Ambrose Bierce's An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Essay

How come an hour-long history class feels like it is five hours long? Every individual perceives the flow of time differently. Time perception refers to a person’s subjective experience of the passage of time, which can differ between individuals and for different circumstances. “In An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” the perception of time is major theme occurring in the novel. Ambrose Bierce demonstrates this perception of time by using literary devices. He uses imagery to illustrate the perception of time, along with a unique story structure to emphasize his point. Equally, he uses a third person point of view which portrays time perception, these devices come together to suggest that time can be perceived differently by individuals.

With a typical beginning like many other authors, the main separation that gave Ambrose Bierce distinction among the crowd of authors of his time was his ability to write thrilling stories with vivid imagination and purpose. With his childhood and his time in the Civil War supplied him with the ability to describe a battlefield, a death, or insert a twist ending that acts as a comedy relief or a thought of horror. Examples of his best known works are: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, A Horse Man in the Sky, Chickamauga, and the Devil's Dictionary. Although these works are Bierce's best known they only represent a portion of his writings and his personality. Bierce wrote over eighty

Ambrose Bierce wrote his short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” centuries after the Civil War ended. This short story is Historical Fiction with the historical background of The Civil War and also the characters, Bierce uses in this story.

The title has an ominous effect upon readers. As can be seen, a terrible event is taking place at the Owl Creek Bridge – a hanging, to be precise. After all, the title does infer that an occurrence will be happening on the bridge. Peyton Farquhar, the man on the verge of being hung, is dangling over a creek, but is this the “occurrence” that Bierce is referring to?

Ambrose Bierce is the author of the short story “ An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge “ the story is about a man named Peyton Farquhar who is a man about to be hung for interfering with the bridge. The first time you read the story it seems at if Farquhar has escaped the soldiers that were there to hang him but by the end you will find that the whole story is a figment of his imagination. What really happened is time in his head slowed so the story could take place and by the end you will find that Farquhar is hanging from the rope with a broken neck.

I most enjoyed reading "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge". Ambrose Bierce’s style captures the attention of the reader from the opening lines and holds it until the end. Bierce presents the story in a way that has the reader truly believing that the fugitive has escaped only to pull them back to reality in the end. The vivid description of the sights and sounds the main character is experiencing made me feel like I was present at the bridge. Furthermore, the attempt of the author to capture the thoughts that might go one’s mind before they die was especially well done. "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" was enjoyable for me to read as it has a suspenseful tone as well as a realistic one.

In Ambrose Bierce’s short story, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, the main character, Peyton Farquhar, is unable to embrace the uncertain future that faces him. Faced with execution, Peyton refuses to accept the potential outcomes that may emerge after his death. While his death is almost certain, the result of the war and the well-being of his family is not. “Ardently devoted to the Southern cause” but unable to take service with the “gallant army”, Farquhar is desperate to aid the war effort in any way he can. About to be hung, Farquhar, determined to receive the “opportunity for distinction”, refuses to accept that he will die without leaving his mark on the war. His death is inevitable, but Farquhar rejects this notion and imagines an

When someone is captured by the enemy in war, they are more than likely going to die. Escaping and running thousands of miles back home where family is does not happen like one might see in the movies. In war, people die. Ambrose Bierce tried to express that heavily when he wrote An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge. Looking into it through a New-Historicism criticism, Ambrose Bierce’s background, the background on the Civil War, and how the plot--more specifically the war--is portrayed can back up the idea that Ambrose Bierce wrote An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge as a message to say that war is something that should not be romanticized.

The writer of “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” Ambrose Bierce, uses various literary devices and drives the plot forward in a fashion that builds suspense. Bierce paints a clear picture of the pain and feelings that Farquhar goes through in regards to the constriction of the noose and the heat of the bullets. While Farquhar is swimming, he is being berated with bullets and he somehow dodges them all. While this is happening, Bierce uses imagery and inner dialog to build suspense and make the reader anticipate whether Farquhar will be shot or not. This suspense is relieved when Farquhar makes it to the river’s edge.

Although "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is commonly regarded as Ambrose Bierce's best and most famous short story, its "surprise ending" is not universally admired. Seeing obvious comparisons to O. Henry's "The Furnished Room," Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren regard the ironic turn of events as an unjustified "trick," existing for its own sake and totally without what they call "fictional meaning. "1 W. Gordon Cunliffe also notes the superficial resemblance between the stories by Bierce and O. Henry, but while he describes the O. Henry ending as unconvincing and mechanical, he praises Bierce's ending and observes that the surprise ending is a "surprise" only to the unsophisticated reader.2 In fact, Bierce skillfully and unobtrusively prepares us for

You are in 6th period math; it’s near the end of the day and you are too tired to pay attention to anything. As you are staring at nothing in particular, you dream about how you would save people if you were a superhero; you are thinking about your dream so much that pretty soon, you’ve come up with an entire story about your superhero self. Then you hear your name, and again; there it is again. Finally, you snap back to reality just to see everyone in your class staring at you and the teacher with an angry look on her face and a detention slip in her hand. In the short story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” by Ambrose Bierce, during the Civil War, a man name Peyton Farquhar is about to be hung. He imagines his family and his determination to return to them helps him escape his foes. He evades his enemies and makes it home to his family only to find out that he had been imagining his escape the entire time. A major theme in the story is that it is easy to imagine yourself doing something but it is harder to actually do it. This is supported several times in the story when the main character supposedly eludes death multiple times, when he wishes he was a soldier, and when the author uses literary devices to portray the theme.

The story owl creek bridge is written by Ambrose Bierce. It is a short story about a man, Peyton Farquhar, who try’s to tarnish the bridge and is sentenced to be hanged. This story takes place during the civil war while he is standing on the edge of the plank Peyton starts to dream of this escape back to his family. The author tells us in the story how Peyton is dreaming through the whole story and then he is hanged.

     Ambrose Bierces’ story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” tells the story of a confederate secessionist, who is being hanged by Union troops. At the time of the hanging, the soldiers drop him from the bridge. Luckily, just as he falls the rope snaps and the man dives into the “sluggish stream”. He miraculously takes off his ropes and swims away. When he reaches the bank of the creek, he runs for what seems like forever. He finally reaches home, where his family is waiting so anxiously for him. However, Bierce chooses to surround this intriguing tell with elements that carry visual, concrete, and intangible symbolism. The symbolic elements of “An Occurrence at Owl Creek

Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” could seem like nothing more than a timeless tragedy. Peyton Farquhar is in the process of being hanged, but gets free and somehow escapes. Although he has escaped in his mind, by the end of the story he is gently swinging from side to side with the rope around his neck. Peyton is dealing with conflict between what he thinks is real and what is actually real. It is often difficult to see the difference between reality and imagination in life. “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” expresses the idea that deciphering between reality and imagination can be complicated through the use of plot structure, irony, and symbolism.

There is irony behind his escape from the soldiers’ bullets as he swims away from the bridge. The idea that this is just a dream is the bullets that miss him while