"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is written by the author Ambrosa Bierce. This story takes place during the civil war. A man by the name of Peyton Farquar is arrested under the suspicion of trying to destroy Owl Creek Bridge and sentenced to death by hanging. To keep the readers interested Bierce goes into the mind of Peyton himself. When Peyton starts to walk towards the plank and to his certain death something crazy happens and he escapes. In the last paragraph of the story Bierce spoils the happy ending and tells the readers that he is merely dreaming and then he is hanged. "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" keeps suspense by the use of Peyton's senses, flashbacks, and the setting.
When Peyton is thrown off the bridge into is inevitable
Setting in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is a mutable component and known as one of the most imperative indicators in the text to direct the reader towards how it should be perceived and what is happening. Based during the Civil War the environment was set in occupied Federal Army territory where, “a lieutenant stood at the right of the line, the point of his sword upon the ground, his left hand resting upon his right.” (Bierce 399). The function of time in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" both creates positives and negatives that define the story as realist that describes moments with genuine detail, taking many paragraphs to relate a single second. Such as the moment, “ [Farquhar] looked a moment his “unsteadfast foot,” then let
“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true” (Kierkegaard)- Misleading oneself by accepting things as true or valid when they are not is a common phenomenon of nearly every human being, especially when faced with life changing of threatening situations. Self-deception can therefore be considered an option to escape reality in order to prevent oneself from dealing with the weight of a situation. Basically, those strong influencing psychological forces keep us from acknowledging a threatening situation or truth. However, oftentimes people do not realize that they are deceiving themselves, for it is mostly the action of the subconscious mind to protect especially the psychological well- being. This psychological state is depicted and in Ambrose Bierce’s short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”. He shows that people try to escape reality and seek refuge in self-deception when confronted with life-threatening situations, through characterization, alternate point of view, and the fluidity of time.
“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” by Ambrose Bierce, is the story of the hanging of a Civil War era Southern gentleman by the name of Peyton Farquhar. The story begins with an unidentified man being prepared to be hanged by a company of Union soldiers on a railroad bridge that runs over a river. He is then identified as Peyton Farquhar, a man who attempted to destroy the very bridge they are standing on based on information he was given by a Federal scout posing as a Confederate soldier. As he is dropped from the bridge to hang, the rope snaps and he falls into the river. After freeing himself and returning to the surface of the river, he realizes that his senses are all much heightened and he even “noted the prismatic colors in all the dewdrops upon a million blades of grass” (153). Peyton then begins to swim downstream as he is being shot at by the soldiers and a cannon as well. He soon pulls himself ashore and begins the long journey home. After walking all day and night, to the point where “his tongue was swollen with thirst” and “he could no longer feel the roadway beneath his feet” he finally makes it to his home (155). Just as he is about to embrace his wife he feels a sharp pain in his neck and hears a loud snap. He is dead from the hanging, and all this was just a dream. “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” shows the potential strength that a person’s will to live can have, and that we often don’t appreciate...
Bierce broke this story down into three parts. The first part of the narrative creates an atmosphere with the setting at Owl Creek Bridge. Great detail is told here as to who is present at the scene, what is happening, what the scene looks like, etc. But the reader only receives ideas and thoughts from one person, Peyton Farquar. The first part as like the other two parts of this story is written very systematically and clear. Even with such a structured set up, the author still manages to put great anticipation and fearsome emotion into the near end of the first part of this story. At this point the author makes the reader think Peyton is devising a way to set his hands free from the rope thereby beginning his journey to escape home.
It is true that in all great literature. Clues which later seem obvious are often undetected until the story’s plot is resolved. The reader is unaware of the foreshadowing until the plot comes together. Ambrose Bierces " An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and " A Horseman In The Sky" identify literary elements supporting this thought.
“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” by Ambrose Bierce is a short story about a man who seems to be lost in a world between reality and imagination. The story shows trials, triumphs, and the matters of life and death. The main character Peyton Farquhar is a proud confederate, husband, planter, and politician, not only is he all of those things but he is an optimist and this is what takes him on the journey of his life. After being put in a sticky situation he has nothing else to do but hope for a miracle. It’s not till the end that we find out Peyton has been dead throughout most of the story after breaking his neck from being hung.
