A Mystery Of Heroism, And Ambrose Bierce s An Occurrence...

Before the Civil War, fighting was generally seen as this glorious act in which people battled for pride and honor. However, with the advent of photography, nothing stopped the raw images of the horrors of war from being captured for what they really are. In literature, this shift toward the realization of the true nature of war marked a departure from romanticism into realism. Works like Stephan Crane’s â€Å"A Mystery of Heroism† and Ambrose Bierce’s An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge demonstrate the brutal challenges that ordinary people face while a nation is at strife. Even though Jack London’s â€Å"To Build a Fire† was far removed from the Continental United States in setting, it is still heavily influenced by the atmosphere that the Civil War left the nation in. While these three short stories differ in many aspects, they are bound together because they all depict real life and can therefore be categorized as pieces of American Realism. While works of romanticism have glorified war and journeys as noble endeavors, works of American Realism depict them as they really are, often with the aid of gruesome imagery to demonstrate what needs to be changed rather than what needs to be praised. For instance, to illustrate the non-idealistic aspects of a perilous journey, rather than describe man’s triumphs against the forces of nature, London shows man’s true fragility. In this short story, the protagonist mistakenly believes that he is capable of bracing the freezing temperatures