Owl Creek Bridge Consequences

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’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.

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.

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:

Farquhar eventually finds himself at the mercy of a platoon of Union soldiers. Despite the seemingly non-violent nature of this civilian’s crimes, the soldiers have taken swift and unilateral control of his life, becoming judge, jury,

An occurrence at owl creek bridge” is an elaborately devised commentary on the fluid nature of time. The story which moves from the present to the past to what is revealed to be the imagine present, reflects this fluidity as well as the tension that exists among competing notions of time. What at first appears to be the continuous flow of the execution taking place in the present moment. After the present moment of the fluid of nature peyton farquhar thinks and feels very good about the great detail about Farquhar hanging. Farquhar really didn’t know much about the soldiers that execute him and he don’t know what they were thinking about. Farquhar thinks that the soldiers are acting a lot from the other soldiers. Now they are trying to find out if the soldiers feel guilty.The soldiers might have a different mind into the hanging of Farquhar and they think that farquhar had a mind as he faces him death.

Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is not only a short story, but also a film, that is set during the Civil War era. Even though the text and film are similar in different aspects, the two mediums also contain many significant differences that make the text a better medium for the story. The film does an adequate job of providing a visual of what is happening in the story, but it leaves out a lot of details. For instance, the film does not include part two, a significant scene from the story. This is the part when the author introduces and describes the protagonist, Peyton Farquhar. In addition, Part two is when we finally understand why the protagonist is being hanged and why he went to the bridge. By leaving this part out

Bierce’s method to create illusion by using death and war in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”

The Desired Wrinkle in Reality During our journey through our privileged period in this world, we are bound to encounter events that we find less than desirable. While we would like to avoid such experiences, in the end they serve to influence us to appreciate the more favorable moments in our lives that much more. Unfortunately, some unfortunate events may affect an individual so severely that he or she may desperately cling to his or her happier times long after they pass, resulting in a false existence for which he or she tries to escape to.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Book Review Ambrose Bierce was the tenth born child of thirteen. Born in Meigs County, Ohio, he briefly attended a Kentucky Military Institute. Bierce’s experiences fighting in the Civil War has served as an influence on his writing. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is Bierce’s most popular work. The story leaves critics with mixed reactions.

The structure of the story, helps to show the significance of the power of imagination in life. Bierce used structure to help influence this idea, to help reader to understand the main character’s problem in the context of the story. At the beginning of the story, the main character Peyton Farquhar, is shown on a bridge. Peyton, according to the text, “stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, looking down into the swift water twenty feet below” (83). From the opening sentence, Bierce has definitely grabbed the readers’ attention. Readers can imagine the scenes, in which the action is occurring. Bierce used structure to make point of view appear better throughout the story. Instead of explaining why Peyton was hanged first, Bierce went to the actual hanging itself. The story could have been better if it went chronically, but since information was withheld, the story became better. Bierce jumped around in his story, and had time to

The use of expertise literary technique is what authors use in order to immediately catch the attention of the readers. This is exactly what Ambrose Bierce has done in her book titled An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. This book takes place during the Civil War. By reading this book, the reader will further understand the much deeper meanings that can be understood using simple items. Ambrose Bierce uses literary techniques such as symbolism, imagery, and irony in order to create a foreshadowing or shock effect to catch the reader’s attention.