More handpicked essays just for you.
An occurrence at owl creek bridge- authors purpose and choice of words
Essay on the occurrence at owl creek bridge
Essay on the occurrence at owl creek bridge
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Summary
“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” was written by Ambrose Bierce during the time of The Civil War. Bierce was a journalist from England that was known for his “incisive style”, and “sharp wit”. Bierce had a wife and two children that died of unknown causes, and he ended up moving to Mexico and never being heard from again. “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, written by Ambrose Bierce, uses the symbolism of “your life flashing before your eyes” in order to express that in our final moments, we think of any possible way to keep alive.
The story takes place on a railroad bridge that goes over a river in Northern Alabama. There is a man that is being executed by Federal Soldiers.They bound his hands
…show more content…
and feet, and are going to hang him over the water. There is also an infantry standing to the side of the river with guns to observe the hanging. One man is standing on the opposite side of the plank so the man does not fall to early. The Federal soldiers have blockaded both sides of the bridge so that nothing may get on or off of it, leaving the man thinking. Bierce now gives us a look inside the man’s head. He begins to think about how desolate of an area he is in. There is nothing, and nobody, around for miles. The man being hanged is a civilian planter name Peyton Farquhar; about thirty-five years old with a wife and two children. He was a very well dressed and groomed man with a very gentlemanly look about him. He came from a well respected Alabama family .and became a planter and politician when he married his wife and settled down. When the hanging begins, the men step off the plank, allowing him to drop to his death; or so they thought. He closed his eyes and immediately began to think about his wife and children; about how much he loves them. He became distracted and then a huge pain and series of loud noises began happening. He could not figure out what it was until he realized it was the tick of his watch. We now switch to a side story about Farquhar and his wife sitting on his porch one summer day and having a gray-clad soldier come onto their property and ask for water.
Peyton asks why they are here and the man replies that, “the Yanks”, are repairing the railroads and that anyone who interferes with the process will be executed. After they Farquhar’s went into their home for the night, the soldier rode back from the way he had came. He was a Federal Scout.
The story then goes back to the hanging and how Peyton feels. He is plummeting to his death and experiencing all the shooting pains running their course through his body. Peyton’s thoughts then come back and he realizes that the rope has broken and that he is now drowning in the river. He got the bounds off of his legs and hands and then continued to swim to the surface and take off the noose. He peered at the soldiers and then realized they were going to begin shooting at him.
Peyton began to swim as fast as he could and dive as deep as he could in order to not get shot. After he rose for air he realized that he had swam a for a long time and was out of reach from the soldiers and their shots. He got sucked into the rapids of the river and the rapids took him all the way to a beach that he rejoiced at because he had escaped his
death. He heard a cannon whirling towards him so he got up and began to ran. He ran all night until he found a road and knew he was going the right way. He became very tired and fatigued, making him fall asleep while running. While he is asleep he dreams another scene; he is at his home and see’s his wife walking down from their porch to greet him. He begins running towards her and as he is about to embrace her, he feels searing pain in his throat and neck and sees a bright white light coming straight at him. He was dead. His body hanging over the river on Owl Creek Bridge.
When Sam goes out late to leave the camp he was at during the war, he goes home to talk to his family and then he hears sounds outside and he finds patriot soldiers trying to steal his family's cattle and Sam tries to stop them. later when he returns to his camp he is accused for leaving the camp and for stealing property, and general Putnam decides to execute him and he dies. When Tim finds out he is very devastated.
Charley came into war excited, ready to go. He was so young he didn't think anything could be so bad. Once he got to Fort Snelling the excitement wore off and he became bored. The war was bad, he was one of the youngest so he had the most stress. Everywhere Charley looked there were bodies dropping, He never knew if he was safe or not. Charley tried to stay away from guns or any other weapons.
While W. D. Howell gets rid of the romantic ending, Ambrose Bierce’s story, An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge eliminates the unrealistic endings in adventure war style stories. The first few pages of the story starts out like today’s Mission Impossible movie. However, the ending of Mission Impossible always has the main character live. Bierce’s story starts out with an intense moment in the character’s, Peyton Farquhar, life. Leading up to Peyton’s amazing and miraculous escape, or so the reader is lead to
noose is placed around his neck and the boards on the bridge begin to be kicked aside
Out of all the stories I have read so far in class, I found this story the most interesting and realistic piece. It never occurred to me that thoughts such as those mentioned in the story could actually be going through a dieing man’s mind. In fact, I show even more ignorance in that I have never thought about what is it truly like to experience a process of expected death. This kind of tragedy once happened on a day-to-day basis. Imagine all the other elaborate emotions going through the minds of others dieing. Bierce did a great job in putting true emotion into this story. I along with most of my class members agreed that we had no idea Peyton’s escape home did not occur at all until the final words of this story. For an author to create something so realistically disguised until the bitter end is truly an amazing accomplishment.
