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Rachel Lopez

Mrs. Kitt

Eng. 3P

31 March 2017

POWER

Realism came from a reaction of Romanticism and Transcendentalism, it is a belief that

describes life without romantic subjectivity and idealism. A realist has more of an eye to what

happens during the moment not in a time that you vision for a different situation. A person that

has a realism point of view focuses on more of a common man and daily human experiences.. In

each text, f the writers use different stylistic devices in, Owl Creek the author uses point of

view, and in A Journey the author uses irony, both of these authors use stylistic devices to

reveal that any human would do everything to overcome obstacles.

In the short story, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, Ambrose Bierce uses point of

view as a stylistic device to determine that any human will do anything in their power to

overcome an obstacle. The point of view that Bierce uses is third person limited, God help me, I

cannot dodge them all!(Bierce) This gives us an insight on Farquhars thoughts, it shows that he

was hoping to get help so he could dodge the bullets and he would think of anything to overcome

his sudden death. In An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge the author states, Ah, how beautiful

she is! He springs forward with extended arms. As he is about to clasp her he feels a stunning

blow upon the back of the neck; a blinding white light blazes all about him with a sound like the

shock of a cannon--then all is darkness and silence(Bierce)! This shows the authors point of

view, being third person limited because we know what Farquhar is saying and what hes doing.
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Although this proves the authors point of view it shows that the main character had a vision of

what it would be like to go home meaning he would think of anything to be able to survive his

sudden death. Bierce proves the point that any human would do anything in their power to

overcome obstacles by showing that Farquhar had thoughts and visions of his life during his

execution.

In the short story, A Journey by Edith Wharton, her use of irony is to prove that a

human being would do anything to conquer complications in any situation. In the short story, A

Journey the author states, But a strong hand arrested her. Good God! If it were known that he

was dead they would be putoff the train at the next station-..She saw them standing on the

platform with the childs body between them: she had never forgotten the dazed look with which

they followed the receding train. And this was what would happen to heraint he awake yet?

he enquired. No, she faltered (Wharton). This is ironic because no one would imagine the wife

to care so much about being kicked out of the train because of her husbands dead body, you

would think she would care about her husband being dead. Wharton shows irony and proves that

any human would do anything to overcome a fear they contain. The wifes fear is not to get

thrown off the train so she lies to the porter so she can stay on the train until she gets to New

York. In the text, wharton says, She thought hurriedly:- If they see I am not surprised they will

suspect something. They will ask questions, and if i tell them the truth they wont believe me- no

one would believe me! It will be terrible- and she kept repeating to herself:- I must pretend i

dont know. The wifes actions are ironic because they show that she cares more about her

reaction to her husbands death instead of being worried about her husbands death. Wharton
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also proves that the wife was pretending to act surprised from her husbands death proving that

she would do anything to overcome the situation she put herself in.

Both Bierce and Wharton use stylistic devices to prove that any human would do

anything to overcome obstacles. Bierce uses point of view and Wharton uses irony to prove that

any human would do anything to overcome complications. Bierce and Wharton call out to those

that try to conquer situations they dont want to be in by having visions or thoughts to lead them

into the place they want to be in.

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Work Cited
Bierce, Ambrose. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. N.p.: n.p., 1890. Print.

Wharton, Edith. A Journey. N.p.: n.p., 1899. Print.