Ambrose Bierce's An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge

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In his short story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” Ambrose Bierce illustrates his views of the military and war by conveying the harsh and unforgiving nature of militant soldiers, and the violence, death, and suffering that surrounds the hostile art of warfare. Through Farquhar's immediate death, Bierce exhibits that war is merely a cause of senseless suffering for the extremely high cost of a glorified victory that only ends with the sacrifice of thousands of lives. Throughout his short story, Bierce uses characterization and symbolism to convey that war is unjust and has the ability to alter the perception of time and reality.
During times of war, people change for better or worse, but the warped perception of time and reality stays …show more content…

Bierce portrays the undeniable disfiguration of the mind's perception when corrupted by fear through suspenseful symbolism throughout the story. One example is the piece of driftwood that Peyton Farquhar spots floating down the river before his imminent death. It comes to represent his inability to escape his impending fate and his unattainable freedom. The narrator describes Farquhar’s image of the driftwood as, “dancing” along a “sluggish stream” (Bierce 469). His inability to distinguish between reality and fantasy at the point of his death demonstrates the cruelty of war, and its capacity to change the way in which the mind comprehends inevitable phenomenon. Another conflicting symbol Bierce uses in the story is the element of time. Farquhar manipulates time in an illusion to keep himself from facing his menacing reality when he states, “Doubtless, despite his suffering, he had fallen asleep while walking, for now he sees another scene-perhaps he has merely recovered from a delirium” (Bierce 473). Farquhar’s perception of time has lost all coherence and the passing of time is contorted as the moment before his death feels almost like an eternity. The fear Farquhar experiences as he is about to die depicts the terrifying nature of war which causes normal people to lose their lives for an abstract

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