heme that is ever present in today’s society and well as during the Reconstruction period.The final theme, perception versus reality is presented through “The Yellow Wall-paper” and “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”. The woman in “The Yellow Wall-paper” is placed inside a room by her husband in order for her to get over her illness. While in the room she notices the wallpaper is tearing at the bottom and there seems to be a woman stuck behind it, so she begins to peel away at the paper. The woman’s perception and reality are confused, the woman behind the paper and the woman peeling eventually become one in the woman’s mind, but the woman peeling never realizes that she was the woman stuck behind the paper the whole time. In “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” a man, Peyton Farquahar, is set to be hung. He about to lose his last breath when the rope suddenly breaks, he falls into the water and miraculously gets away. He makes it all the way home and as he is about to hug his wife, it all goes dark. Peyton Farquhar had never fallen off the bridge nor made it home, he only imagined this while in the process of being hanged. His perception and reality were confused, possible because of the fear of death. In these two cases each of the two characters were confused on what was really happing and what they imagined. True beauty, protection of nature, and perception versus reality are three themes that are common among American literature. Each of the authors creates a story to reflect their personal view on life and it becomes connected to the other stories by theme. Theme is one of the most important literary terms used in a story. Without the theme, there would be no meaning to stories....
