An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge Analysis English Literature Essay

An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge Analysis English Literature Essay An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce, is a short story with a unique plot twist. Ambrose Bierce uses time as a way of manipulating the readers perspective. Time is defined by a nonspatial continuum in which events occur in apparently irreversible succession. (TheFreeDictionary.com) This distortion of the continuous forward motion of time disrupts the perception of reality. When the reader can no longer distinguish actual reality from a perceived reality, other character judgments come into question as well. The disruption of time allows the sequence of events in An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge to be presented in a manner that forces the reader to question any assumptions made about Peyton Farquhars true character. By taking the reader through the mind of Peyton Farquhar during the moments prior to his death, his miraculous escape, and his sudden snap back into the present, the reader is left wondering about the true nature of time and the effect it has on the awarene ss of reality. The narrators description of every tangible detail to the story sets a specific time period for the events that take place. The reader can easily distinguish a historical time line for the story. Being a slave owner and like other slave owners a politician he was naturally an original secessionist and ardently devoted to the Southern cause. (Bierce p. 72) The story is set in the south, during the Civil War. Ambrose Bierce uses a specific time period as a method of developing the readers perception, of not only the situation, but of the character of Peyton Farquhar himself. By labeling Peyton Farquhar as a slave owner (Bierce p. 72), politician (Bierce p. 72), and original secessionist (Bierce p. 72), the reader may begin to empathize with the reasons for Peyton Farquhars situation. The reader can easily believe that by being devoted to the Southern cause (Bierce p 73) during the Civil War, the man who [is] engaged in being hanged (Bierce p. 74) is justifiably in the situation. The de scriptive language used to describe Peyton Farquhar during this specified moment in history, elicit strong emotions in the reader. Ambrose Bierce easily manipulates the readers perception of Peyton Farquhar while solidifying the reality of the story. Ambrose Bierce continuously foreshadows the disruption of time and Peyton Farquhars upcoming death. The moments leading up to his hanging, Peytons reality begins to become distorted. He became conscious of a new disturbance. (Bierce p 74) A sound which he could neither ignore nor understand, a sharp, distinct, metallic percussion like the stroke of a blacksmiths hammer upon the anvil. (Bierce p 75). What should be an irrelevant background noise suddenly becomes extremely significant and loud. Ambrose Bierce clearly expresses just how significant the few moments before death become. More significantly for Bierces purposes, though, is that time itself, when employed to calibrate human experience, seems to become indeterminate at points of maximum emotional disturbance. (Stoicheff) Peyton Farquhar only hears the ticking of his watch. (Bierce p 75) This distinct reference to time gives the reader a moment to ponder just how many ticks of Peytons watch actually occur during the upcoming s equence. As the noose tightens around his neck, and he is as one already dead (Bierce p 75) from this state he [is] awakened ages later. (Bierce p 75) Death is a reality each and every individual must eventually accept. Having to face death in such a brutal manner leaves Peyton Farquhar reminiscent of his wife and home. He closed his eyes in order to fix his last thoughts upon his wife and children. (Bierce p 76) Although improbable, the thoughts of escape begin to cloud Peytons mind. If I could free my hands, he thought, I might throw off the noose and spring into the stream.' (Bierce p 76) Until this point in the story, Ambrose Bierces narration has maintained a steadfast objectivity. In the third and most notable section of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, when the sergeant stepped aside and the board is released from beneath Peyton Farquhar, the narration becomes much more emotion-laden. The reader begins to experience the pain and terror that must come from facing death in such a manner. Although the events of his escape are surreal and improbable, because time-flow is normally irreversible, the reader is continuously pushed forward into believing Peyton has actually survived his escape. Thus, allowing time to continue uninterrupted, yet more subjective. The reader is finally given small insight into the thoughts and emotions of Peyton Farquhar. The internal thoughts and fears of a man just moments from his death can be unnerving and terrifying. However, the reader nearly cheers for Peyton Farquhar to escape unharmed. The narrator continues the objective description of even such a traumatic scene. It seemed to himby the pain of a sharp pressure upon his throat, followed by a sense of suffocation. (Bierce p 75) With each passing moment, with each detailed description of the pain Peyton Farquhar must endure to achieve his escape, time seems to slow down. As in any adrenaline filled moment, time becomes slightly distorted, however Bierce again uses descriptions to what can only be a method of elongating a single moment. As [Peyton Farquhar] rose to the surface, gasping for breath, he saw that he had been a long time under water. (Bierce p 75) Farquhars ordeal describe[s] the sensations of an exhausted escaper as those of a hanged and dy ing man. (Palmer p363) Reality becomes further muddled in the readers mind. Initially the reader was left with many assumptions about the character of Peyton Farquhar. The factual descriptions given allowed the reader to sympathize with Farquhars captors. However, in the second section of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, the reader is given the opportunity to see the events unfold. It becomes apparent that although a secessionist, (Bierce p74) Farquhar was entrapped into the events that unfolded by a union soldier. The reader can than begin to sympathize with the character. Ambrose Bierce uses this opportunity to and entrance into the surrealist dream sequence to develop character more fully (Walz p262-265) The Truth the reader has come to accept begins to unravel and suddenly becomes questionable. The distortion of time and perception begin to distort the awareness of reality for the reader. Ambrose Bierce shows that time can be manipulated and elongated significantly by highly emotional events. (Stoicheff) The narrators description of the a single insign ificant sound and how it comes the most abundant thought before death should make the reader question the subjectivity of not only time, but reality and truth as well. The readers ability to sympathize with the character through a distortion of time and to begin to question the nature and subjectivity of time make apparent how relative truth is. In An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, reality is subject to time, emotions, and the reader assumptions. Each individual aspect effects reality significantly. Ambrose Bierce reiterates the fact that time, reality, and truths are all created in the readers mind. If the readers perception creates each aspect and the readers perception can be easily manipulated, then it stands to reason that each aspect can then be manipulated as well. However, although time is nature to subjective perceptions, Ambrose Bierce makes it obvious that it cannot be escaped. In the end, all is darkness and silence! (Bierce p75) Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge. (Bierce p76)

