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Evaluation of Literary Elements: an Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.

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An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge: Evaluation of Literary Elements Swinging from a noose off a railroad trellis, many thoughts race through a condemned man’s mind. In “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” Ambrose Bierce effectively uses literary elements to allow the reader to look through the keyhole of the mind of a dying man in his last moments of life. Elements such as realism, flashback, metaphor/simile, setting, point of view, and character allow the reader to become immersed in an intrigue of the main character’s psyche. The story begins with the events immediately leading to the hanging. This arrangement of time encourages the reader to formulate questions regarding the past. Effectively, the…show more content…
The phrase “a light cloud of blue smoke rising from the muzzle” gives the reader an image of the gun and dates the gun’s operation. The use of a cannon in the story also adds to the Civil War setting. The third person point-of-view is used in a compelling way by the
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