bradbury, entitled “August 2002: Night Meeting,” displays a main character, Tomas Gomez, and the Martian he encounters, who are both confounded when their factual information comes into conflict with the factual information of the other. Thus, this story story then arises a question about the objectivism of these two beings. Is it possible that Tomas is from the future or from the past as the Martian asserts? Where does one draw the line in the sand regarding the factual information when only so much conflicting information is …show more content…
In the case of the Martian in “August 2002: Night Meeting,” the confusion and disagreement of their factual realities can be disregarded in the face of the individual experience, “what does it matter who is Past or Future, if we are both alive, for what follows will follow, tomorrow or in ten thousand years” (Bradbury 183). The Martian accepts Tomas story as part of his experience, not necessarily a pure fantasy crafted by Tomas, and respectfully compares it as of equal value of his own. Thus experience, then, becomes meaning. For the reader of “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” the experience of the story is the emotional and fictional journey home of the narrator. Peyton Farquhar has made an error in choosing to enact upon his own regretted inactivity as a southern secessionist. Farquhar lands in the very real noose of the “Yanks” when he attempts to burn the bridge the northerns are utilizing (Bierce 147). The experience during the third part of this story depicts Farquhar’s journey home and ultimate reunion with his beloved wife, through Bierce’s prose the reader is able to emphasize with Farquhar’s desire to be home, “he stands at the gates of his home…at the bottom of the steps she stands waiting, with a smile of ineffable joy, an attitude of matchless grace and dignity (151). Farquhar’s dream is a fantasy, and yet, it makes his character more relatable to the reader and helps
This factual evaluation bears similarity with the way Bierce presents the death of Peyton Farquhar, pure objectivism. Yet, in another example, the short story by Ray Bradbury, entitled “August 2002: Night Meeting,” displays a main character, Tomas Gomez, and the Martian he encounters, who are both confounded when their factual information comes into conflict with the factual information of the other. Thus, this story story then arises a question about the objectivism of these two beings. Is it possible that Tomas is from the future or from the past as the Martian asserts? Where does one draw the line in the sand regarding the factual information when only so much conflicting information is …show more content…
In the case of the Martian in “August 2002: Night Meeting,” the confusion and disagreement of their factual realities can be disregarded in the face of the individual experience, “what does it matter who is Past or Future, if we are both alive, for what follows will follow, tomorrow or in ten thousand years” (Bradbury 183). The Martian accepts Tomas story as part of his experience, not necessarily a pure fantasy crafted by Tomas, and respectfully compares it as of equal value of his own. Thus experience, then, becomes meaning. For the reader of “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” the experience of the story is the emotional and fictional journey home of the narrator. Peyton Farquhar has made an error in choosing to enact upon his own regretted inactivity as a southern secessionist. Farquhar lands in the very real noose of the “Yanks” when he attempts to burn the bridge the northerns are utilizing (Bierce 147). The experience during the third part of this story depicts Farquhar’s journey home and ultimate reunion with his beloved wife, through Bierce’s prose the reader is able to emphasize with Farquhar’s desire to be home, “he stands at the gates of his home…at the bottom of the steps she stands waiting, with a smile of ineffable joy, an attitude of matchless grace and dignity (151). Farquhar’s dream is a fantasy, and yet, it makes his character more relatable to the reader and helps