An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge Analysis

The short story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce is a short story about a man named Peyton Farquhar is about to be hanged. The story takes place during the Civil War and Farquhar is constantly thinking of his wife and children at home. He dreams that he is able to escape and run to safety, where he finds his wife. When he goes to hug her, he suddenly feels a strong pain around his neck. Farquhar is then hanging off the bridge with the noose still around his neck. He imagined all of this before he was hanged.

I chose this source from the National Archives due to its relevance to the era in which “The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, by Ambrose Bierce was written. This document stresses the life of Confederate citizens in relation to contact with Federal soldiers. It includes information about citizens loyal to the Confederate flag spying, violating military orders, citizens moving through military installations, citizens not surrendering to the Union, and citizens committing sabotage to Federal arms. Citizens also provided business firms and services to assist the Confederate war effort, even after being seized by Federal arms. Civilian businesses even northward provided Confederate espionage, deceit, and the hiding of Confederate guerilla forces.

“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.

Ambrose Bierce uses suspense when writing the story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” which keeps the reader on the edge of their seat and allows Bierce to control the mood and tempo of the story. The story happens on a bridge where a man is being hanged by the union army. The details of the hanging are explained in part one. In part two it is explained who the main character is Peyton Farquhar and how he was tricked into attempting to burn down a bridge. After that in part three it shows the events preceding the death of Farquhar and the exaggerated images that follow until it is exclaimed in the end of the story that Farquhar has died. and Bierce uses multiple methods to create suspense, including the story structure, plot details, and imagery.

Ambrose Bierce’s short story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” and the film version directed by Robert Enrico share some similarities but mostly the differences between the two works. Both the short story and film can be compared and contrasted in relation to the emotion, detail and perspective. One is at an advantage, reading the short story before seeing the film because the story gives a better idea of what is happening and who the protagonist really is. In other words, the short story helps in providing the reader with key details that are not mentioned in the film.

One way in which An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is an example of literary realism, thus supporting Becker’s and Pizer’s definitions of realism, is through its abundance of verisimilitude of detail. The narrator attempts to thrust the reader into the shoes of the subject, James Farquhar, by using descriptive terms that are very realistic in nature. The story’s opening scene takes place on Owl Creek Bridge, a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, with Peyton Farquhar being hanged. Ambrose Bierce, the author, uses many seemingly unimportant details in the opening scene and throughout the story in a great attempt to make the reader feel as though he is there himself. One such example is when Bierce describes the actual platform on which Farquhar is standing. He writes, “Some loose boards laid upon the sleepers supporting the metals of the railway supplied a footing for him and his executioners” (Bierce 1476). This is seemingly unimportant, but after reading the story in its entirety, I realized that it was intentionally written in this manner

The title plays an important role in catching the reader’s attention. If the title is interesting or compelling enough, one will be motivated to read it; otherwise, the story may never be read, resulting in a loss to both the author and the reader. In Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” the author grabs the reader’s attention with a “creepy” title, indicating a bad happening on the Owl Creek Bridge. Peyton Farquhar, a planter who supports the Southern cause during the Civil War, is on the brink of execution by hanging. The title sets the eerie tone of the story, which appears to be about a hanging, and the setting, which appears to be a bridge.

In “An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce, the story of a man by the name of Peyton Farquhar whose unlawful actions landed him in a heap of trouble is told. The story is split into three sections which goes back in forth between the past, the present and Farquhar’s falsation of both. By taking the approach of using symbols throughout the story, Bierce gave the opportunity for the reader to feel like they are apart of the story as well as leaving them with a shocker in the very end. Since the story goes back in forth between reality and illusion, the reader may get a bit confused while reading but you get

The setting is being described by a narrator that knows everything and it is being told through facts. The second section transitions to the third person objective. The reader learns about Peyton’s feelings towards the war and his motives behind committing the crime through dialogue with a Federal scout. It also infers how Peyton ended up in the Union’s custody. Up to this point, the narrator has remained objective and the reader has not been influenced to side with the enforcer or the offender. However once the third section transitions to the third person limited point of view, a sympathetic connection develops between Peyton and the reader. We now learn about his thoughts through his conscious mind, the reader learns of his fervent desire to return home to his family. All of sudden the reader finds themselves supporting Peyton’s animated escape without taking into account the details revealing it is an illusion. In a way, the final section is an example of romantic literature, it expresses characteristics such as adventure and good versus evil; However, that is put to an end when we find out Peyton was dead all

1.) Most of “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is an illusion, although there are some bits of reality mixed within its depths. The first part of the story where it discusses the man standing on the bridge preparing to be hanged is not only a part of the reality but also describes the appearance of the surrounds. For example, there are two men standing at the end of the bridge that are keeping others from crossing, while two more soldiers finish the preparations for the hanging that is about to happen. However, in this reality section that continues on page 2 shows where the illusion steps in when a soldier for the opposite side tricks the man being hanged, named Peyton Fahrquhar, into trying an attack on the bridge by giving false information, even though this knowledge is not realized until page 3 before section 3. At section 3 on page 3, the

Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is not only a short story, but also a film, that is set during the Civil War era. Even though the text and film are similar in different aspects, the two mediums also contain many significant differences that make the text a better medium for the story. The film does an adequate job of providing a visual of what is happening in the story, but it leaves out a lot of details. For instance, the film does not include part two, a significant scene from the story. This is the part when the author introduces and describes the protagonist, Peyton Farquhar. In addition, Part two is when we finally understand why the protagonist is being hanged and why he went to the bridge. By leaving this part out

This story uses a trick-ending to achieve closure, which is a common technique found in old short stories. Throughout the story, we believe that Peyton is alive, until the very end. The last line of the story, “Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge,” comes as a surprise to the reader because the story was describing how the character had escaped from being hanged, only to discover that none of it had actually happened. The trick-ending is used to shock the readers, and is clear sign of this being an old short

All of the scenes the audience imagined were fake and imagined by Peyton. He had those vivid details of life, in the split seconds, prior to his death. As mentioned in the introduction, Bierce wrote “An Occurrence at Owl Creek,” and used his accounts of the war effectively in the story. According to Hal Holladay, “the use of the adverb “gently” to describe the movement of Farquhar’s [Peyton’s] dead body…are clear indications of Bierce’s cynicism” (Holladay).

Ambrose Bierce begins his story in the style of Realism; he describes the scene of the execution as an objective outsider, merely observing the occurrence and creating a sense of honesty and reason in his narration. He addresses Peyton Farquhar first as just “a man,” ignoring his Confederate affiliations so as to begin

THESIS: Bierce’s innovations in the story’s structure divulge his exceptional comprehension of plot. For Bierce, contending forms of the truth can be existent within the same story. Bierce gives vivid representations of suspense and imagery, allowing the reader into the mind of Peyton Farquhar, making the reader feel a part of the story and entrapping them with foreshadowing, style, and tone. I. Using mysterious suspense, reality and illusion, Ambrose Bierce is both reliable and unreliable, pulling the reader deeper into the story.