Ambrose Bierce's An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge

Does time stop or slow down during death? In the short story by Ambrose Bierce “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”. The author extensively uses foreshadowing during the short story that manipulates the reader to lead towards the factors of symbolism, irony, setting, and viewpoint. They’re numerous viewpoints from the readers perspective of, symbolism, and irony that, indicate the timeline of Peyton Farquhar tragic death. Ambrose Bierce uses the time to manipulate the reader from understanding the plot, making it impossible to forecast most of the short story.

“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” leads readers to query Ambrose Bierce about the numerous point of view shifts his story takes. Ambrose Bierce’s descriptive writing style grasps the reader’s attention, unknowingly manipulating the reader throughout the entire story. This statement holds to be true as the story line develops. “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” has a variety of ups and downs throughout the story, changing the direction and perspective through its point of view of omniscient and limited omniscient. Ambrose Bierce’s various shifts deceive readers into believing the protagonist, Peyton Farquhar, has escaped a perilous fate.

Author, Ambrose Bierce, who is considered one of the Great American authors, wrote during the realism period. Particularly, in his work titled An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, written in 1890, we can see evidence of the characteristics, themes and style identified with the realism movement which was extant in American letters between 1850 and 1900. As a representative of such a movement, Ambrose Bierce, then remains on the most identifiable and iconic writers of his 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

Before the Civil War, fighting was generally seen as this glorious act in which people battled for pride and honor. However, with the advent of photography, nothing stopped the raw images of the horrors of war from being captured for what they really are. In literature, this shift toward the realization of the true nature of war marked a departure from romanticism into realism. Works like Stephan Crane’s “A Mystery of Heroism” and Ambrose Bierce’s "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" demonstrate the brutal challenges that ordinary people face while a nation is at strife. Even though Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” was far removed from the Continental United States in setting, it is still heavily influenced by the atmosphere that the Civil War left the nation in. While these three short stories differ in many aspects, they are bound together because they all depict real life and can therefore be categorized as pieces of American Realism.

All humans possess an innate inclination toward the uncomplicated. The simpler a task is, the easier it is to accomplish, so many attempt to apply that notion throughout life. Unfortunately, however, life is never simple. Just as there is no black or white answer to life’s trials, there is no set truth to a story; the veracity of an account is in the opinion of the reader. Through the contrasts between life and death and ugliness and beauty in the The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien would consider both the film Fury and the short narrative An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge to be true war stories.

Peyton Farquhar dies. Although the story vividly pictures him escaping his fate, the last line of the tale describes him hanging under the bridge with a broken neck. One might suffer from temporary shock after reading, but Ambrose Bierce, the author of “An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge”, slides foreshadowing into his work in order to hint the audience of the conclusion. Bierce uses imagery, plot elements, and his character’s thoughts to let readers have a guess at Peyton Farquhar’s final fate.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is a story that expresses how far your imagination can take you without even realizing it. The story's author, Ambrose Bierce, participated in several wars during the Civil War, which later influenced the writing that he did after the war. In this story he writes about how in the last moments of a man's life, he vividly imagines escaping his death. Only to reveal that it was all a dream as he is hanged off of Owl Creek Bridge. Ambrose Bierce uses several literary techniques in order to make his story represent realism.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce 'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge' by Ambrose Bierce is a 19th Century mystery story that is set at the time of the American Civil War (1861-1865) when the Slave owning Confederate States in the South engaged in conflict with the Federal Government of the USA. The story focuses on a character called Peyton Farquhar, whom is about to be summarily hung for trespassing on the Owl Creek Bridge; his fate is to be hung from that same bridge. The story ends with a curious twist in the plot. The main part of the story is set in Farquhar's mind, though whilst reading the reader is unsure (despite careful, hidden hints placed by Bierce) of this fact. Only at the end when it is clearly

In Ambrose Bierce’s historical fiction story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” takes place in northern Alabama on or near the Owl Creek Bridge. Bierce makes his story have a unique storyline; one that carries a lot of suspense. Anyway, Bierce bases his story on Peyton Fahrquhar, a man who is a slave owner plus a politician who’s devoted to the Southern cause. He isn’t allowed to take part in the war due to the “circumstances of an imperious nature”, therefore when a man showed up and told him some people were at Owl Creek Bridge, he jumped at the idea of going to help (Bierce 3). It wasn’t a smart decision for him because it resulted with him getting prepped for execution. It was a hard time for Peyton, but he kept think of his loved ones

The bridge is the transition because he goes from being by the bridge to finally getting to his family. The author states, “Doubtless, despite his suffering, he had fallen asleep while walking, for now he sees another scene- perhaps he has merely recovered from his delirium” (Bierce 6). Thinking he actually passed out, Peyton actually had a transition from being in his mind to reality. He woke up from his imagination and is hoping a close path to his family. “As he pushes open the gate and passes up the wide white walk, he sees a flutter of female garments; his wife, looking fresh and cool and sweet...” (Bierce 6). This scene shows that he finally got to his wife and is about to hug her. However, he dealt through all of this to just go in another transition. As he went to hug his wife, imagination turns to reality again and he is actually left hanging on the Owl Creek Bridge. This links with the claim due to the two transitions from the bridge actually leading Farquhar to his tragic

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,

An abundance of writers tries to touch on the theme of subjective and objective reality. Objective reality is a world outside a person’s mind. An effortless way of interpreting such a subject is called the real world. While on the other hand, the Subjective reality is a reality you create in your mind. From the way, the irony is being used to the tone being given, and to the overall plot structure of this story, Ambrose Bierce has an amazing way of demonstrating such a theme with the story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.

Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge.” There is no falling action because it jumps straight to the resolution. The reader has no time to process or recover from the

     Steinbeck’s tone in the story is critical of those living their lives in the past. Grandfather only speaks of the times he had while crossing the plains, fighting with the Indians, and leading the people. He is also critical of people who believed that being a hero and leader was being able to fight the Indians, but Grandfather comes to the realization that he was a real leader when the people he was with trusted him. Pierce’s