Ambrose Bierce's Influence On Military Life

Ambrose Bierce’s was an American short story writer, humorist, poet and journalist.
His famous short stories are both humorous and witty. His most noteworthy pieces of literature are based on his first hand experience and his viewpoint of the stupidity of the Civil War. They paint the realistic and absurd aspects of war as well as people’s false ideas about war. His noteworthy works include “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, “Devil’s Dictionary”, and “Chickamauga.” Bierce’s works represent his view of military life, recollections of the Civil War and his humorous way of coping with death.
He later characterized the war as a “by product of the arts of peace.” (Devil’s Dictionary)
Ambrose Bierce was influenced at an early age by his
In fact, the brutal life of a soldier is depicted in each of his works of literature. These works blur the lines between reality and fantasy. Bierce uses humor and wit to escape from the reality of the harshness of war. He characterizes the war, “in terms of physical and emotional constriction and dissociation”(Strauss 210). For instance, in his short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” he tells the story of a confederate soldier, who burned down a bridge, and is waiting to be put to death by being hung. While Peyton, the confederate soldier, is waiting to be hung, Bierce recants Peyton’s vivid images of nature. He said he “let his gaze wander to the swirling water of the stream racing madly beneath his feet. A piece of dancing driftwood caught his attention and his eyes followed it down the current. How slowly it appeared to move! What a sluggish stream!” Bierce chooses to allow Peyton to escape the reality of his impending death. Instead of thinking about his death he focuses on life. Additionally, This is seen when Peyton breaks through the noose and swims away from
Using a young boy as the main character shows that Bierce is Anti-war because children shouldn’t be surrounded by war and trauma. The young boy comes across a wounded soldier while he was strolling through the woods, he thinks he recognizes the man, "the painted clown whom he had seen last summer in the circus .. . he laughed as he watched them.” (Bierce) The boy doesn’t think of the man to be dangerous in anyway, he tries to help the soldier. Until a rabbit ran by and stunned the soldier, and the boy was faced with danger, "The man ... flung the small boy fiercely to the ground as an unbroken colt might have done, then turned upon him a face that lacked a lower jaw—from the upper teeth to the throat was a great red gap fringed with hanging shreds of flesh and splinters of bone." (Bierce) The boy was put in a dangerous situation with a soldier who is injured, and he almost harms the child. Bierce puts the child into this situation because he wants to show that the war puts everyone in danger. The little boy is terrified. He describes the little boy who is confused and doesn’t know how to handle his current