USE OF FLASHBACKS AND THE SUPERNATURAL IN HIS SHORT STORIES Ambrose Bierce is known for using both flashbacks and the supernatural in his short stories "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and "The Death of Haplin Frayser." Bierce was born on June 24, 1842, in House Cave Creek, Meigs County, Ohio. He alsodisappeared in Mexico while acting as an observer of that country's civil war in January1, 1914. Beirce's literary reputation is based primarily on his short stories about the CivilWar and the supernatural. "Mancken considered him to be the "First writer of fiction everto treat war realistically." (O'Connor 5). Bierce grew up around the military, he entered amilitary academy in his teen years and then later on in his life was involved in war. Hewas involved in the U.S. Army, served with the Ninth Indiana Infantry Regiment as adrummer boy and Buell's Army of the Ohio. Many believe Bierce wrote about wars sorealistically because he experienced war first hand. Many of Bierce's works arecompared to Edgar Allan Poe because their stories share an attraction to death in its morebizarre forms. Bierce also worked as a novelist, journalist, poet, essayist, and a critic. Bierce has also written many other works which include The Devil's Dictionary, "TheSecret of Macarger's Gulch" and "The Middle Toe of the Right Foot."In the short story "An Occurrance atOwl Creek Bridge" Bierce uses flashbacks ofthe soldiers in war to descibe what happened to them throught out the course of war. Many of the soldiers have scary flash backs. In the short story "An Occurrance at OwlCreek Bridge" Bierce describes exactly what the soldiers went through in battle and gives details of deaths that happened. Although Beirce's figures are not very welldeveloped in any of his short stories, each story expresses a deep psychological trauma,one that ends in madness or loss. In war the characters become part of the military.Bierce either tells alot about the hero i...
