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Ambrose Bierce’s short story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, combines reality and illusion. The narrative describes Peyton Farquhar’s attempt to escape the reality of his hanging through illusion. As Farquhar tries to bend reality to obey his will he makes both reality and illusion indistinct for himself. “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” helps readers better understand what actually exists, what is fantasy in life and helps people rethink about their existence. All of us dream and are taught to never give up. Unfortunately, we cannot differentiate what can and cannot be controlled all the time. Bierce combines both reality and illusion along with two components of the combination: time and sensory impression.

“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” intertwines reality and illusion until the end, when Farquhar is hanged. Reality is what actually exists and illusion is what we pursue. Everyone has a distorted sense of reality and illusion because people’s ideal image of reality is that we can create and control everything. Similar to people, Farquhar is tremendously desperate to separate himself from reality. So, Farquhar imagines his escape hoping that he can gain control of his situation. Farquhar or people want their fantasies to be genuine in order to cope with reality making it extremely difficult to separate them later on. When Farquhar or people do learn the difference reality is now more difficult to accept. So, as Farquhar comes back to reality he learns that even with his imaginative escape there can only be one ending. He will die.

In an attempt to control reality Farquhar begins to imagine himself in a timeless realm. In which every second of thought is uninterrupted during his escape. He believes that with ti...

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...w? To the reader some parts of Farquhar’s tale seem real and others not so much. Farquhar’s inaccurate sensory impression shows that it is an illusion. For example, “He felt the ripples upon his face and heard their separate sounds as they struck.” (Bierce, Ambrose. “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”. Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes: World Masterpiece. Ed Prentice Hall. New York: Prentice Hall, 2005. 564-572. Print).

However, because illusion shows his fantasy as a surge of strength out of weakness and reality shows this creation as desperation to escape life. We can never really tell the difference between the two. Bierce’s ability to blur reality and illusion makes the reader reflect on their own existence. To emphasize for readers the confusion of Farquhar’s reality and illusion helps readers better understand what actually exists and what is fantasy in life.