Compare and contrast the view that ‘An Arrest’ is a tale of nature Essa

Compare and contrast the view that An Arrest is a tale of nature rejecting a human villain with the view that it is concerned only with a vengeful superego ‘An Arrest’ is an ambiguous story. You can look at it in different ways. One way to see it is as a tale of nature rejecting a human villain. This view is put forward right from the beginning. When the narrator uses words such as â€Å"confined† and â€Å"fugitive† to describe the state of Orrin Brower, he creates the image of an animal isolated from human society. This is because ‘confined’ is usually a word to do with animals or mad people who are not allowed to be in contact with humans Further evidence to support the argument of Orrin Brower being portrayed as a savage beast comes when the author writes that he had, â€Å"recovered liberty,† which is like an animal being released into the wild. Orrin Brower does not feel guilty for beating Burton Duff or think of the consequences of his actions, as a human would; he only feels and acknowledges his freedom which is an animal-like thing to do. When he is on the run he decides to escape to the forest which may be as he is treated like an animal he starts to believe that he is one. The fact that the narrator states ‘he had the folly to enter a forest’ suggests that even though he thinks of himself as an animal, Brower is not and therefore does not belong in the forest- this proves that nature will inevitably try to discard him. As he enters the forest, we are told that ‘the night was pretty dark with neither moon nor stars visible’ which could be seen as a nature trying to confuse Brower. We begin to doubt Brower’s animal-like image when Bierce writes, â€Å"Brower had never dwelt thereabout, and knew nothing of the lay ... ...re following him to the prison was not human at all. As I mentioned earlier Brower has committed some serious crimes which are the result of the id part of his brain taking over. The id is the part of our brain which wants all our basic needs- our Inner Desires- such as sleep, food and sex. However our superego stops us from becoming lazy, greedy or rapists. What happened to Brower is that his id took over and his superego was shunned so he committed these crimes without any guilt. At the clearing in the forest, Brower’s superego suddenly starts operating again and conjures up the image to make the guilty conscience, which comes with it, disappear by sending him back to justice. Bierce seems to have dropped many hints to leave both views arguably correct. Personally, I think Bierce has done this deliberately to leave the story as ambiguous as the title.