Ambrose Bierces’ An Occurence At Owl Creek Bridge Essay

“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

Imagery, detail, and symbolism play a crucial role in this work. Imagery has the function of painting a picture of the situation in the reader’s mind so that he or she is able to develop a version of the story individually. It makes the reading a more personalized experience that helps the reader to understand what’s going on. When O’Brien was just about to escape to Canada to avoid being drafted, he described the scene that was presented in front of him. “The shoreline was dense with brush and timber. I could see tiny red berries on the bushes.” In this quote, the reader can visualize the setting of the lake where he has to make his life-changing decision. It appeals to the visual sense by describing the shoreline and even the sense of

Bierce wrote this novel in an unconventional and illogical order. By starting with the ending of the story and then moving backward describing the events leading up to Farquhar's death, by doing this Bierce creates a suspenseful tension relating to how the narrator perceives the story. This is crucial to the story as it is a prime example of the perception of time. Although Farquhar's death comes in the middle of the second page “his thoughts, which have here to be set down in words, were flashed into the dommed man’s brain rather than evolved from it the captain nodded to the sergeant. The sergeant stepped aside” (Bierce Para 8). Bierce extends his story for four more pages about the mere seconds before Farquhar's death. At this point Bierce wants his audience to believe that Farquhar is alive, so the narrator goes on to tell about what is going through Farquhar's mind in these few seconds. This shows how the perception of time is very different based on the situation. In Farquhar's cause time was majorly slowed down before his imminent death. After Bierce illustrates a journey through Farquhar's mind, in the end, that was all his imagination “Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge” (Bierce Para 26). This shocking thrill at the

Fish is demonstrating his experience at South Pass, Wyoming to be a thought of excitement prior to reaching the destination with his friend, Del Bene. As he writes more about his experience, it is obvious that South Pass was not pleasurable. The stories of death, the deficiency of water as well as lack of beautiful scenery described in the narrative was profound in sensory details. Therefore, allowing its readers to experience exactly what Peter Fish encountered in his journey. The thesis in this narrative is in a very uncommon position, but this positioning made the story flow much more simple. As described in this week’s lecture, the narrative obviously shifts from specific to general. Additionally, I enjoyed reading the variety of the story,

A&P by John Updike and A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner are two short stories which reveal to be different, odd and even bizarre in several aspects; conversely, on the other hand, they are very similar. One similarity for John Updike, William Faulkner and many other authors, is being that they follow the three-act structure, which helps to write their story more effectively. Furthermore, in analyzing A&P and A Rose for Emily, we see that both share an “overarching” theme; however, their symbolism and conflicts are different, they still follow the three-act structure; finally, in the end, you will see which one I infer does a better job compared to the other.

Many have debated the question if time is stopped or slowed down during death, in the short story by Ambrose Bierce “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”. The author uses lots of unique plot twists during the short story that manipulates the reader to lead towards another perspective. However, though out the story setting and plot is a huge factor in the story. Correspondingly, the viewpoint of, symbolism, and irony is used heavily throughout the story, translated in Peyton Farquhar mentality during his tragic death making it a true short story. Ambrose Bierce uses the time to manipulate the reader from understanding the plot making it impossible to foreshadow most of the short story.

The American Civil War was seen as a “necessary evil” in order to terminate the institution of slavery since divisions over it between the American North and South could not be quelled by peaceful exchange of ideas. Ambrose Bierce challenges this opinion with his short story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” about a Confederate soldier, Peyton Farquhar, who waits for his execution atop a railroad bridge and his final thoughts. With his nonsensical arrangement and obvious symbolism, Bierce strives to convey that war does not adhere to logic, and ironically, when one desperately tries to cling to reality, it becomes further distorted.

During the Civil War, realists, such as Ambrose Bierce, depict authentic scenes of the time period. In his, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, Bierce constructs a realistic scene of a man named Peyton Farquhar, a Southern planter, who is about to be hanged, as well as his escape. Readers closely follow the details of Farquhar’s escape only to realize at the the end that Peyton Farquhar is, in fact, dead. After close inspection, readers discover that Bierce foreshadows the ending through his usage of similes and imagery throughout the story.

