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Naturalism and Psychoanalysis in “Occurrence at Owl Creek” Ambrose Pierce’s “Occurrence at Owl Creek” delves deep within the mind of a human on the brink of death. This story began the development of the “fiction of post-mortem consciousness,” which later writers, such as Hemingway and Gilding, would expand upon. The analysis of the human mind in its last seconds runs a fascinating course through the whole of the story, with elements of the natural state of the world being artfully woven into the fabric of the story.
This is a story about the last delusions of man before succumbing to the depths of defeat in the eternal struggle that characterizes life. The elements of Naturalism at play in this story are present on the description of the scene where the story takes place. The description of Parquet’s executioners is especially telling. “Two private soldiers of the Federal Army, directed by a sergeant who in civil life may have been a sheriff’ demonstrates that war is not far removed from a civil life, as the sergeant is executing a man Just as he would if he ere a sheriff.
Further along in the story Bierce describes Death as “a dignitary who when he comes announced is to be received with formal manifestations of respect, even by those most familiar with him. ” By this statement, Bierce gives death a personality that links it with the human obsession with death. Further examples of realism are the descriptions of the environments that Fuhrman imagines himself to be in. These depictions of things that are surreal and impossible lends to the desperation of the last vestiges of life to cling to the world.
The passages that mention how clearly he can see his surroundings are examples of this. The best link to Naturalism in this story is the final description of the death of Peyote Fuhrman, “Peyote Fuhrman was dead: his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of Owl Creek Bridge. ” This final passage ends the doomed struggle for life that all humans experience. An interesting aspect of “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is the analysis of the human psyche that Bierce conducts.
The sorority of the story describes a scene in which Fuhrman has escaped from the clutches of his captors through a stroke of luck. We are told later that this scene is merely the final imagination of the mind of a man who is about to die. The description of the scene of his escape lends the reader a window into the way that the mind conjures up perfect images of the world around it and uses these images to fabricate an existence where everything is perfect. “He observed that it was a gray eye and remembered having read that gray eyes were the keenest, and that all ammos marksmen had them.
Nevertheless, this one had missed. ” This line is a clear example of the mind shaping the world around it in ways that are suitable to its goal. The use of small details such as the color of the eyes of the marksman lends to the detail that the mind layers into its processes. The depictions to the scenario that Fuhrman imagines clearly demonstrate that man deludes himself until the point of death. The whole of the story is focused upon the fact that a man who is about to die suddenly envisions himself escaping and coming home.
This conjuration of the mind is a clear example of the lengths that a human will go to in order to convince themselves that they are, in fact, going to be k. Thoughts of home and family are common ones when confronted with death and it is natural, therefore, to desire to be in the comfort of a home surrounded by family one last time. These thoughts lead to a suspension of the mind from the body, which allows the mind to wander freely. At the end of his dream, Fuhrman sees his wife; “At the bottom of the steps she stands dating, with a smile of ineffable Joy, an attitude of matchless grace and dignity.
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! ” The last thoughts of the mind of Fuhrman were of his wife. He dreamed of holding her one last time. This is an example of the delusions that our minds subject us to in order to appease us as we die. The human mind is an extraordinary thing.
The lengths that it goes to in order to convince its host that they are all right is stunning. “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is a wonderful analysis of the human psyche at the time of death. The description of the futility of a struggle for life is a trademark of the Naturalist form of literature and it lends to the story a certain sense of hopelessness. This sense of hopelessness defines the levels of delusion that a man could find himself dealing with at the moment of death.