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.

Ambrose Bierce uses suspense when writing the story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” which keeps the reader on the edge of their seat and allows Bierce to control the mood and tempo of the story. The story happens on a bridge where a man is being hanged by the union army. The details of the hanging are explained in part one. In part two it is explained who the main character is Peyton Farquhar and how he was tricked into attempting to burn down a bridge. After that in part three it shows the events preceding the death of Farquhar and the exaggerated images that follow until it is exclaimed in the end of the story that Farquhar has died. and Bierce uses multiple methods to create suspense, including the story structure, plot details, and imagery.

Ambrose Bierce, wrote “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” in 1891. The story is about a man named Peyton Farquhar, standing on a railroad bridge above the water. His wrists are tied behind his back, and around his neck is a noose that is tied to a beam overhead. Farquhar is being prepared for execution by hanging from Owl Creek Bridge. The story took place during the American Civil War in Alabama. Tone is defined as the author’s implied attitude. Tone is important because it shows the author’s feelings about the story and characters, without directly saying it. The tone of a story affects the audience’s interpretations of the characters. In “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” the tone of the narrator is sympathetic and leaves the readers feeling compassion for the main character.

Ambrose Bierce’s short story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” and the film version directed by Robert Enrico share some similarities but mostly the differences between the two works. Both the short story and film can be compared and contrasted in relation to the emotion, detail and perspective. One is at an advantage, reading the short story before seeing the film because the story gives a better idea of what is happening and who the protagonist really is. In other words, the short story helps in providing the reader with key details that are not mentioned in the film.

One way in which An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is an example of literary realism, thus supporting Becker’s and Pizer’s definitions of realism, is through its abundance of verisimilitude of detail. The narrator attempts to thrust the reader into the shoes of the subject, James Farquhar, by using descriptive terms that are very realistic in nature. The story’s opening scene takes place on Owl Creek Bridge, a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, with Peyton Farquhar being hanged. Ambrose Bierce, the author, uses many seemingly unimportant details in the opening scene and throughout the story in a great attempt to make the reader feel as though he is there himself. One such example is when Bierce describes the actual platform on which Farquhar is standing. He writes, “Some loose boards laid upon the sleepers supporting the metals of the railway supplied a footing for him and his executioners” (Bierce 1476). This is seemingly unimportant, but after reading the story in its entirety, I realized that it was intentionally written in this manner

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.

The title plays an important role in catching the reader’s attention. If the title is interesting or compelling enough, one will be motivated to read it; otherwise, the story may never be read, resulting in a loss to both the author and the reader. In Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” the author grabs the reader’s attention with a “creepy” title, indicating a bad happening on the Owl Creek Bridge. Peyton Farquhar, a planter who supports the Southern cause during the Civil War, is on the brink of execution by hanging. 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.

In “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, Bierce starts her short story on the edge with Peyton Farquhar, a 35 year old planter from the south, standing on Owl Creek Bridge with his hands tied behind his back and a noose around his neck. There are soldiers from the north surrounding him. Two soldiers, one on each side of him, take away the plank in which he is standing on. Falling to the water, Farquhar focuses his last thoughts on his family, while also having hopes of freeing his hands and diving into the water below.

I believe “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is worthy to remain on the required reading list because, although Bierce shares the common element of shaping each character to their setting, class, and gender role through a realistic representation; he goes a step further by exploring the inner truths of characters through a unique narrative approach compared to other realist authors. All of the characteristics above were becoming prevalent themes in the late 19th century; as the population began to digest the aftermath effects of the Civil War, this led to the transition of Romantic literature to a bleak, realistic approach. However, unlike other contemporary writers, Bierce did not limit the narrator to the third person omniscient point of view like in Jack London’s “To Build a

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.

In "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and "The Story of an Hour," the authors use similar techniques to create different tones, which in turn illicit very distinct reactions from the reader. Both use a third person narrator with a limited omniscient point of view to tell of a brief, yet significant period of time. In "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," Bierce uses this method to create an analytical tone to tell the story of Farquhar's experience just before death. In "The Story of an Hour," Chopin uses this method to create an involved, sympathetic tone to relay the story of Mrs. Mallard's experience just before death. These stories can be compared on

As Farquhar is falling to his death, time seems to slow, or come to a brief halt, as the

Although the story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek,” is ironic, there are other literary elements represented in the story. Perhaps Ambrose Bierce’s most famous works, he used imagery from his own personal experiences in the Civil War, which adds to the suspense of the short story. Imagination is a difficult word to define. The ability to have a daydream, or picture with vivid details, is what imagination could be. An imagination is key for some people, who escape real life into a fantasy world. Bierce's “An Occurrence at Owl Creek” uses point of view, structure, and symbolism to show the power or capability of imagination.