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge uses dramatic irony, imagery and time to piece this short story together in a compelling way that brings the readers through the text in a swift, but gentle movement. Bierce is also protesting the Civil War going on in the United States as futile and inhumane. He produces a timeless piece that can be related to present times and times to come. He maintains control throughout the entire work and uses the element of surprise to the benefit of his work. Bierce’s ability to create a dramatic, detailed story using imagery and irony to establish a vibrant mental image and produce the well-written short story of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.
The authors, Ambrose Bierce of 'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge' and Edger Allan Poe of 'The Tell Tale Heart' have unique styles to pull the reader into the story. Both authors use unreliable narrator and imagery to allow the reader to picture and follow the narrator's way of thinking. In the Tell Tale Heart, the man is very repetitious and his psychotic behavior is what intrigues the overall dark madness of The Tell Tale Heart. In Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Bierce uses illusions to allow the reader to follow wherever his ideas lead which also intrigues the overall dark madness effect.
"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is a story of illusion, decision, and fate. It presents one with a very powerful scenario - one that questions the protagonist 's ultimate destiny, and the concept of good vs. evil. It defines the grey area of deeds by which most humans live, and uses powerful thematic concepts and devices to convey the author 's own value while leaving some space for the reader to make their own choice. Furthermore, this story discusses the life of a man who ended up on the wrong side of history, humanizing yet criminalizing him for his beliefs. This can all be attributed to a wide array of symbols and interactions- all which support the theme of illusion vs. reality. The complex thematic value of this piece stems from multiple aspects – the most important of which are the bridge through both its literal and symbolic meaning, the colour grey in all its depth and broad variations, the essence of time in all of its distortion, and the story 's style of writing.
The plot structure allows the mind to wonder and ask itself questions as to why Farquhar is being prepared to hang, or how it was so easy for him to escape down the river. The central theme adds extra interest into the setting, plot structure, and point of view. The fictional elements used in the story help the readers to better understand the events and the order of which they occur. “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” used the setting, point of view, and plot structure to setup the unique theme that the story holds of its free flowing nature of
A large portion of the text in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is just Peyton’s imagination, and the details are quite vivid. Obviously, the boy in “Chickamauga” uses his imagination freely, from his pretend sword to riding the wounded soldiers like horses. It seems that this is part of Bierce’s denouncement of romanticism. Peyton’s escape, daring and unbelievable, is only his imagination. It is as if Bierce is communicating that these types of things only happen in the imagination; in reality the man uneventfully hangs and dies. The point Bierce makes is that Romanticism is just an imaginative view of the world. He attempts to make it quite clear that the world is unfair, tragic, and cruel, something Bierce had experienced firsthand. The wording used in both stories paints very realistic and grotesque images, like when the jawless soldier is described; “from the upper teeth to the throat was a great red gap fringed with hanging shreds of flesh and splinters of bone.”(Bierce) This type of description goes along with Bierce’s attempt to show true, gruesome reality, and we see it again when the boy’s mother is seen with her skull agape. Bierce also describes more beautiful scenes in a similar manner, allowing the reader to imagine vivid and detailed images. Perhaps the most prominent example of his vivid description is when Peyton emerges from the water; “He looked at the forest on the bank of the stream, saw the
Ambrose Bierce wrote "The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" during the turn of the nineteenth to twentieth century. During this time period the two writing styles of romanticism, and realism were coming together. This melding of styles was a result of the romantic period of writing and art coming to an end, just at realism was beginning to gain popularity. "The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is a perfect example of this transition of styles as it combines elements of both romanticism and realism to create a story that can be far-fetched while still believable at times.
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In "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and "The Story of an Hour," the authors use similar techniques to create different tones, which in turn illicit very distinct reactions from the reader. Both use a third person narrator with a limited omniscient point of view to tell of a brief, yet significant period of time. In "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," Bierce uses this method to create an analytical tone to tell the story of Farquhar's experience just before death. In "The Story of an Hour," Chopin uses this method to create an involved, sympathetic tone to relay the story of Mrs. Mallard's experience just before death. These stories can be compared on the basis of their similar points of view and conclusions as well as their different tones.
The short story, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, keeps you at the edge of your seat with its interesting story plot. Bierce uses symbolism, a form of literary technique, to bring deeper meaning to the short story, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. Bierce also uses allusion, another form of literary technique, in the short story to keep the reader interested. The gray eyes mentioned in the story are a very important element included to symbolize the gray line within Farquhar’s mind because he has become lost. Ambrose Bierce uses literary techniques and foreshadowing to ultimately shock you with a tragic ending.