Poe and Bierce: Authors Making

Poe and Bierce: Authors making Powerful Connections Literature makes impressions upon readers when they can relate to experiences and characters. When readers feel a connection, they will remember characters and stories long after reading. Two stories that usually generate a response with readers are "The Tell-tale Heart" by Edgar Allen Poe and "An Occurrence at Owl Creek" by Ambrose Bierce. Each story gives the reader something to think about. Poe's story becomes real because readers can relate to the perception of madness. The narrator does not think he is mad.

In fact, it takes a few moments for readers to realize just how mad he is. This aspect of the story makes readers question their own sanity as they watch the narrator lose his. In "An Occurrence at Owl Creek," readers relate to the power of the imagination, which Bierce only reveals at the end of the story. Readers believe what is happening in this story because of incredible detail and a realistic approach.

These stories illustrate how using a character's mind can influence readers and cause them to rethink certain things they believe to be true. Readers remember "The Tell-tale Heart" because of it is a psychological thriller. Poe successfully uses the narrator's insanity to increase fear and terror by making the narrator seem at least somewhat sane at the beginning of the story. By the end of the story, readers know he is anything but sane.

The experience of the narrator trying to convince himself and the readers that he is sane is what readers can identify with because we all wonder at some point if we are crazy. He convinces readers he is not crazy by discussing the matter. He asks readers, "Why will you say that I am mad? The disease has sharpened my senses -- not destroyed, not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute" (Poe 189).

Here we see how the narrator is aware of his "sharpened" abilities but he is not ready to attribute them to any type of defect. Many times, people think they are making an intelligent decision and it turns out to be just the opposite. Readers will see this mistake and wonder if they make similar types of mistakes in their lives. Readers will also see him waver between different levels of emotions.

He says he was "never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him" (189). He also says he loved the man all the while plotting to kill him. These experiences allow Poe to get into the minds of readers. The narrator does not think he is mad and does his best to prove he is not. He seems mildly sane and because that notion is difficult to grasp, readers want to believe he is more sane than not.

"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a psychological thriller because the narrator tricks himself. The least common experience in Ambrose Bierce's story, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek," is the hanging. However, the story is presented in such a way that the reader does not need to relate to the experience so much as he or she needs to allow the author tell the story. The readers remember the story because of how the human mind operates.

The story begins with a man standing on a bridge "looking into the swift waters twenty feet below" (Bierce 63). Everything that occurs in this story occurs in the character's mind. Bierce keeps readers engaged by tricking them. Readers are aware of Farquhar's thoughts and feelings and they are so real and vivid, readers believe they are true. When Farquhar falls, he is aware of the pain in his neck and his "sensations were unaccompanied by thought" (66).

He knows the rope snapped just as much as he knew he fell into the river. After falling into the creek, he is also aware of bullets piercing the water "within a few inches of his head" (67). These details are vivid and incredibly realistic. Readers believe this story from the very beginning and because it is so well written, it makes them wonder about the power of their own minds.

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek" explores the power of the mind and takes the reader on an incredible journey in the process. The power of the mind is an incredible thing and it is even more incredible when authors can use the.