Bierce, Ambrose: 1842-1914?

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, 1890 - Thematic Parallels: Illusion vs. Reality

Bierce, Ambrose: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, 1890
The story’s main topic is the psychological and emotional experience of a man facing execution, framed within a wartime setting and told through a powerful mix of realism and surrealism.
The following books are thematically similar. They lend themselves well to being read in groups, compared with one another, or used to teach a similar topic over an extended period with a class:
- Coetzee, J. M.: Disgrace, 1999, ~220pp
  The novel explores the psychological and moral consequences of a man’s choices amid a turbulent societal backdrop—similar to Bierce’s scrutiny of an individual facing existential crisis due to larger forces - in Bierce’s case, war.
  Both narratives explore the discrepancy between perception and reality, exposing how individuals construct illusions to protect themselves from uncomfortable truths. They deal with ambiguous morality in violent contexts, forcing the reader to question simplistic notions of justice, heroism, or villainy. And they use psychological realism to explore the internal lives of flawed men, blurring the lines between subjective experience and external events.
- Steinbeck, John: Of Mice and Men, 1953, ~120pp
  The work examines themes of hope, dreams versus reality, and the harshness of fate and death, mirroring the illusions and harsh finality in Bierce’s story.
  Both stories center on isolated protagonists whose internal worlds are more vivid than their external realities. They manipulate the reader's sense of time to create emotional impact—either through slow buildup or sudden reversal.
- Wilder, Thornton: The Skin of Our Teeth, 1942, ~170pp
  A play that, while more allegorical, deals with survival, existential threats, and the cyclical nature of history, blending reality and fantasy to examine human endurance and the passage of time. These elements broadly echo Bierce’s exploration of perception and existential crisis.
  Both works question the nature of reality and perception. They challenge the audience’s or reader’s trust in what they see and hear.
- Williams, Tennessee: The Glass Menagerie, 1945, ~130pp
  This play examines the blurring of reality and illusion, and characters who create fantasy worlds to escape painful realities.
  Both authors manipulate time to emphasize subjective experience and the power of the mind under stress or nostalgia and use a character’s distorted perception to drive the narrative, revealing how the mind can escape or distort reality to cope with suffering or regret.
List of general discussion questions on Illusion vs. Reality (pdf)
List of essay prompts on Illusion vs. Reality (pdf)