An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Group

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jp0830
jp0830
Student
College - Freshman

How do Ambrose Bierce's "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" relate to one another?

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Posted by jp0830 on Friday October 2, 2009 at 6:47 AM and tagged with ambrose bierce, owl creek bridge, things they carried, tim o'brien.

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  1. scarletpimpernel Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    Besides the obvious similarity of both being set during American Wars ("Bridge" during The Civil War, and "Carried" during the Vietnam War), a more subtle relation can be made between Peyton Farquhar in Bierce's story and Lt. Jimmy Cross in O'Brien's.  As Peyton Farquhar stands on the bridge with a noose around his neck, his mind wanders off to his wife and home.  He dreams that he is with his wife again and that he is not about to be executed.  Likewise, as Jimmy Cross, an inexperienced, gentle leader, traipses through the jungles of Vietnam, his mind wanders off to a girl he hopes will be his girlfriend--Martha.  At the opening of the story, she is simply a college girl who writes him and who went on a date with him. Cross ponders the meaning of the word "love" that she signs on her letters to him.  And--just like Peyton's wife does for "Bridge's" main character--the thought of Martha  provides an escape from reality for Cross.

    In addition, the authors' style in both of these portions of the related stories is similar. Bierce and O'Brien use the stream-of-consciousness technique to illustrate the mindset of someone who desperately needs to remove himself mentally from events at hand.

    Finally, both authors are veterans of controversial wars. After the war, Bierce was troubled by his combat experience and wrote with such a harsh tone that he earned the moniker "Bitter Bierce." Eventually, he moved to Mexico and was never heard from again.  Like Bierce, O'Brien, a Vietnam Veteran, uses writing as a sort of therapy for his combat-related issues, and on a more positive note, is able to portray accurately the difficulties of the modern soldier.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/occurrence-owl/summary
    http://www.enotes.com/things-they/summary

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    Posted by scarletpimpernel on Friday October 2, 2009 at 2:15 PM