What could draw your attention in more than a detailed story packed full of imagery, that’s just what Ambrose Bierce did when he wrote “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”. Bierce found he was able to write an amazing tale thanks to his time enlisted in the “Union Army during the Civil War” (1501). Inspired by events he was able to develop a tale encircling Realism as well as Naturalism creating a view of a man facing the inevitable…being hung. Bierce in the opening takes time to create such detail in his characters displaying Realism by describing the unforgiven nature of life. Bierce uses elaborate descriptions to create a vision of a Farquhar’s mental state implying he is daydreaming or perhaps hallucinating during his hanging. We began to see the state of mind change when he …show more content…
Bierce is careful to make you think he is alive and running for his life but soon enough you can see where it may not be the truth. After a race to get from the stream to the banks into the woods which finally would lead him to the road that would reunite him with his loved ones does Bierce makes it evident it was all in his head. As he approaches his wife to greet her with open arms Bierce brings us back quickly to reality when he says “As he is about to clasp her, he feels a stunning blow upon the back of the neck; a blinding white light blazes all about him, with a sound like the shock of a cannon-then all is darkness and silence! Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of Owl Creek Bridge” (1508). It is perfectly clear now that what we thought to be reality was indeed not, and the poor man had no way of honestly escaping his inevitable doom from his surrounding circumstances. Farquhar’s freedom was nonexistent showing Bierce use of
The Federal soldiers execute orders in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, which Ambrose Bierce (Ambrose 551) characterizes Peyton Farquhar’s impending demise as he encounter delusions, exemplifies profound keen senses, and experiences a perplexing fight-or-flight mental cognizance in an escape toward a perceived freedom, and nonetheless, remains a “standing civilian and a student in a hanging” (554).
Ambrose Bierce wrote "The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" during the turn of the nineteenth to twentieth century. During this time period the two writing styles of romanticism, and realism were coming together. This melding of styles was a result of the romantic period of writing and art coming to an end, just at realism was beginning to gain popularity. "The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is a perfect example of this transition of styles as it combines elements of both romanticism and realism to create a story that can be far-fetched while still believable at times.
“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” by Ambrose Bierce, is the story of the hanging of a Civil War era Southern gentleman by the name of Peyton Farquhar. The story begins with an unidentified man being prepared to be hanged by a company of Union soldiers on a railroad bridge that runs over a river. He is then identified as Peyton Farquhar, a man who attempted to destroy the very bridge they are standing on based on information he was given by a Federal scout posing as a Confederate soldier. As he is dropped from the bridge to hang, the rope snaps and he falls into the river. After freeing himself and returning to the surface of the river, he realizes that his senses are all much heightened and he even “noted the prismatic colors in all the dewdrops upon a million blades of grass” (153). Peyton then begins to swim downstream as he is being shot at by the soldiers and a cannon as well. He soon pulls himself ashore and begins the long journey home. After walking all day and night, to the point where “his tongue was swollen with thirst” and “he could no longer feel the roadway beneath his feet” he finally makes it to his home (155). Just as he is about to embrace his wife he feels a sharp pain in his neck and hears a loud snap. He is dead from the hanging, and all this was just a dream. “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” shows the potential strength that a person’s will to live can have, and that we often don’t appreciate...
Bierce broke this story down into three parts. The first part of the narrative creates an atmosphere with the setting at Owl Creek Bridge. Great detail is told here as to who is present at the scene, what is happening, what the scene looks like, etc. But the reader only receives ideas and thoughts from one person, Peyton Farquar. The first part as like the other two parts of this story is written very systematically and clear. Even with such a structured set up, the author still manages to put great anticipation and fearsome emotion into the near end of the first part of this story. At this point the author makes the reader think Peyton is devising a way to set his hands free from the rope thereby beginning his journey to escape home.
In writing this story, Bierce is commenting on war itself and the contrast between this romanticized tale of heroism and the gruesome reality the hundreds of thousands of men had to face, and still have to face to this very day. The true horrors of war are never normally publicized, and this is why the populace is willing to go and fight. In the case of Peyton Farquhar, this ignorance lead to his blind patriotism, which in turn lead to his death. As the narrator relates to the reader: “Circumstances of an imperious nature, which it is unnecessary to relate here, had prevented him from taking service with the gallant army [...] and he chafed under the inglorious restraint, longing for the release of his energies, the larger life of the soldier, the opportunity for distinction.” (Bierce 2). The aforementioned quote is most definitely an affirmation of the grandeur of the military, and this is the perspective that Peyton Farquhar and many men shared. It is this illusion of grandeur that corrupts many men (and women) to head out and die in horrible
Ambrose Bierce's short story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge tells a story during the American Civil War. Peyton Farquhar, an ardent supporter of the South, would be hanged at the Owl Creek bridge by the Federal army for attempting to damage the bridge to prevent the advance of the northern troops. As the execution was carried out, Farquhar fell into a fantasy where he thought the rope broke and he was going on his way to an escape. However, after "hours of arduous journey to life"--which only amounted to a few seconds in reality--Farquhar only reached his inevitable destiny--a death with a broken neck.
