Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge

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In the stories “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and “Man From the South” the authors, Ambrose Bierce and Roald Dahl, portrayed the endings very dramatically in multiple measures. The closures of the stories were dramatic because of the way the authors went along with their story. Both authors not only built up the suspense throughout the stories, but it also had to do with how they presented the beginning and conclusion. In “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” the author begins his short story right in the middle, meaning that the story goes directly into action. Bierce commences his story by saying “The man’s hands were behind his back, the wrists bound with a cord. A rope closely encircled his neck.” By kicking his story off in this…show more content…
For example, in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” Bierce continues his story by just now adding the description of the character. So, he says “His features were good--a straight nose, firm mouth, broad forehead, from which his long hair was combed straight back, falling behind his ears to the collar of his well-fitting frock coat. He wore a mustache and pointed beard, but no whiskers; his eyes were large and dark gray, and had a kindly expression which one would hardly have expected in one whose neck was in a hemp.” By him including this, it creates suspense because the readers now know where the character is and how he looks, but the readers are yet to be told a name. So, without being told a name, the author is leaving the readers to try to figure out and infer as to why this character is tied up on a bridge and what did that character do to get into that situation. Then the author, Dahl, who wrote “Man From the South” created suspense through out his story by including the quote about the old man. He stated that, “Just then I noticed a small, oldish man walking briskly around the edge of the pool. He was immaculately dressed in a white suit and he walked with little bouncing strides, pushing himself high up onto his toes with each step.” With Dahl adding in this quote, it builds up the suspense because the audience is forced to start contemplating
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