An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge By Ambrose Bierce

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.

Through “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” the soldiers standing, watching as everything goes on around them, are not able to stop what is happening. The soldiers represent the unforgiving nature of war.

This is an example of how the closer he comes to death, the slower time seems to move for him. In one moment the river is moving rapidly and in the next it is described as sluggish. Yet through the anticipation time is speeding up. It is as if the suspense has frozen time all together.

Ambrose Bierce’s short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is a story about a man’s final moments on earth before he is hanged and how he got there. There is a struggle within the character Farquhar of who he is and who he thinks he is. This causes different views throughout the story between reality and a fantasized reality. This plays a big role in the story because in part three of the story he thinks he is far superior and had outwitted his captures and escaped without a scratch after the rope broke and fell into the water. In reality he had been hanged and his body was swaying back and forth. This story had more meaning then just the top layer of being just about a guy who is being hanged. The meaning of this story is how fluid time moves, by this I mean how time seems to flow like a river it can move fast to slow and even seem to stand still. It has a secondary meaning of how we can fantasize another reality that can cause troubles for us. By this I mean you can envision your self into another world when you are still in the actual world, this can cause you to get yourself into a lot of trouble.

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.

In one of the extracts we were shown we see Tykwer uses distinctively visual techniques to show us Lola’s determination to save Manny. He utilises the use of a split screen with a close up shot of Manny and a close up tracking shot of Lola running to show how Lola is running towards him to try and save him. Then we hear the ticking of a clock and the top half of a clock comes onto the bottom of the screen to show how Lola is running out of time to save Manny. This is another example of how clocks are a reoccurring motif to symbolise time being overwhelming. This scene also demonstrates the love that Lola has for Manny and her determination to never give up trying to save him. This distinctively visual technique is utilised to hep show the audience that even with Lola’s everlasting love she is unable to change time and Manny slowly slips away from her, making himself unsaveable.

“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

The word ‘dangle’ makes us stop to think. Did they deserve their fate? Why were they hung? The quote also refers back to the criminal activities that are punishable by law through hanging and indicates the unresolved crime that law enforcements cannot fix therefore maintaining the corruption. This further emphasises the precarious financial lives of the people who live in Kings Cross and the poverty encircling

George Orwell, an experienced Assistant Superintendent in the British Imperial Police, composed “A Hanging” after his resignation in 1927. The narrative is a personal testimony set in the 1920’s in Burma. Orwell uses the classical techniques of formal argument to depict the death of an unknown prisoner, while taking a position against the death penalty. George Orwell’s Abolitionist message in “A Hanging” is conveyed through the prisoner, dog, functionaries, and their actions, words, and body language.

After reading An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, I have determined that this short story is not a modern short story. Unlike how a modern short story should be, this one does not focus on the nuances of the character, it is a fast-paced story, and the ending is not focused on a revelation but an effect.

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,

This story has different sections throughout that have to do with death, life, war, and survival. The first section has to do with Peyton Farquhar’s life and his family and about the impending execution. Peyton Farquhar is a thirty five year old with very large dark grey eyes and wore a mustache. He’s a wealthy planter and slave owner who is trying to prove his loyalty. Peyton lives with his wife and his children in Northern Alabama. The first part Peyton is one the plank and he has the noose around his neck and there are two private soldiers of the Federal army, directed by a sergeant, and a officer in uniform of his rank. The officer was armed and was the caption.

The roughness of the rope that is enclosing around the neck. Adrenaline starts rushing into the veins, even though it won’t change anything. Finally, the feeling of weightlessness before blacking out after the floor drops out. The pain of that criminal is now over, but the pain for the everyone else involved is just beginning. George Orwell illustrates his short story “A Hanging” with a facade of ordinariness through the innocences of a dog, and a gloomy mood to show the deteriorating effects of capital punishment on a person’s subconscious.

The plot of the story unfolded as Jeremiah Donavan revealed that the prisoners were actually hostages and that there was a possibility that they would have to execute the Englishmen. As the story continued to unfold, the possibility became reality when Feeney the intelligence officer revealed that the prisoners were ordered to be executed. It is in this pivotal moment that the conflict of the story arises and that the soldiers are faced with a conflict that in turn, proves to be deeply complex in that it is both internal and external.