Compare and Contrast of Owl Creek, Bad Boy, and to Light a Fire

I have just read three great stories by Jack London, Mark Twain, and Ambrose Bierce. I have heard of the first two and I have read stories by both, but Ambrose Bierce is new to me. I think that Ambrose Bierce’s story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek” caught me off guard and I was upset at first, but I am really starting to like this story the best. All three stories have interesting themes, settings, and definitely conflicts. The three stories I read were “To Build a Fire” by Jack London, “Story of the Bad Little Boy” by Mark Twain, and “An Occurrence at Owl Creek” by Ambrose Bierce, and I will be writing about the themes, setting and conflicts.

One of my favorite stories of all time is “To Build a Fire” by Jack London. I was really excited when I found out we were going to be writing about this story. One of the main themes of this story that man can live a lonely life which is subject to many forces of nature and an underlying theme is that man is trying to find meaning in his existence. It also is a moral story never think you are too big and bad to ask for help especially in the Alaskan wilderness. This is my first time reading Ambrose Bierce but I like his writing style he is very descriptive kind of like Dean Koontz. Bierce’s story starts in media res, and theme in Bierce’s story is dream vs. reality. The theme develops in Farquhar’s dream of escape this takes up a huge chunk of the story. The details of the story make it seem that he is actually escaping, but in the end you figure out that it is only a dream that passed through Farquhar’s mind in mere seconds. Mark Twain’s “Story of the Bad Little Boy” is good, but I didn’t like this story as much as I liked the first two stories I think that’s because Twain writes sarcastically and the outcome isn’t what you expect. The central theme for “Story of the Bad Little Boy” is this bad kid who gets away with everything and he grows up to be a rotten adult who eventually kills his family and becomes a senator. This is somewhat unexpected in stories you read and movies you see Jim usually has the hammer brought down on him in the end, but he seems to flourish and get away with murder literally.

The setting in “To Build a Fire” is an essential part of the story, and the setting is another character in this story. This story takes place in the wilderness of the frozen Yukon during the middle of the winter months when “there was no sun nor hint of sun.” London’s places his only character in the setting of the wilderness of the Yukon; he creates a setting which is the epitome of the hostile environment. “A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama” this is the main setting of Bierce’s story. Although this is not a harsh environment like the Yukon, but this is harsh in a different way. A man is about to be hung for a crime against his country and although such an offense deserves this harsh punishment you really feel for Farquhar you want him to escape and be with his family. Bierce describes this environment very vividly you feel as if you are out of breath from swimming and you can feel the sand when you finally make it to shore. Although Mark Twain’s setting isn’t as clear as the first two stories you still get a sense that this was a small town in a southern state by the way that the characters speak. You can also tell it’s a small town because they have home made jam and he goes to a small school probably with only a few children. You definitely get the feeling this isn’t a big city, but I think that it suits this story because he doesn’t have any bad influences like you would if you lived in a city like New York. He was just made a bad little