Analysis Of 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.

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.

The film version of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge leaves out section two, along with many other important factors. Peyton Farquhar: the main character and the man being hanged is left nameless throughout the film and his detailed background that is portrayed in the text is left out as well. By reading the

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.

Throughout the passage “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, the author, Ambrose Bierce, makes it evident that he believes that war is an unnatural and unnecessary aspect of human life. Through the use of several literary tactics, the author creates a message that supports his viewpoint. By writing a story regarding the death of a civilian, Bierce is able to elaborate on his belief that even the civilians are unintentionally harmed by the recklessness of war.

There are two conflicts that play a very important role in this story. The first is the obvious one, Peyton against the Union soldiers. It is because of these soldiers that he is in this position in the first place. A Union scout fed him information that would inevitably lead him to be captured by the soldiers posted at the railroad bridge and summarily hanged. The less obvious but more important conflict is that of Man against Nature. Peyton dies from the hanging, but rather than accept that at first, his brain leads him to believe that he survived the hanging and lived for some time afterward. As he was hanged he “fell straight downward through the bridge” and “lost consciousness and was as one already dead. From this state he was awakened” (152). From this point on, the rest of the story is a dream. This stems from his will to live going against the true events, without even a conscious effort to do so.

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.

“Owl Creek Bridge” is a short story set during the American Civil War. There are three different part within this short story. Part one being about Peyton Farquhar standing on a railroad bridge, twenty feet above water. Part two opens with the narrator introducing Peyton who in a which is a wealthy slave owner. He had spoken with a soldier who had informed him about Union troops repairing the bridge over Owl creek. Part three begins as Farquhar falls through the bridge, into the water below. Throughout this story Bierce, the author, throws in many foreshadowing, warning or indication of a future event, occurrences that really get your mind ticking.

Anger is the driving force to what makes Peyton try to burn the bridge. While talking to the “southern soldier” acting as a northern scout he tries to be sneaky by getting information on how to mess up northern movement (BIERCE). Asking

Suddenly, the story cut to a flashback. It showed he and his wife having a conversation with one of the Confederate soldiers. Peyton asked about the Union soldiers, and the Confederate officer warned him that they were going to hang anyone who tried to tamper with the railroads. Peyton himself decided to try to burn down the Owl Creek Bridge, ignoring the warnings given to him. That was

Have you ever been in a class that seemed to go on forever, one day, but rushed by the next? How were you feeling differently those two days? With your different feelings, did the time seem to pass differently? This idea is a major topic in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce. This story is set during the American Civil War and follows Peyton Farquhar, who is supposed to be executed at Owl Creek Bridge. He awaited his death with apprehension, his life seemed to flash before his eyes. All of a sudden, Farquhar believed he was able to escape, running away from the bridge, only to reveal that he was hanging with a broken neck beneath the bridge. A major theme in the story is how people perceive time differently based on their emotions. This is demonstrated when Farquhar is anticipating his death, when it flashes back to the past, and when he is escaping from the execution.

A soldier rode up to Farquhar’s gate and asked for a drink of water, as his wife got the water, Farquhar questioned the soldier for information about the War. The soldier, who was a Federal scout in disguise, told Farquhar about how the “Yanks” were repairing the railroads and how they had reached the Owl Creek Bridge. Farquhar questioned the man about how he could help out to ruin the Federalists advances. The man told Farquhar about some dried driftwood and suggested that setting it on fire would easily set the whole bridge ablaze. Farquhar had no inclination that the man he had conversed with was a Federal scout who was tricking him, and so that night when we assume that Farquhar is attempting to go and burn the Owl Creek Bridge down the Federal scout catches

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.

The story that I chose to write about his week is “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”