Ambrose Bierce: Difference between revisions

examples template, creatortropes, merged trope sublists
(examples template, creatortropes, merged trope sublists)
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== {{examples|Appearances in fiction ==}}
* ''Old Gringo'' by Carlos Fuentes
* In [[Robert Bloch]]'s story "I Like Blondes" (originally published in ''Playboy'', 1956), the alien tells Shirley that "the body I'm using right now. Its name was Ambrose Beers, I believe. [Ril] picked it up in Mexico a long time ago..."
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* Shows up as an old fangless vampire who aids the protagonist in ''[[Dance in the Vampire Bund]]''.
* ''[[From Dusk till Dawn]] 3: The Hangman's Daughter''. Oddly, the vampires don't get him in the end.
 
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{{creatortropes}}
== Commonly used tropes ==
* [[Abusive Parents]]: Not really abusive, per se, but Bierce clearly had no use or positive feelings for his mother, and very little of either for his father. And he didn't see too much to write home about in his own kids, either.
 
* [[Alliterative Family]]: His father gave all the children names starting with "A".
* [[And I Must Scream]]
* [[Badass]]: Bierce enlisted in the Union Army as a private and left it as a major. And he certainly didn't earn his promotions by kissing ass.
* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Heavy on the deadpan and the snark, and usually in very mean-spirited(but funny) ways.
* [[Darker and Edgier]]
* [[Dying Dream]]: {{spoiler|"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"}}
* [[Exact Words]]
* [[Humans Are the Real Monsters]]
* [[Hurricane of Puns]]
* [[Incredibly Lame Pun]]
* [[Mercy Kill]]
* [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]] (''overwhelmingly'' on the cynical side)
* [[Stealth Insult]]: Bierce was especially fond of these; when a former employer reneged on an offer to rehire him, Bierce wrote the following after the man's death: "Here lies Frank Pixley, as usual."
 
== Specific trope uses ==
 
 
* [[Dying Dream]]: {{spoiler|"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"}}
* [[Exact Words]]
* [[Mercy Kill]]
* [[Theme Initials]]
 
 
== Bierce's life contained examples of ==
 
* [[Alliterative Family]]: His father gave all the children names starting with "A".
* [[Abusive Parents]]: Not really abusive, per se, but Bierce clearly had no use or positive feelings for his mother, and very little of either for his father. And he didn't see too much to write home about in his own kids, either.
* [[Badass]]: Bierce enlisted in the Union Army as a private and left it as a major. And he certainly didn't earn his promotions by kissing ass.
* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Heavy on the deadpan and the snark, and usually in very mean-spirited(but funny) ways.
* [[Stealth Insult]]: Bierce was especially fond of these; when a former employer reneged on an offer to rehire him, Bierce wrote the following after the man's death: "Here lies Frank Pixley, as usual."
* [[War Is Hell]]: Bierce was 19 when he enlisted in the Union Army, and this certainly explains some of the more nightmarish images in his stories.