Wars do not accept anyone and everyone. There is a certain requirement for all who want to enlist. Peyton Farquhar in the short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce, was a farmer who was rejected from enlisting in the army. The story takes place during the Civil War in the South. Peyton came from a highly-respected family in the southern state Alabama. He was devoted to the southern customs. Peyton unfortunately was unable to enter the war due to certain Circumstances. One day a soldier comes to Peyton’s home. His wife and he help the solider learning about Owl Creek Bridge. Pretty much the solider from the Northern gave him all the details. Peyton was plotting something in the back of his mind as he was …show more content…
To start, Ambrose Bierce the author of “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” develops the story in a different order than most writers. The story starts out describing the details of his appending death. This point is told in third person point of view. “He wore a mustache and pointed beard but no whiskers; his eyes were large and dark gray, and had a kindly expression which one would hardly have expected in one whose neck was in the hemp” (Bierce 522) is describing what Peyton Farquhar looks like. It is describing a man with a kind heart with no attentions of murderous intentions. Like most people who try to join the military, they are sometimes rejected or can’t enter for some unforeseen reason. “After all, the narrator informs us that the hero was unable to participate as a solider in the Southern cause because ‘circumstance of an imperious nature forbade it’” (James Powers) also shows that another writer sees a man with a heart of gold. Willing to fight a battle without even being able to enter the actual war. The story development shows what any man can do with pure intentions. He is willing to go to the bridge, and sabotage anything he could, for what he thought might be justice. Peyton is fighting for what he thinks is justice. He heart is still pushing to keep moving forward. Even in the clutches of death, Peyton still believes unconscious that he is escaping. In his final moments, he escapes the
Life can bring unexpected events that individuals might not be prepared to confront. This was the case in the short story “On The Rainy River” written by Tim O’Brien. Young Tim is drafted to the military to fight the American War in Vietnam. He faces the conflict of whether he should or should not go to war after being drafted. The thought of giving up the future he has worked so hard for and instead fight a war “for uncertain reasons” terrifies him. He must make the agonizing decision of whether to pursue his personal desire and in turn be shamed by society or conform, sacrificing his ideals in the process.
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.
Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is a story written by Ambrose Bierce that explores the
“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
In the first short story, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, Ambrose Bierce writes an interesting story about what happens to Peyton Farquhar, a well-to-do plantation owner of a highly respected Alabama family. In the story, a soldier from the federal army warns Farquhar about the order of hanging if the yanks find anyone interfering with the repairing of the railroads, bridges, tunnels or trains. Despite the warning, Farquhar found himself at the creek where he experienced an extravagant but delusional escape while he was being held for his hanging. In the second short story, The Red Convertible, Louise Erdrich writes about the relationship between two Native American brothers, Henry and Lyman, before and after the Vietnam War. Despite the
Sometimes, things aren’t always the way they appear to be. That is the case at Owl Creek bridge. There seem to be two stories told here—one that is, and one that isn’t. Our main character, Peyton Farquhar, finds himself in a bit of a pickle, for attempting to burn the bridge in support of the Civil War’s rebel soldiers—a feat, which if captured, would surely result in death by hanging. Farquhar’s neck is in a noose. Chances for survival are dismal, but Farquhar has a plan. In Ambrose Bierce’s, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” 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.
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.
Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and Stephen Crane’s “The Blue Hotel” are both examples of Naturalistic writing. Both stories end with a man dying violently, though death seems to be avoidable in both cases to demonstrate Naturalism, and the idea of survival of the fittest through writing. Though Peyton Farquhar, and the Swede have free will their free will can be dangerous to themselves especially when not paired with rational thought. The human condition is one of misery, either in life or death, and the world is indifferent to humans and their lives.
Ambrose Bierce led a relatively full but tragic life. After losing his sons Day and Leigh to suicide and alcoholism respectively, his wife left him for another man (“Ambrose Bierce”). His struggles with death and the inequity of life are evident throughout his literary works. “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” illustrates many of the power struggles that Bierce was fighting throughout much of his life.
“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.
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.
The story does well in manipulating a reader's way of thinking there are moments that will people thinking one thing is going to happen, but then it is later revealed the opposite, or nothing at all occurs. Evidence of such is when Peyton Fahrquhar is visited by a supposed Confederate soldier that seem to be friendly until later on readers find out the soldier was actually from the Union army. Such evidence is hinted when the author is showing the readers the last thing Peyton remembers before he was on the bridge. The story shows ” One evening Farquhar and his wife were sitting on a rusty bench near the entrance to his grounds, a gray-clad soldier rode up the gate asking for a drink of water” ( Bierce 2). Later on, in that same paragraph readers will notice that the soldier was giving Peyton pretty valuable information a typical soldier does not tell a civilian. With what is shown goes on par with the idea of the tone and the theme due to the fact that the average reader at first would fall for such a fake identity just to be surprised at who arrested Peyton.
“The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” by Ambrose Bierce tells the story of a man being executed. As the man dies he imagines his escape. Facing death, the man wants nothing more ten to go home to his family. During his journey home, the man comes to appreciate life. Perhaps he sees how he should have lived, only as a dying man could. When faced with death he truly begins to realize what he has lost. This story might show us how death can enlighten us about life.
Peyton Farquhar’s rendezvous with hanging at the bridge gives him a greater appreciation for life. Swirling through the river, Farquhar recognizes that he could have died and begins to see things through a different light. While just moments before “his whole body was racked and wrenched with an insupportable anguish” resulting from his suffocation, he now “wept with delight [...and] dug his fingers into the sand, threw it over himself in handfuls and audibly blessed it” (Occurrence). His “proximity to death brings with it a corresponding proximity to life” that reflects how any soldier would feel (Things They Carried 77). In addition, the comparison between brutalities and halcyon moments of peace depicts parts of Tim O’Brien’s veritable war story.
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,