Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge

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.

Through “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” the soldiers standing, watching as everything goes on around them, are not able to stop what is happening. The soldiers represent the unforgiving nature of war.

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.

watcher start to wonder what is happening. In the book, a soldier rides up to Farquhar and his

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.

Many people say that war is worse than Hell because innocent people die in it. In Beah’s life, this is most definitely true. Throughout the war, Beah goes through many hardships and witnesses the deaths of innocent loved ones, and Beah’s writing reflects how he felt during these times. Beah uses rhetorical strategies like diction, imagery, and detail choice to convey the emotional process he had to undergo in order to survive.

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.

Suddenly, the story cut to a flashback. It showed he and his wife having a conversation with one of the Confederate soldiers. Peyton asked about the Union soldiers, and the Confederate officer warned him that they were going to hang anyone who tried to tamper with the railroads. Peyton himself decided to try to burn down the Owl Creek Bridge, ignoring the warnings given to him. That was

“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, written by Ambrose Bierce is known as one of the most famous American literature stories of all time. Ambrose Bierce was one of the best writers to ever exist and freely shared his greatness, which is visibly seen throughout his short story. In the story, author Ambrose Bierce portrays a man from the south named Peyton Farquhar, who is prepared to face execution by being hanged on a railroad bridge in Alabama. Based on the imagery, irony, and characters developed in Bierce’s most famous short story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, every reader incorporates the power to signify the energy Peyton Farquhar releases and his mindset as he faces death.

Farquhar dies as soon as the captain gives the sergeant the signal. The author brilliantly describes the doomed man’s fate right before the rope allegedly “breaks.” He says that Farquhar is “as one already dead,” that he experiences “sharp pressure upon his throat, followed by a sense of suffocation.” He further states that he was wrapped in a “luminous cloud,” and had no “material substance.” It is pretty obvious that Peyton is hanged as “he swung through unthinkable arcs of oscillation, like a vast pendulum.” Consequently, the hanging is the “occurrence” that counts!

“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” succeeds in misleading the readers by the way Bierce represents the timing between the events that go on. In section III, there are a lot of details that serve a purpose in having the audience believing that he is escaping. When reading “The water, the banks, the forests, the now distant bridge, fort, and men, all were commingled and blurred” it allows the authors to picture him running far away from the bridge like he was making his “elaborate escape” (Bierce). It was as if he finally broke away from the soldier and that he was going to be saved. Everything in Section III is emphasized as reality to the audience as if it is really happening, though it is all Peyton’s thoughts right before his death.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is a short story written by Ambrose Bierce. The story takes place during the civil war. Bierce uses several literary techniques in the writing of his story. Ambrose Bierce uses symbolism in his story. Bierce uses foreshadowing in order to tell the audience the outcome of the text. Ambrose Bierce uses Imagery in his short story. Ambrose Bierce uses foreshadowing as a literary technique to create a shock effect to his story.

Death, a difficult topic, a time when you no longer live, no longer breathe, the deadline in one’s life where they abruptly cease to exist. The topic of death is spoken of in many forms of literature, including a short story by Ambrose Bierce; An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. Farquhar, is the main character in this story who is being hung for trying to set a Union bridge on fire. Throughout this story, Bierce tells us through imagery of what thoughts and feelings Peyton goes through, as he comes face to face with death. We can see this through the common ideology of death, how Peyton explains his surroundings, and the outcome Peyton

death. At this point, Farquhar slips into another reality of him escaping. The escape that Farquhar

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is a very interesting piece of writing. Mainly because Bierce illustrating both realism and illusion throughout the narrative. Bierce's demonstrates realism by guiding his audience into believing his story is actually real. By being descriptive of the surrounding area and actual events that were taken place at that time. Bierce displays illusion by giving tiny clues in the narrative that symbolize an illusion.