Bitter Bierce's Influence On War

He was known by many names: the wickedest man in San Francisco; the devil’s lexicographer; Bitter Bierce. He was called pessimistic, cynical, morose, idealistic, frustrated, obscure, sadistic, brutal, kind. His office desk held two peculiar objects—a skull and a cigar box. If you asked him why, he’d explain: the skull once belonged to a dear friend, and the box contained the ashes of a critic. While saying this, he would neither laugh nor smile. Despite his curmudgeonly exterior and his inability to be defined within the context of literary studies, Bierce was a very accomplished writer with over four million words to his credit. Of his most celebrated works are short stories depicting his experiences during the Civil War. These stories were
Although his logical self opposed everything it stood for, he was excited by it emotionally and was quite good as a scout. As Solomon explained, Bierce “was revolted, intellectually, by the harsh brutalities of a repellent, paradoxical world,” but he still “enjoyed the test of combat, the companionship and the excitement of war” (Solomon, 1982). This qualification on Bierce’s anti-war sentiments has two sides. First, there is a clear distinction between Bierce’s “intellect” and reason, which define his anti-war feelings, and on the other side, his “excitement” and emotions, which coinciding with the populous of the time, enjoyed the patriotism and energy demonstrated during war times. Although this division between the rational and irrational thoughts of the human mind seems tenuous, it is quite logical when viewed from the psychological perspective. However, by analyzing the personality and feelings of Bierce, we detract from the evidence that is present in the texts themselves. The ambivalence of Bierce’s anti-war sentiments lies at the heart of his very best short stories describing the Civil War. While his writing undermines the common practices of the period writing through a constant juxtaposition of the idealistic popular opinion of war with the harsh brutalities of the battlefield, Bierce does not attempt to portray war as a cultural and historical reality serving
The story does have a “hero,” which is obviously Armisted, who sacrifices himself in order to be a truly honorable soldier. He is disgusted by the world of lies inhabited by the Governor and his wide, but the world he turns to for purification, far from being a rejection of the Governor’s world of “elevated sentiments…devotion…heroism,” is an intensification of the latter. Armisted is a better man because he truly believes in the chivalric code of honor which for the Governor is a mere facade. The “horrors of war” in the midst of which Armisted show his valor and honesty turn out to be at least more “human” and real than the “horrors of peace,” which characterize the Governor’s everyday life. What happens in another story, “The Coup de Grace,” where the only humane thing Captain Madwell can do for his mortally wounded companion Sergeant Halcrow is to drive his sword into Halcrow’s chest and therefore put an end to his suffering, typifies the inescapable logic of the military mindset in which “An Affair of Outposts” and all of Bierce’s war tales take place. No matter how appalling and horrible war may be, Bierce’s fiction shows that its logic cannot be