Owl Creek Bridge Tone

Does time stop or slow down during death? In the short story by Ambrose Bierce “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”. The author extensively uses foreshadowing during the short story that manipulates the reader to lead towards the factors of symbolism, irony, setting, and viewpoint. They’re numerous viewpoints from the readers perspective of, symbolism, and irony that, indicate the timeline of Peyton Farquhar tragic death. Ambrose Bierce uses the time to manipulate the reader from understanding the plot, making it impossible to forecast most of the short story.

In Ambrose Bierce’s short story, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Hill, a man named Peyton Farquhar is about to be hanged for treason against the Union. While waiting to fall off the bridge to hang, Farquhar thinks back to his wife and child he left back home. He thinks of everything that brings him joy in life before his final breath. He is then dropped from the bridge, but instead of dying the rope snaps and he plunges into the water underneath the bridge. Farquhar eventually escapes his captors and makes it back home to his loving family, once again happy and at ease. Suddenly Peyton Farquhar is dead, hanging from the bridge. His escape was only a figment of his imagination. Bierce uses a plethora of literary techniques to produce suspense in his short story.

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.

To begin with, the sense of empathy for the man is formed by including his point-of-view and a description of his character. One of the first examples of these techniques is when he finds the snake and states, “My first instinct was to let him go his way.” From this thought the reader can tell that the man has no inclination of killing the snake at first and did not see him as any sort of immediate threat. With the author’s decision to write the passage in the first person perspective of the man it has a crucial impact of skewing details to reflect off of his perceptions, allowing for a better insight on the character. Another example that helps the readers empathize with the man is when he reveals his views on a potential killing by mentioning, “I have never killed an animal I was not obliged to kill.” Although all that the man says is that he will only kill an animal if necessary, by choosing to inform the

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

At the beginning of the story, the narrator provides a brief description of himself that allows readers to reflect upon his character and morality. He introduces himself as someone who believes that

“No service was too humble for him to perform” (p. ), is in my opinion a very important characteristic any human should possess. This particular description left me leaning towards a sympathetic viewpoint. How can a man with a humble mindset be guilty of a crime that would end with his hanging? Ambrose allows the reader to relate to the human side of Farquhar in this story. Maybe, just for a moment, we have hope for the fugitive hanging over the bridge, no matter his side of the war or the crimes he has committed. We briefly forget about his crime and relate to him as a human being. Or maybe Bierce was presenting a bit of irony here. Farquhar, a well-to-do slave owner is now a slave to the laws of war.

In the first place, a person with a kind and sympathetic nature is a person that will do good deeds like Ponyboy, even if he’s in a gang that is supposed to be barbarous, vicious, or even acquire ways to convert into a criminal he is kind hearted. For example, on page 78 it says,“You ain’t like any of the gang. I mean I couldn’t

This self-description of the narrator says it all. He gives a brutal, yet inflated description of himself and his friends that gives the reader a very round main character.

Several times in the novel Douglass shares emotional and persuasive passages that connect to the readers. An example of an emotional passage is when Douglass finally sticks up for himself against Mr. Covey and fights back. This is emotional for the readers because throughout his time as a slave dehumanization is taking place, but after this scene he turns into a man he never thought he could become. Throughout this scene, the reader

A sympathetic character, is a character that the writer expects the reader (in this case watcher) to identify with and care about. In Shakespeare's play King Lear, the characters Gloucester and King Lear both start out not being liked by the reader because they come off as mean and cold. By the end of the play, the reader does sympathize for both of these characters because of how they have been betrayed by their children. Both King Lear and Gloucester turn out to be prime examples of a sympathetic character by the end of the play.

‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge’ by Ambrose Bierce and ‘The Red Convertible’ by Louise Erdrich both recount sorrowful tales of men during times of war. The stories differ in that ‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge’ is a story written in reverse, where the readers do not truly know the plot until the end- whereas ‘The Red Convertible’ is just a man recounting the story of his long lost brother. However despite their differences, both of the stories continue to build up hope in the reader only to find nothing but a sorrowful story at the end.

mentally induced. The main character, Farquhar, is described as “His features were good – a

In part one of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge when Farquhar was being prepare to died I was apathetic about him. I didn’t really care that he is about to die. I then felt bad for him because he seemed like he was a nice man in the flashback with the soldier and not like a villain whom everyone thinks deserve to die. I was excited in the final part when he escapes the bridge and was able to find his way home. At the end of the short story I was sad and disappointed that Farquhar was hung and he never escaped. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge made me experience a variety of emotions thought out all three parts.

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.