Analysis: An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge

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.

Ambrose Bierce’s An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, which is a short story released in 1890, gained much popularity over the years. It is most famous for it’s manipulation of time. Though the events in the book only take seconds, the story is over eight pages long. Time seems to slow for the man in the noose and at the same time speed up for the reader. In this way, Bierce presents his manipulation of time in the story.

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.

Ambrose Bierce weaves a tale of intrigue and captivation, by using shifts of voice and time in the story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge�. In the first four paragraphs, Bierce begins the story using third person, and in this point of view, he creates reality. We can view the situation and all aspects while it is written in third person; we know precisely what is going on, we know it is real. Near the end of the fourth paragraph, the author shifts cleverly from third person to limited omniscient. After having us view the story in third person, Bierce transfers from reality, to the main characters' thought processes, having us view Peyton's thoughts and dreams also as reality. "He looked a

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, directed by Robert Enrico, depicts an occurrence in the mind of Peyton Farquhar. He is a civilian who tampers with the Union’s railroad system and is going to be hanged, and all he can think about is escaping and getting home to his wife. Unfortunately, death is a reality and no one can escape it.

Ambrose Bierce’s short story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” illustrates a theme of illusion versus reality distorted by the human mind. In the story, a man named Peyton Farquhar is about to be hanged on a railroad bridge towards the end of the American Civil War. Farquhar, a Confederate citizen eager to help the Confederate States of America’s cause, ventures out towards Owl Creek Bridge at the advice of a Union scout in disguise. Unbeknownst to Farquhar, Union troops captured the bridge and surrounding territory, and upon capturing Farquhar, elect to hang him on charges of being a Confederate spy and sympathizer. As he is being hanged, however, Farquhar is able to escape his fate by falling into the river below. He manages to return back to his home, only to find out the entire experience of escape was an illusion created by his own imagination. The story concludes with the revelation that he actually died on the railroad bridge. Farquhar’s mind was able to create a whole new reality for himself. This reality was vivid, and it seems real to the reader until the very end of the story. The hallucination also spanned hours, yet in reality time passed for only a few seconds. Ambrose Bierce’s story demonstrates the impeccable powers of the human mind and its ability to distort time and reality for itself.

The short story, “An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce, is quite strange and vivid in its description of the final moments before death. It gives a sudden burst of hope to the reader with the escape of main character, Peyton Farquhar.

Farquhar focusing on his watch seeming to slow down when he is waiting to be hanged demonstrates how time seems to move differently with his apprehension. Farquhar was awaiting his execution, when he heard his watch, “He awaited each stroke with impatience and-- he knew not why-- apprehension. The intervals of silence grew progressively longer, the delays became maddening…” (Bierce. Lines 44-46) In this quote, Peyton Farquhar, as he grew more nervous, could feel the seconds on his watch slowing down. His apprehension was due to fear of death; furthermore, he would savor every remaining

Out of all the stories I have read in class so far, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce, has touched me most. When I first began reading the story I felt as though I was not interested, because my assumptions of what the story was going to be about were completely different than the stories actual content. As I set aside my judgment and let myself try to enjoy the story, I found myself anxiously reading to the bitter end. This story was not only interesting and unique, but also had an added twist at the end, which surprised most readers. Depending on how observant the reader is with picking up on foreshadowing and symbolic meaning, one may realize before the final sentences that Peyton Farquar was not actually escaping

Through a shifting point of view, the narrator leaves the reader pondering whether Farquhar will be able to escape. The narrator of the short story knows everything about Farquhar:

“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce has the audience feeling multiple emotions such as shocked and on the edge of their seat from start to finish. Peyton Farquhar is a plantation owner is his mid-thirties. Farquhar was up for execution by hanging from an Alabama railroad bridge the Civil War because a Federal scout betrayed him. Bierce could mislead the readers thinking that Peyton Farquhar, was escaping from being hung when in fact it was just is imagination. Bierce engages a great use of characterization in how he describes the characters throughout the story and timing details, to have the audience sitting on the edge of their seats and having a twist that no one was expecting.

Out of all the stories I have read in class so far, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce, has touched me most. When I first began reading the story I felt as though I was not interested, because my assumptions of what the story was going to be about were completely different than the stories actual content. As I set aside my judgment and let myself try to enjoy the story, I found myself anxiously reading to the bitter end. This story was not only interesting and unique, but also had an added twist at the end, which surprised most readers. Depending on how observant the reader is with picking up on foreshadowing and symbolic meaning, one may realize before the final sentences that Peyton Farquar was not actually escaping

“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce has the audience feeling multiple emotions such as shocked and on the edge of their sit from start to finish. Peyton Farquhar is a plantation owner is his mid-thirties. Farquhar was up for execution by hanging from an Alabama railroad bridge the Civil War because a Federal scout betrayed him. Bierce could mislead the readers thinking that Peyton Farquhar, was escaping from being hung when in fact it was just is imagination. Bierce engages a great use of characterization in how he describes the characters throughout the story and timing details to have the audience sitting on the edge of their seats and having a twist that no one was expecting.

The success of Bierce’s shocking ending in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” relies on the believability of the world he creates at the start of the tale. He carefully lays out all of the facts. The story prepares us to the shocking end through three ways which are contained in the three distinct sections of the tale; a factual opening scene, a flashback to give some basic history, and a fast-paced ending. The story begins with clear, easy, declarative sentences of a man standing upon a railroad bridge, staring down into the fast waters 24 feet below. The man’s wrists are bound with a cord behind his back and his neck is circled by a loosely tied rope that is attached to a timber just above his head. As the story continues it becomes clear that this man is about to be killed by army (Bierce, pg 26). The arrangements for the execution are explained in scientific detail. The physical setting and movements of the Union army are provided with such still precision that the prospect comes to life evidently and intensely.

“There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people for a purpose which is unattainable”(Howard Zinn). In “An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge,” centers the idea that in war innocents can be killed just as much as the people who fight. Ambrose Bierce is against the idea of war and produces a story shows what can happen to the common people who are not involved in the fighting if the war. The mood of the story is found by the reader not by specific word choice, but by the events that take place in the text. Events such as the betrayal of Peyton Farquhar and his impending death thoughts of his family makes the reader feel frustrated. Bierce is against war and what effects can come out of war, so he tells the story of a