The analysis of this story will go through the event of Farquhar’s hanging and how his imagination is his only way to escape death. It’s Peyton Farquhar’s desire to participate in the war since prior circumstances didn’t allow him to participate in the civil war. All he wanted to do was serve his side, like any brave and noble man was hoping to do during this time. The union spy planted a seed of hearsay into Farquhar’s mind and Farquhar’s desires allowed this seed to sprout into what he saw as a possibility for acknowledgement and commendation. One can tell that Farquhar was consumed by the thought of being a war hero. His willingness to serve the confederacy is what dooms his life after he is caught trying to burn the bridge and stop the unions progression into the south.
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...
In "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and "The Story of an Hour," the authors use similar techniques to create different tones, which in turn illicit very distinct reactions from the reader. Both use a third person narrator with a limited omniscient point of view to tell of a brief, yet significant period of time. In "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," Bierce uses this method to create an analytical tone to tell the story of Farquhar's experience just before death. In "The Story of an Hour," Chopin uses this method to create an involved, sympathetic tone to relay the story of Mrs. Mallard's experience just before death. These stories can be compared on the basis of their similar points of view and conclusions as well as their different tones.
Bierce is most known for his short stories “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and “Chickamauga.” Even though he did not have that many short stories, he was still a well-known, influential writer. The public loved him; and was very interested by his stories, his personality, his life, and even his death. In 1913 Bierce disappeared over the Mexican border and still, until this day, no one has documented proof on exactly how, when, or where Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce died.
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)
The 1890 story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce was composed with a structure that shows time fluidity. The story illustrated the perceived function of time as beyond reality as it slows down to the satisfaction of the delusions of protagonist, Peyton Farquhar, as he experiences a dying incident on the day of his execution. Farquhar was charged with the crime of an attempted act to destroy or sabotage the Owl Creek Bridge, and was thereafter sentenced to death by the Federal Army. Farquhar believes as he also leads the readers the same that he has escaped execution and has made his way back home. The dying protagonist’s experience was portrayed in a slow flow of time that seemed to exactly fit the many circumstances that occurred just in time for reality to come and take its place in time.
"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is a story of illusion, decision, and fate. It presents one with a very powerful scenario - one that questions the protagonist 's ultimate destiny, and the concept of good vs. evil. It defines the grey area of deeds by which most humans live, and uses powerful thematic concepts and devices to convey the author 's own value while leaving some space for the reader to make their own choice. Furthermore, this story discusses the life of a man who ended up on the wrong side of history, humanizing yet criminalizing him for his beliefs. This can all be attributed to a wide array of symbols and interactions- all which support the theme of illusion vs. reality. The complex thematic value of this piece stems from multiple aspects – the most important of which are the bridge through both its literal and symbolic meaning, the colour grey in all its depth and broad variations, the essence of time in all of its distortion, and the story 's style of writing.
The theme in “An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge” is brought together by three necessary literary elements. The author incorporates symbolism into the story to help support the theme that nobody can escapes death and how thoughts in the mind are so substantial in the consciousness that it can take over the reality. The author uses symbolism to support the theme that nobody can escape death Bierce showed the piece of driftwood slowly being carried away. That piece of driftwood brought hope to Peyton Farquhar, because of this his mind started to wonder out of reality. He started to go into a fantasy world where he could escape and become that driftwood in the currents of the rivers. By giving Fargher this hope the author was able to allow him to escape in only his mind. Showing that there was no reality for the execution to go undone. The author lead us into such a unbelievable r...
Each one of the boats took off, one-by-one, with George Washington leading the way through the icy waters. After moving only a few feet, we had to use our paddles to break ice blocking our passage. I could here the exhausted, scratchy groans of the other soldiers struggling to move their boats only a few feet.This continued on for awhile longer until finally, we were able to make it to the other end of the river. From the end of the river on, it was a still 19 miles of land to be traversed until we reached the Hessian’s camp. I was dead tired just from crossing the river, and I knew that me, as well as the other soldiers, would be in for a rough
When Henry gets to camp, he learns that the army is not all that he thought it was. He thought that it would be battles all the time and little to no down time, and it is basically the opposite. He has plenty of time on his hands, and has only seen the enemy once or twice even after months. Then one day a soldier announces that the army will move tomorrow, and Henry ponders a question, will he run from battle, or stay and fight? He ponders this question a few more times, as the army did not move, and cannot come up with an answer.