Bierce, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" (1891)

Style

It's a very queer thing how craft comes into writing. I mean down to details. Par example. In Miss Brill I chose not only the length of every sentence -- I chose the rise and fall of every paragraph to fit her -- and to fit her on that day at that very moment. After I'd written it I read it aloud -- numbers of times -- just as one would play over a musical composition, trying to get it nearer and nearer to the expression of Miss Brill -- until it fitted her. (Katherine Mansfield; cited Geddes 225)

Stylistic features are present in all works of art, including literature and painting; their role even in shaping our perceptions of such natural objects as plants. There are three levels, examplified below (following examples to be discussed in class):

 
plant
painting
Texture (immediate sensory effect) brown hard stems vs. soft green; down on leaves foreground: rough pathway and verge; wooden fences, cliff on valley edge
Structure (how it is assembled, works) branching of veins on leaves; clustering of flowers house design; steep-sided valley, low viewpoint (picturesque principles)
Trope (what we take it to mean) tendency to find red flower symbolic (read human values into it) waterfall (Staubbachfall) as most striking feature; Byron's comment (figure): "The torrent is in shape curving over the rock, like the tail of a white horse streaming in the wind, such as it might be conceived would be that of the 'pale horse' on which Death is mounted in the Apocalypse." (Sept 1816)

Sentence in 2nd para. of Bierce, some literary equivalents:

 
The company faced the bridge staring stonily, motionless.
Sound alliteration: staring stonily, motionless; assonance: stonily, motionless; adjacent strong stresses: bridge staring; effects slow down reader
Syntax additional adjective, reinforcing formality of rigid military discipline, each man obliged to take up a role
Semantics "stonily": deepens sense of dehumanization of soldiers; cf. "statues" in following sentence; "Death is a dignitary" etc.

Following the opening description in journalist-type prose, the sentence analysed here is the first with notable poetic qualities in the story; it begins to evoke an attitude towards what is being done to Peyton Farquhar that places him within our sympathies.

There are several guides to literary terms on the Internet: the one by Joel Sommer Littauer is succinct and seems usually accurate. (For terms distinctive to narrative, see the Glossary in our anthology, pp. 385 ff.)

Purpose of such stylistic effects: to arrest the reader, to defamiliarize, i.e., to facilitate a newness of perception and understanding, to shape readers' feelings and values.

Stylistic features require interpretation, i.e., what contribution they make to the meaning of the text in which they occur. How would you account for their presence in Bierce's story? (choose specific examples, not style in general).

Students's examples

His neck ached horribly; his brain was on fire; his heart, which had been fluttering faintly, gave a great leap, trying to force itself out at his mouth. (p. 28)
Sound alliteration of /h/ and /f/ -- slows down sentence; sense of breathlessness
Syntax personification of heart -- taking on a life of its own; imagery very visual
Semantics a sense that the protagonist is approaching a moment of mortality -- his soul is fighting to leave his body -- separation from 'this mortal coil'
-- a sense that the body is being shed or is entering a different phase of existence. The protagonist's mortal body is preparing for death or a transition into a different world. The mortal body and the sould or essence are parting.

He felt the ripples upon his face and heard their separate sounds as they struck. (p. 29)
Sound -- alliteration: the sound of /s/ in: ripples, face, separate, sounds, struck; these take the /s/ from the sounds, and allow these sounds to become almost audible;
-- the stresses on the words are flowing [and rhythmic]: this helps build a picture in the reader's mind of a flowing stream (the which the words also relate)
Syntax the word 'separate' coming before the word 'sounds' reinforces the idea that the sounds are actually coming toward the character in individual waves (waves of sound)
Semantics

-- in the line prior, the last few words relate that his 'physical senses . . . made record of things never before perceived.'
-- this opens the way for the character (and reader) to experience senses in a defamiliarized way, such as the 'sounds as they struck.' One would not usually think of the sounds from ripples as being the kind to strike, particularly as the 'ripples on the water' tends to bring with it an image of peacefulness, calm
-- this is all in contrast to the violence leading up to the scene

The story up to the point of this passage, has been filled with conflict (to die/drown in river or live), pain (neck aching, body racked with anguish) and noise (breathe of air . . . expelled in shriek). Now a sense of 'differentness' comes, with water ripples, and clarity: the character is aware of a 'newness' (can hear the separate sounds of ripples, make new perceptions), but the 'struck' reminds us of past conflict and violence. It is a moment of hope, heading toward a chance for survival.

As he pushes open the gate and passes up the wide white walk, he sees a flutter of female garments; his wife, looking fresh and cool and sweet, steps down from the verandah to meet him.
Sound alliteration of /w/ in 'wide white walk'; /f/ in 'flutter of female . . . his wife'; /s/ in pushes, passes, sees, steps; assonance: 'wide white'
Syntax -- 'inviting' adjectives: white, fresh, cool, sweet; reinforcing refreshment and comfort
-- a change in tense: the story had been told from the past in preceding paragraphs, but this one shifts to the present to force the reader to 'be' with our protagonist. It makes the final scene more fluid. The presence of many /s/ sounds makes the whole scene more dreamlike.
Semantics -- 'flutter of female garments': stresses natural beauty and delicacy
-- 'fresh, cool, sweet': offers the notion that his hunger and thirst will be satisfied by being with his wife, family, at home
-- 'white' is clean, pure, peaceful, very much opposite to where he has come from
 

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Document prepared September 4th 2002 / updated September 21st 2002