“The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” by Ambrose Bierce tells the story of a man being executed. As the man dies he imagines his escape. Facing death, the man wants nothing more ten to go home to his family. During his journey home, the man comes to appreciate life. Perhaps he sees how he should have lived, only as a dying man could. When faced with death he truly begins to realize what he has lost. This story might show us how death can enlighten us about life.
The story is broken into three parts. Part one starts out with an individual being hung. Part two describes a man and his family and his encounter with a “Confederate soldier.” The man he had encountered was dressed in all grey just as a confederate soldier would. Finally part three describes a virtually impossible series of events that are occurring to the protagonist. The way Bierce orders his evidence in his story gives clues that the man on the bridge in part one was foreshadowing the choice of somebody later to be discovered in other parts of his story. Bierce use multiple pieces of evidence of foreshadowing in part three. First, Peyton Farquhar “escapes” death, being hanged. Next the arrogant man falls into the rapidly moving river, yet still survives. Farquhar “was now in full possession of his physical senses. They were, prenaturally, keen and alert” (Bierce 506). In reality, somebody who has just been hanged for a while, would struggle to have full range over his or her senses. Next, the protagonist endures being fired at by Union soldiers. He dove deep down into the river. Many rounds were fired but no soldier could seem to shoot
When reading Bierce’s story much of it does not make sense to a first time reader, how could Farquhar do all of this but in the end had died of a broken neck. When reading and analyzing the story further the experiences Farquhar has, the reader starts to sense that he was dead. Bierce made Farquhar an optimistic man and in his world between reality and imagination this is how he survived. Farquhar used his imagination to escape death, even though in the story he did die he used his imagination to escape his own pain and suffering by pushing his own mind into believing that his imagination was reality he would survive and did survive. Bierce tells about this vivid imagination of Farquhar’s while still trying to clue in the reader that he is already dead.
According to Baybrook, “Peyton Farquhar believes -- as do the readers -- that he has escaped execution and, under heavy gunfire, has made his way back home” (Baybrook). One of Bierce’s main means to achieve this goal of forcing the reader to buy into his delusion is ‘time’. Because ‘time’ is utilized to calibrate human experiences, it becomes obscure, altered and split in times of extreme emotional disturbance. The time that is required for hanging Farquar seems to be indefinite, however, Bierce goes the extra mile and indicates that there is a certain ‘treshold of death’ that lingers beyond recognition. When it is exceeded, it results in a distorted and blurred pe...
Lucy Bednar explains in her criticism that Bierce uses three different voices throughout his story. In the first part of the story Bierce set up the scene. There is a man, Peyton, with a noose around his neck about to be hanged by the Northern soldiers during the civil war. Peyton is barely standing on a plank of the bridge and there are soldiers all over the place ready to
In “The Tell Tale Heart,” one of the many themes could be that guilt will catch up with you. Although this could be a fitting theme, the more suitable and appropriate theme is about escaping reality and convincing yourself that there is a way out of anything, as this is describing not only the main conflict between the narrator and the old man's eye, but the other conflicts as well. “In an instant I dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heavy bed over him” (Poe 6). This theme is supported throughout the story by all of the conflicts. While this theme may apply to Edgar Allan Poe's “The Tell Tale Heart,” it is not shared with the short story “An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce, in which they are very similar. Some may think that in “An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge,” Ambrose Bierce use imagery to set up the problem. While this is a good claim, there are some problems with this, however. In “An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce, there is a fair amount of imagery. Although this short story does contain imagery, it is not used to create the problem. In the beginning, the conflict and problem of the story is already happening. The scenes that involve imagery are moreso used to create suspense as well as build a mood, while this craft is used in the scenes that are filled with action and very exciting. For example, when Farquhar is falling into the river, the author uses imagery to give the reader a picture in their mind and describe him falling, which makes it more suspenseful. “As Peyton Farquhar fell straight downward through the bridge he lost consciousness and was one already dead” (Bierce 3). Thus, Bierce uses imagery to create suspense and build the mood of the story, while Edgar Allan Poe uses different crafts to
The short story starts by creating curiosity with the revelation that a man will be hung in the owl creek bridge. At that moment the reader does not know the reasons for which the man will be sentenced. In the second section, the name of the man who will be hanged is mentioned, the motives for his crime and how he was captured. The final section illustrates the struggle Peyton Farquhar was facing and the events that went through your mind at that moment. He imagined/dream that he escape and peaceful return to their home. But the reality is another and his life ends in darkness and silence. (Bierce 201-209)
But this isn’t just the opening scene. Bierce paints a picture throughout the whole short story. Bierce paints a well enough picture as though you had witnessed the whole thing and had been listening to Peyton Farquhar tell you his plan on escaping the hanging, “”If I could free my hands”…I might throw off the noose and spring into the stream. By diving I could evade the bullets and, swimming vigorously, reach the bank, take to the woods and get away home.” (Bierce 8), with this I just wanted to visually leap through the book and help Peyton run to his home where he talks about is his wife and two children waiting for him.
At a very early age children are constantly filled with ideas and stories with nothing but happy and beautiful endings. One may say that Walt Disney filled is the cause for filling their pubescent brains with these very unrealistic and impossible ideas. Others may argue that the thought of a “happily ever after” has always been a prized treasure in the minds of many. Unfortunately, real life does not always have a happy ending. In fact, life rarely ever has a happy ending.