Comparison of An Occurrence at Owl Creek and To Build a Fire Essay

Ambrose Bierces short story, An Occurrence at Owl Creek, takes place during the Civil War. In Bierces An Occurrence at Owl Creek, the main character, Peyton Farquhar, is about to be hung for committing a crime, but incredibly escapes and makes it back home. Suddenly, at the end the reader realizes that this was all just a dream, and that Peyton is actually dead. In Jack Londons short story, the main character sets out on a long journey in dangerously weather in Alaska, and ends up dead due to freezing temperature. Both short stories illustrated realism in similar ways. While both of these short stories appear similar, there are many differences between them. This essay will discuss the similarities and differences of An Occurrence at Owl Creek and To Build a Fire.

The literary techniques used in both stories are another aspect. In both stories the authors are straight forward and to the point of what they wanted to demonstrate. For example, in To Build a Fire, the reader realizes the main character is dead when London states that the dog caught the scent of death (London 1772). This demonstrates that London does not hesitate to declare the death, just states it without London does not hesitate to declare his death, and he just states the fact without any veneration. This is a common technique of realists. In order to seem realistic, the author gets straight to the point, without exaggeration or praise. A different technique used by Bierce and London is the use of irony. Bierce bases his story on irony, while London rarely uses any in his short story. In To Build a Fire, London does not need irony to express his themes. That one of the things that is unique in his writing style. Furthermore, another writing technique that differs between the two is the use of description in the stories. Bierce uses immense amount of description towards the end of An Occurrence at Owl Creek. For example, the admiration of the trees, The tress upon the bank were giant garden plants; he noted a definite order in their arrangement, inhaled the fragrance of their blossoms (Bierce 1459). Bierce does this in order to mock romanticism. On the other hand, London describes throughout the whole story. For example, in order to portray the severe cold, he describes the main character spitting, He spat again, and before it could fall the snow, the spittle crackled (London 1763). London demonstrates this in order to show the ignorance of his main character.

The themes presented in both stories are important aspects that they present to the story. A common theme shared by both To Build a Fire, and An Occurrence at Owl Creek is the inadequacy of man to nature. In To Build a Fire the main character dies in the cold wild, and how he was powerless by natures power. In An Occurrence at Owl Creek Peyton is unable to escape his providence of death. Both of these circumstances promote the theme of natures superiority to man. Although both stories have a common theme, they also have different themes as well. For example, one of the major themes in To Build a Fire is that ignorance leads to disaster. Besides the old-timer of Sulphur Creeks (London 1772) advice, the main character of this story still heads out into the freezing wilderness, and because of this arrogant mistake he dies. In contrast, An Occurrence at Owl Creek introduces the theme of inconsistence of romanticism. Peyton is about to be hung for committing a crime, but he incredibly escapes the cannon fire and gunshots. On his journey back home, Bierce describes the beauty of nature as he passes in vast detail. Then the reader realizes that it was a dream, and he is dead. This brings the reader back to reality, mocking romanticism. By demonstrating how unrealistic romanticism is, Bierce is able to allow the reader to view his perspective.

The deaths of the main characters in both stories illustrate many similarities and differences. Within An Occurrence at Owl Creek and To Build a Fire, the main characters end up dieing alone. In An Occurrence at Owl Creek Peyton is hung for his crime, his body, with a broken neck, swinging gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek Bridge (Bierce 1460). He died alone, with people around him that he did not know. In To Build a Fire, the main character freezes to death in the frigid weather with no one around to help, other than his dog. In both of these stories, the main character dies an isolated death. This is due to that fact that both authors use the aspect of realism. A realistic author wants to depict an incident as realistically as possible, and to illustrate that he has to often kill the main character to prove his point. In a life-threatening situation, people usually tend not to make it out alive. By directly killing the main character, the author is allowing the reader to realize that life is something we should not hold for granted. While the deaths of the main characters in both novels are similar due to their realistic nature, moreover they are still fairly different. In An Occurrence at Owl Creek, the reader follows the journey of Peyton, and how he is able to escape from the hanging. Later, the reader discovers that this journey was all a dream, and that he is actually dead. Bierce mocks romanticism with the gloomy ending in the story. In comparison, the main character in To Build a Fire dies expectedly and his death is foreshadowed. For example, at the start of the story the author describes his dog as being depressed by the tremendous cold. It knew it was not time for traveling (London 1764). In addition this is significant because it comes from his dog, not another human. Each author develops a different type of death in their stories. Bierce creates death of his character as ironic as possible in order to mock romanticism. By leading the reader to believe that Peyton will escape the hanging and meets his family, Bierce shocks the reader with the ending. This illustrates to readers that romantic novels are unrealistic. In Londons case, he lets the reader to know that the main character will die. Another difference between the two deaths is in their location. While Peyton is hanged on a bridge surrounded by soldiers, the main character of To Build a Fire dies in the isolated wild. London stages his main characters death in the isolated wilderness in order to reveal another one of his storys themes, which was nature and man. That nature is stronger than man shown in this story. This is another quality of realism, where man is displayed as small to nature.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek and To Build a Fire both depicts many similarities and differences in their story. The main similarities come from the fact they are both realist. Besides this, these stories have many important differences, and similarities.