Ambrose Bierce's An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge

“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce is a short story. The story begins with a man from the confederate states named Peyton Farquhar. It is broken down in three parts: Part one being about Peyton preparing to get executed on the bridge. Part two is about how Farquhar is a successful planter and wanted to help the confederates. He met with a soldier to talk about what he could do to help the south. It turns out the soldier was from the north. The last part takes place back in the present with Farquhar preparing to get hung. He imagines himself breaking free of the ropes and jumping in the water below while soldiers fired their guns at him. He escaped but quickly woke up to the reality of his dead body hanging from Owl Creek

Bridge. The central idea of this story is that reality and illusion are sometimes hard to tell apart.
The main character of this story is Peyton Farquhar. Farquhar is a “well-to-do planter” that wants to help the confederates (Bierce 862). He was also “slave owner” and a politician. “He was naturally an original secessionist and ardently devoted to the Southern cause.” He was unable to join the confederate army due to “circumstances of an imperious nature” and wants to show his worth to the cause (Bierce 862). This desire to serve in anyway possible makes him an easy target for the union spy. This ultimately leads to his execution. The supporting character is Farquhar’s wife. She is the stereotypical female and she is only really mentioned in Farquhar’s imagined state. She is simply referred to as “the lady” and is “too happy to serve” (Bierce 863). She is really just a comfort for Farquhar in his illusion as opposed to his reality of death.
The conflict in this story is reality vs. illusion. Farquhar was deemed not worthy enough to serve the confederate states army and he feels he must prove his worth by helping the confederates. His conflict with reality happened when the story makes you think that he has escaped. His escape provides him with a comfort in an illusion rather than the reality of “his body, with a broken neck,” swinging from Owl Creek bridge (Bierce 866). Another example of this illusion is the union spy that gives the illusion of being a confederate solider. The conflict ultimately was resolved with the noose taking his life. The conflict relates to the central idea that the reality of life will always win in a fight with a self-made illusion.
The point of view in this story was omniscient.

This type of point of view was evident when the man’s thoughts were expressed “He closed his eyes in order to fix his last thoughts upon his wife and children.”(Bierce 863). Bierce made it obvious that omniscient was the point of view being used because he told the reader about the thoughts and feelings of the main character, Peyton Farquhar. This type of point of view is powerful in the use of this story because this story was about his illusion seeming like a reality. The narration affected the story by showing readers the blurred line between Farquhar’s illusion against his

reality.
The setting of this short story is the warm, farmland of the confederate states. The time period of this story is somewhere around the time of the civil war during the 1860’s. The setting is very important in this story because it describes Farquhar’s allegiance to the south and why he is ultimately killed. Bierce goes into creates the setting by immediately saying “A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, looking down into the swift water twenty feet below.” (Bierce 864). The setting affects the story because the setting shows (and specifically the bridge) shows the connection between two different things. The bridge isn’t on either side of the river but in the middle. The setting supports the central idea because the bridge is the centerpiece of the connection between illusion and reality.
Ambrose Bierce is a literary master when he writes his stories, especially this story of “An Occurrence on Owl Creek Bridge”.

The two that were used quite frequently were personification and similes. We see personification used when Bierce writes that “the railroad ran straight away into a forest for a hundred yards, then, curving, was lost to view” (Bierce 861). This gave the effect that the railroad continued for a long time after the bridge. The second language device used was simile. This seen when Bierce Writes that, “The water roared in his ears like the voice of Niagara” (Bierce 865). Ambrose is trying to describe how loud the water is by comparing it to one of the largest waterfalls in the world. The sound is almost deafening at this

river.
The author has quite an extensive personal history that influences his writing in this story. Ambrose Bierce “enlisted at age 19 as a private in the 9th Indiana Volunteer Infantry on April 19, 1861.” (Berg 1). This is seen in this story because both the setting and the plot revolve around the civil war. Ambrose Bierce was also a strong abolitionist that made his opposition to slavery open. “As a youth, Bierce became an ardent Abolitionist, working for an antislavery newspaper in northern Indiana.” (Nash 73). Ambrose Bierce shows this in his story since the person being hung is a slave owner.