Ambrose Bierce’s short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” portrays the inevitable nature associated with death and the aspects that make our reality real when compared to imagined experiences. Ambrose Bierce using realism to illustrate the turmoil that exists within Farquhar, his ambition to be more recognized within the south, his great love for his wife and kids, and his hopes to evade death. “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” starts off with discussing the ceremonial traits of the execution Farquhar is about to receive. Following that it explains the initial events that

“Big Two Hearted River”, a semi-autobiographical short story by Ernest Hemingway, is a story about the main character, Nick, returning to Big Two Hearted River in order to recover from his inner wounds. Nick Adams goes on a journey alone in nature for a therapeutic purpose as he suffers from PTSD. However, Hemingway purposely avoided any direct discussion regarding to Nick’s mental wounds. The absence of the discussion is contributed by Hemingway’s writing style, the Iceberg principle. Hemingway focuses explicitly on what occurs on the surface without mentioning actual theme. This indicates that the theme of self-healing cannot be uncovered by simply looking at the text itself. In order to comprehend the actual theme of the story, the character development of Nick must be examined. This is possible since Nick Adams is a recurring character of Hemingway’s stories. The two preceding stories of “Big Two Hearted River”, “Now I lay me” and “A Way you’ll Never Be”, directly discusses Nick’s suffering from shell-shock and how he comforts himself by returning to Big Two Hearted river in his mind. The two short stories will be analyzed and connected to “Big Two Hearted River” in the essay first. This will provide a strong understanding of Nick’s psyche and the reason behind his return to nature. Then, “Big Two Hearted River” the short story itself will be carefully analyzed.

Flannery O’Conner’s “The River” is a very interesting story about a little boy whose parents would prefer if he just went away. At the end of the story, the little boy did get away from them for good. In my opinion this story has a weird but interesting meaning to it. The little boy’s death at the end made me question the spiritual meaning of it; however, after thinking about I understood the intentional meaning O’Conner could have for readers.

The writing style of Ambrose Bierce can essentially be depicted as bitter. His stories include the 1891 story “Chickamauga”, the 1891 story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and the adapted “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” Twilight Zone film in 1964. Both stories had some kind of incongruity or plot twist that made his stories fascinating. Occasions throughout his life molded his view on the world. This perspective reaches out into his written work when he takes a gander at the sharp side of the world in a large portion of his stories and into the aspects of death. The story “Chickamauga” tells of a small boy who with a toy sword who wanders off into the woods to fight invisible foes. The boy strays too far and evidently becomes lost and lies down to rest and sleeps for several hours. Soon after he awakes he is joined by hundreds of dead or wounded soldiers and rather than being frightened by them he is entertained by them and eventually, with a sword in hand, takes a position in front of the group to lead them. Soon he and the soldiers come across a small body of water and the soldiers make a rush for in which many with the lack of strength die. With seeing a fire in the distance, the child becomes excited and moves towards the flames. When the boy finally reaches the fire he sees that the flames were sprouting from his own plantation he runs in search of his mother whom he finds with her face facing upward, her hands thrown out clutched full of grass, and clothing

Ambrose Bierce’s short story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” illustrates a theme of illusion versus reality distorted by the human mind. In the story, a man named Peyton Farquhar is about to be hanged on a railroad bridge towards the end of the American Civil War. Farquhar, a Confederate citizen eager to help the Confederate States of America’s cause, ventures out towards Owl Creek Bridge at the advice of a Union scout in disguise. Unbeknownst to Farquhar, Union troops captured the bridge and surrounding territory, and upon capturing Farquhar, elect to hang him on charges of being a Confederate spy and sympathizer. As he is being hanged, however, Farquhar is able to escape his fate by falling into the river below. He manages to return back to his home, only to find out the entire experience of escape was an illusion created by his own imagination. The story concludes with the revelation that he actually died on the railroad bridge. Farquhar’s mind was able to create a whole new reality for himself. This reality was vivid, and it seems real to the reader until the very end of the story. The hallucination also spanned hours, yet in reality time passed for only a few seconds. Ambrose Bierce’s story demonstrates the impeccable powers of the human mind and its ability to distort time and reality for itself.

In the passage “Two Ways of Seeing a River,” author Mark Twain attempts to share the feelings of loss he experienced after he was disillusioned to the beauty of the Mississippi River. Twain was a famous Nineteenth century author who had previously worked as a steamboat captain and who grew up along the river. The organization of the paragraphs in relation to each other is linear, and the content of each paragraph is dominated by a different rhetorical device.

Reading and understanding literature is not as easy as it sounds. Being able to dissect each piece of information and connect it to the overall theme of the story takes lots of rereading and critical thinking. Reading the story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” takes lots of critical thinking and understanding the literature in a different point of view than the average reader would. The theme of this particular story quickly came to mind after initially concluding the reading, the author is trying to convey that nobody can escape death and how thoughts in the mind are so substantial in the consciousness that it can take over the reality. The author comes to this theme by incorporating specific literary elements such a symbol, irony,