Poe and Bierce: Authors Making Essay

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"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a psychological thriller because the narrator tricks himself.

The least common experience in Ambrose Bierce's story, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek," is the hanging. However, the story is presented in such a way that the reader does not need to relate to the experience so much as he or she needs to allow the author tell the story. The readers remember the story because of how the human mind operates. The story begins with a man standing on a bridge "looking into the swift waters twenty feet below" (Bierce 63). Everything that occurs in this story occurs in the character's mind. Bierce keeps readers engaged by tricking them. Readers are aware of Farquhar's thoughts and feelings and they are so real and vivid, readers believe they are true. When Farquhar falls, he is aware of the pain in his neck and his "sensations were unaccompanied by thought" (66). He knows the rope snapped just as much as he knew he fell into the river. After falling into the creek, he is also aware of bullets piercing the water "within a few inches of his head" (67). These details are vivid and incredibly realistic. Readers believe this story from the very beginning and because it is so well written, it makes them wonder about the power of their own minds.

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"An Occurrence at Owl Creek" explores the power of the mind and takes the reader on an incredible journey in the process.

The power of the mind is an incredible thing and it is even more incredible when authors can use the mind of a character to convince readers of something. In "The Tell-tale Heart," Poe uses the narrator's insanity to make readers question his or her own. The narrator teeters between moments of lucidity and madness just enough to seem "sort of" sane. In "An Occurrence at Owl Creek," Bierce has readers convinced that Farquhar escapes death. Every detail becomes significant in order for readers to accept the story as true. By the end of the tale, readers believe one thing only to realize they have been fooled. Readers remember these stories because they reveal a little bit of humanity. We want to think we are sane but Poe makes us question our sanity. Bierce makes readers question their sensibilities when they realize they have fallen for a "story" that is not true. We read to escape but when we are sideswiped by the truth, it becomes a little disconcerting.

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