An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
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Need help writing a short story draft for the story posted in the thesis below.
In Ambrose Bierce's "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," the theme of war's grim realities is carefully facilitated through characterization, setting, and irony.
The assignment instructions are:
-This Essay will be a Five Paragraph Essay, 700 word minimum: introduction, 3 body paragraphs, conclusion.
-Choose ONE short story we have studied this session. You will take three direct quotations from this story for inclusion within your essay. You will use ONE quote per body paragraph.
-Document the three quotations using correct MLA format for in-text citations.
-There will be a correctly formatted Works Cited section for the short story. You will correctly cite the short story.
-Focus your analysis on the THEME of the work, and show how the author develops his/her THEME through the use of three literary elements we have studied.
II: Follow these guidelines when organizing and drafting your Short Story Literary Analysis Essay:
-Create an original title for your essay which reflects the central idea of your work.
-Within the introductory paragraph, introduce the plot but avoid an extended plot summary.
-Include a preview of the three literary elements within your thesis, making sure to use parallel structure.
-Each literary element will serve as the central idea for each of the three body paragraphs.
-Introduce your body paragraphs using restricted topic sentences.
-Use transition words effectively
-Use three quotations from the short story to illustrate the main focus within each of the body paragraphs (minimum of one direct quotation per body paragraph). Use examples from the story as well as your own commentary and interpretation to support the point of each paragraph.
-Document quotes from the primary source/short story with correctly formatted parenthetical citations using MLA format. Also include a Works Cited section for the primary source/short story from your Norton Anthology.
-Finish the essay with a strong concluding paragraph.
-Use only third person objective point-of-view. Do not use first person "I" or me , second person "you" or subjective third person "we", our or "us".
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Solution Summary
This solution is a literary analysis of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" based on three significant quotations. It addresses characterization, irony, and setting.
Solution Preview
First, for your thesis, I'm not sure this story is so much about the "grim realities" of war in general but about the romantic and unrealistic nature of the Confederate cause and many of its followers. Peyton Farquhar thinks of himself as almost the hero of an epic romance or of Walter Scott's romantic portrayals of the losing side of the Scottish rebellion against England, but eventually we, as readers, realize that his views, like the ideology of his cause, are hopelessly out of touch with reality. The story by Bierce that most addresses the horrors of war is actually "Chickamauga" , with its realistic description of horribly wounded soldiers and civilians. On a side note, you should mention that Bierce himself fought as a soldier in the Union army, and thus is writing about his enemies.
Characterization Paragraph:
Quotation: Meanwhile he did what he could. No service was too humble for him to perform in aid of the South, no adventure too perilous for him to undertake if consistent with the character of a civilian who ...
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