Two great short stories...

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge- anybody out there ever read this one? Ambrose Bierce, an Ohio boy from Meigs County (wherever that is) tells an eerie tale of a Southern plantation owner who is captured by Union troops, accused of espionage, and sentenced to be hanged from---you guessed it, the Owl Creek Bridge. Without giving away the ending, the story is a psychological journey as to what may go through our mind when we're at death's doorstep. Supposedly, "they" say that our senses are heightened and we tend to want to fantasize/ and even halucinate actions that we feel compelled to complete before we "cross over"...this is an easy sell to the kids because it is such a unique story with an ending that is simply shocking.

Next week the kids are going to be assigned Jack London's classic short story, To Build a Fire. This is a cool one also...a rookie prospector in the Yukon attempts a long journey on foot during an intense cold spell, with only his dog as his companion. Falling through the ice, he quickly recovers and attempts to build a fire, with frost bitten hands, before the sun goes down...or he will certainly die from the elements. Again, London's story focuses on the pysche of an individual who is confronted with death.

Bierce and London, two of the founding fathers of the Realists, are truly masterful story tellers. You really care about what happens to their characters because their stories usually center around a universal human fear/ uncertainty, like death, and believable characters whom we can truly empathize with/ show pathos towards...and in turn captivate us, the reader, till the end...(hey, at least this is the sales job I give the kids to make them do their homework!)