The Role of Travel Essay -- Traveling Sociology

Travel is an effective way to experience other nations and their cultures. Open minded traveling allows people to immerse themselves in the culture of foreign nations. But, there are some forms of travel that revolve around a different mindset, a mindset in which the goal is to impose your culture on another’s culture. Examples of this negative imperialist type of travel are the travels of exploration done by Christopher Columbus’ in the Americas and, American soldiers in Vietnam, depicted in Francis Coopla’s film â€Å"The Apocalypse Now: Redux.† The negative effects of other forms of travel include the travels of migration to London by Caribbean’s in Sam Selvon’s The Lonely Londoners. Through travel you are provided with means to learn about a nation and to engage in foreign cultures firsthand nevertheless, some forms of travel are unconstructive towards the learning process. In letters written by Christopher Columbus, his accounts of the exploration of the Americas showed how travel can be negative. Columbus wrote to Argon sovereigns, Santangel and Sanchez, about his time in the Americas. Their only source of information about the nation and its culture came from Columbus’ narratives and stereotypes. His letters flirted with the truth; it seemed Columbus’ intentions were to make the people of the Americas appear inferior and to make conquering them sound like an easy task. Throughout his letters Columbus shows a lack of respect for the people of the Americas and their culture. In the quote, â€Å"I found innumerable people and very many islands, of which I took possession in Your Highnesses’ name,† Columbus neglects the fact that the islands were already inhabited by the people of the Americas. (Zamora, 3). Columbus is a good ex... ...tives and misconceptions to be a part of their trips nations and their cultures will continue to be misrepresented. The negative aspects of travel are found in Columbus ‘exploration of the Americas, the conquest of Vietnam in the film The Apocalypse Now: Redux, Caribbean’s migration to London in The Lonely Londoners. But if travelers became more self aware perhaps more trips would be like self-defining like Stella’s in How Stella Got Her Groove Back. Travel is an essential part of our lives and it will only be a positive part if we allow ourselves and our minds to be open to other nations and their cultures. Work Cited: The Apocalayse Now: Redux.Dir.Fracncis Ford Coppola. Paramont Pictures,2001 McMilan, Terry. How Stella Got Her Groove Back. New York: Penguin Group, 1997. Selvon, Sam. The Lonely Londoners.Edinburgh Gate: Pearson Education Limited,1956.

