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.

Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” tells the story of Peyton Farquhar, a plantation owner devoted to the Southern cause, with a well-known family background,

What is life? What is death? These are the questions you should consider asking yourself while reading “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”. There were many intriguing literary techniques the author used to engage the reader, and instill thought-provoking details that kept the audience guessing until the end. Specifically, the author, Ambrose Bierce, used elaboration and description language about the setting to enhance the plot, purposefully paced the story for meaning, and connected the reader with a strong message.

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.

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.

The setting is being described by a narrator that knows everything and it is being told through facts. The second section transitions to the third person objective. The reader learns about Peyton’s feelings towards the war and his motives behind committing the crime through dialogue with a Federal scout. It also infers how Peyton ended up in the Union’s custody. Up to this point, the narrator has remained objective and the reader has not been influenced to side with the enforcer or the offender. However once the third section transitions to the third person limited point of view, a sympathetic connection develops between Peyton and the reader. We now learn about his thoughts through his conscious mind, the reader learns of his fervent desire to return home to his family. All of sudden the reader finds themselves supporting Peyton’s animated escape without taking into account the details revealing it is an illusion. In a way, the final section is an example of romantic literature, it expresses characteristics such as adventure and good versus evil; However, that is put to an end when we find out Peyton was dead all

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 Juxtaposition of Soldier and Civilian Elie Wiesel, a political activist, once commented “war dehumanizes, and war diminishes all those who wage near it.” Set during the Civil War, Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” shares a similar sentiment about the relationship and difference between dehumanized militants and more compassionate civilians near them. His short story’s plot follows Peyton Farquhar, a Confederate supporter, as the Union military force is about to hang him on Owl Creek Bridge– without trial– for attempting arson against the Union, although, Farquhar seemingly escapes his demise and travels back to his house. Yet, just as Farquhar is about to reunite with his wife, the narrator reveals that Farquhar hallucinated

To understand what happens at the point of death is impossible unless to be experienced. In “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce is set during the civil war during a northern advancement of the south. It opens at end of Peyton Farquhar’s life just before he will be hung for intruding on Union soldiers bridge of burn it. The story introduces the stages of death as a person would go through them.

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.

In Robert Enrico’s short film, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, the audience is manipulated into believing a man on the brink of death gets a second chance at life. However, in the last scene of the short film, the man is literally snapped back to reality. The escape was merely an illusion and the man falls vertically to his death. Robert Enrico’s film ultimately shows the true meaning behind one’s life flashing before their eyes.

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

“An Occurrence at Own Creek Bridge” is a very detailed story which paints a vivid