Ambrose Bierce's An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is a story written by Ambrose Bierce. This story takes place around the Civil War. The main character, Peyton Farquhar, is caught tarnishing with a bridge and is sentenced to be hanged. Ambrose Bierce catches the minds of the readers by going into the mind of Peyton. While standing toward the end of the plank, Peyton starts to dream of escaping back to his family. Sadly in the last paragraph the author reveals that Peyton is only dreaming and is hanged.
This story is suspenseful due to the flashbacks, the setting, and the use of Peyton’s senses throughout the story.
The flashbacks describes the lifestyle Peyton Farquhar lives before he was caught tarnishing with the bridge. The story describes Peyton’s life

and work, it states that he is a planter, as well as a slave owner who is devoted to Southern cause. Suspense builds during this part of the story because a solider arrives to his home asking for a drink of water. The story tells Peyton “The Yanks are repairing the railroads and any cillivan caught inferring with the railroad, bridge, tunnel or trains will be hanged.
The setting takes place in the forest provides a major suspense to the story.

While Peyton is awaiting his deathbed, he looks around to someone but nobody was in sight. He starts to feel like his life is over. He looks a moment at his unsteadfast footing, and then he let his gaze wander to the water.
Suspense is built within the setting ,because in his mind he thinks the forest lie a perfect position which makes the readers think he dreaming.
Standing on the plank, over the bridge he hears a sound, “striking through the thought of his dear ones was a sound which he could neither ignore nor understand, a sharp, distinct, metallic percussion like the stroke of a blacksmith’s hammer upon the anvil; it had the same ringing quality”. His senses begin to broaden. The thought that death is inevitable, institutes a new perspective into Peyton’s life. As Peyton falls into the water, his senses are awakening as he comes to the surface and feels the “ripples upon his face and heard their separate sounds as they stuck”. No person, if faced with a situation like this, would be able to think clearly enough to use his or her senses to escape the situation. He looked at the forest on the bank of the stream, saw the individual tees, the leaves and the veining of each leaf. As he takes all of the nature in, he is also planning his route for escape. The shots of canons and muskets fly past his head, only missing him by inches. His senses allow him to know where or where not to move based on

the sound of the shot.
Throughout this short story, suspense is built in flashbacks, the setting, and the use of Peyton’s senses. This story builds up all of the suspense through these three points, then in the last two paragraphs reveals all of the hidden secrets. While Peyton is waiting to be hanged, his thoughts start to run wild and he begins to dream. This starts the chaos of his “escape.” Due to his evasion, the readers are attached to the story only to find out Peyton is dreaming and then dies.