The Gravity Model

Literature review Many researches and theories have been written according to the trade flows between two different zones (EU and BRICS countries). A researcher Cheney in 2008 reported that â€Å"The gravity model† is a very tangible method for empirical trade analysis that explains bilateral trade is described in trade flows in terms of the size of the trading partners (by GDPs), the distance among these countries (long distance creates additional cost on trade) and several other geographical specifications or policy aspects of any bilateral trade relationship. As these factors affect the value of trade between countries, they also affect the duration of these trade flows Prusa in 2006. Thus, we include the GDP of the destination country, the distance (in km) between Brussel, Berlin and the importer country's capital city, and various variables indicating contiguity (i.e. controlling for potential border effects), the existence of bilateral and multilateral trade agreements, EU membership of the destination market and a common language between Belgium, Germany and its trading partner (Brazil, Russian Federation, India, China and South Africa). We also control for the initial value of the export relationship in a destination to account for the initial level of confidence the trading partners originally had in the sustainability of this relationship Brenton in 2010 and to check the presented findings by Besede in 2008 that trade relations starting large last longer. The measurement of trade policy is not often changed even when the definition of trade policy is restricted to traditional tariff and non-tariff barriers to international trade.The TRAINS database of the United Nations' or the WITS database of the World Bank's are systematically exist from 1989. In totally, we can observe that measures of tariffs aremore available than measures of non-tariff barriers. (Anderson and Wincoop 2004). In some situations, there are different types of trade policy measurements: As price – we can show ad-valorem tariffs which are easy to calculate and most comparable across industries and time because they create barrier in international trade and it influences directly to the product's price. Furthermore, trade instruments such of that specific tariffs which are applied as a per-unit on imported goods. By analyzing the trade policy measurement across countries, industries and time that can effect inference about the effect of trade policies in cross-country and multi-industry researches (Harrigan and Barrow in 2009). A recent study by scholars from the  University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, UK (2017) started to analyze the price of different type of chocolates in terms of consumers wants to purchase them. The research showed that online traders do not put higher cost for mixed chocolate than plain chocolate. Moreover, consumers agree to pay a premium for ordinary chocolate bars which are full of proteins and they will prefer to pay a premium for chocolate in comparison to milk chocolate according to dark chocolate's important benefits. Another interesting fact is that to produce a chocolate labeled in developing countries is less cost under the fair trade as opposed to other types of chocolate. Another author, Tracey Massey, president of Mars Chocolate (2016) stressed that for increasing our profit we have to apply newer innovation in chocolate products because of consumers' preferences. Thus, consumers love to taste new mixed products. In another tangible point, we refer to another scholar, Mr. Nielson (2016) corresponding to pricing and sales Nielson presented that chocolate as main product still covers most industry sales (88%) in the market. Hence, people buy chocolate much more during special ceremonies and holidays. In a light of another study of Mayer, which was presented in 2014, he noted that we have evaluate the level of international competition Belgian and German chocolate exporters face on each market. Firstly, we appreciate this observed level by taking into account the amount of chocolate imports from other countries (with the exception of Belgium and Germany). International competition can influence to the prolongation of the chocolate export in two levels. On the first level, countries importing a vast amount of chocolate may also import more chocolate from Belgium and Germany because of a strong preference for chocolate. On the second level, if international competition is tougher, Belgian and German exporters may see it more difficult to compete with other exporters in the market. Another important study came in 2011 by Lulia Monica from the Romanian Academy, Institute of World Economy. According to this paper, it can be seen that the relations between BRICS countries and these two developed countries is the key for the modernization on trade partnership. Thus, in recent decade the chocolate trade between both two areas have increased significantly, emphasizing the great evolution of Chinese and Russian shares on the market of Europe. In 2009, China became the third main exporter for the European market, and the main import country for Europe. After China, Russia came on the fourth place as exporting country, India the 8th and Brazil the twelfth. When it comes to the imports: China is the first import destination for Europe, Russia is the 3rd , Brazil the 9th and India the10th. As a result, this paper indicates that Belgium and Germany as EU countries is the most important trade partner for BRICS countries, both in the sector of exports and imports. Therefore, the points of this enquiry directed to analyze chocolate market share of the given countries above, the situation trade among these countries, to touch some parameters that directly affect the development of the chocolate market and to take into account trade factors in the different countries, how tariffs applied influence the level of export to BRICS countries.

Movie Analysis The World Apart - 1739 Words

Utshab Chakraborty October 27th, 2016 SLAV 88H Essay 1 Cinema and literature have been traditionally portrayed with women demonstrating typical traits of emotional and physical characters. Men usually play the role of the hero, and usually following a journey to success. Men sometimes were defined by what the females lacked, and women were tied to their male lover. As time passed, women’s images remained the same as the gender gap grew. Women’s roles have always been tied to the male counterparts relationship. There is a myriad of examples of how the director or author shape the narrative by using stereotypes, but this will focus on a short story A World Apart written by RÃ… ¯Ã… ¾ena Jesenskà ¡, a film Daisies directed by VÄ›ra Chytilovà ¡, and the propaganda film, Confidant. A common focus will be on how the directors or authors reject the gender stereotype that women are the submissive(quiet, calm, polite) and domestic (following a man’s lead). Daisies is a comedy-drama film that follows two naughty girls, both named Marie, who are involved in many strange pranks. There are many gender discourses present in the film that the director, VÄ›ra Chytilovà ¡, employs to reject the gender stereotypes. For example, in the opening part of the film, Marie bites vigorously into a chicken leg at the dinner table. 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