The Anatomy of Anguish

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"The Coup de Grace" by Ambrose Bierce & "Araby" by James Joyce

Suffering is a fact of the human condition. Shaping it has been the basis of many religions, and coming to terms with it the lifeblood of many a writer’s work. This unavoidable state of anguish is, mercifully, both temporary and varied.

In today’s pair of stories, we’ll take a voyeur’s seat to anguish through equally varied eyes: first, through those of a soldier confronted with the brutal injury of a dear friend and sergeant under his command; and second, through those of a teenage boy yearning for recognition and affection in a world he is only just beginning to sort through.

Ambrose Bierce, author of our first story, fought for the Union in the US Civil War. Much of his work flows from that experience, and his writing is characterized by the intensity of the psychological toll extracted on the battlefield. In “The Coup de Grâce,” published in 1889 in the San Francisco Examiner, Bierce reflects on an impossible decision presented to him during the war, leading the story’s Captain Madwell to take action he himself could not. You’ll be left with no question as to why this remains one of Bierce’s most enduring works.

In our second narrative for this reading, James Joyce brings us into the intimate thoughts of someone no longer a boy, and not yet a man. Pulled from The Dubliners, a collection of short stories Joyce wrote to commemorate the phases of Irish life at the turn of the century, “Araby” oozes with pathos and understanding. Completed in 1905, The Dubliners was left unpublished for nine years on the grounds of indecency. Those days are long gone, and readers for generations have been the better for it.

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