The short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce displays many of the characteristics that can be found in realism literature. There is a strong attention paid to detail in the writing style as well as a focus on an average person as the protagonist. Along with these two characteristics, the simple diction used and the events are naturally plausible, hence the style known as realism (Campbell). With all of these characteristics found in this story, it is clear that this is a model for realism literature.
Throughout the story, there is a clear focus on the details of the setting and other aspects of descriptions. In the first part of the story a lot of detail is put into description of the setting. Simple details such as distance to the forest and what the forest looks like are added to create a distinct style (Bierce). An attention to very specific details is one of the parts of realism literature that sets it apart from other types of literature (Campbell).
Similar to the specific details presented in the story, the diction used is quite important to the style of realism (Campbell). The language in which realism stories are written is usually in something close to the vernacular of the time period and setting. This characteristic is evident in the story. The style is very simple and lacks a poetic sound that many other categories of literature (Bierce). Most of the sentences are simple, but not necessarily monotonous because of the vivid descriptions found throughout as previously mentioned.
Another major component of the realism of this story is the inner realism and psychology of the character. The entire final part of the story consists of a daydream of a person’s life, which obviously is a focus on psychology of a character (Bierce). The realistic nature of the daydream also ties into the fact that this work is part of realism literature.
One part of realism that is extremely important to the style and story itself is that the protagonist be a member of the middle class and be an average person (Campbell). This aspect of romanticism displayed is one of the most important to show the accordance to realism literature (Renfro). In the story, Farquhar is in fact a very average person. He does not necessarily have any amazing characteristics that make him better or more amazing than other people (Bierce).
Obviously, one of the aspects of the realism literature is that the events that happen are actually plausible and realistic. In this story, the events that occur are actually plausible for the time period in the sense that a man was captured for a wrongdoing during the Civil War (Bierce). Now, the daydream that the protagonist has is not necessarily the most likely series of events to take place, but nonetheless it is still plausible.
The characteristics of realism like diction used, vivid descriptions, as well as the focus on a simple, average character for a protagonist are used throughout all of “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” This story is a good model of realism literature because it contains most all of the characteristics of realism.
Works Cited
Renfro, Y. P. "'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge'." In Barney, Brett, and Lisa Paddock, eds. Encyclopedia of American Literature: The Age of Romanticism and Realism, 1816–1895, vol. 2, Revised Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= EAmL0691&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 18, 2011).
Campbell, Donna M. "Realism in American Literature, 1860-1890." Literary Movements. Dept. of English, Washington State University. Online. http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/realism.htm January 18, 2011
Bierce, Ambrose. “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” Online http://fiction.eserver.org/short/occurrence_at_owl_creek.html. January 18, 2011.
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