An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce

1285 Words3 Pages

Dream and Reality.
The short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce, exemplifies the idea of dream versus reality. A dream is believe that comes from the deepest stage of your mind. Is based on ideas, emotions and sensations that sometimes are related to our real life or just a fantasy. Reality is a succession of events that exist.
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)
Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Bierce was born in a farm (in Horse Cave Creek), in Meigs County, Ohio and grew up in Kosciusko County, Indiana. In 1859, Bierce joins the Military School of Kentucky, where his stay was cut short prematurely because of an accident, supposedly intentional that ended up by setting fire to the establishment. At the beginning of the American Civil War, on April 19, 1861, Bierce enlisted in the 9th Regiment volunteer infantry of Indiana, then he earned the promotion to captain. Being days later lawyer, in January 1865, he obtained a promotion to Commander. After that he became known as a journalist, he collaborated with The Argonaut, The Overland Monthly and New Letters, and he was selected director in 1868. In October 1913, Bie...

... middle of paper ...

...ey are still dreaming. Once people begin to notice irregularities and they realized they a dreaming, “At that point many people temp to panic about it, others that already know about lucid dreaming may continue the dream”. (McNamara 1-2). In the short story “An occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” the idea of Dream and Reality is exemplify in a different way. Peyton Farquhar has a dream in the last minutes of his life. At that moment he sees himself escaping from death, but he could not avoid reality. (Bierce 203)

Works Cited
Bierce, Ambrose. “Sundance Reader” n/ed. Mason, Ohio, 2009. Print.
Bulkley, Kelly.”Jung’s Dream Theory” n/d. Web. http://scholar.google.com.
Ciccarelli, Sundra and White Noland. “Psychology” 3rd ed. Pearson Education, 2012. Print.
McNamara, Patrick. “Dream Catcher/Dream and Reality”. http://www.psychologytoday.com
Web. 6 Jun. 2011.

Show More
Related

  • Comparing Editha And An Occurence At Owl Creek Bridge

    757 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many war stories today have happy, romantic, and cliche ending; many authors skip the sad, groosom, and realistic part of the story. W. D. Howell’s story, Editha and Ambrose Bierce’s story, An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge both undercut the romantic plots and unrealistic conclusions brought on by many stories today. Both stories start out leading the reader to believe it is just another tpyical love-war senario, but what makes them different is the one-hundred and eighty degrees plot twist at the end of each story.

    Read More

  • Peyton Farquhar in An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge by Bierce Ambrose

    591 Words  | 2 Pages

    As Peyton Farquhar marches in the center of the line of federate executioners, subsequently, he stands on a plank with a noose around his neck, while the sun shone, the owls screech above, and single piece of driftwood floats by below. Peyton, in hindsight he had no compunction in a conversation with a grey-clad soldier who and asks “the lady” (553) for a drink of water at the gate, and nonetheless condemns Farquhar for interference of an order (553). The ticking of his pocket watch causes fear in his mind, which he is subsequently trying to escape. As his heartbeats in time with his watch, and in that second, he is descending into his own-minds keen senses downward into Owl Creek, wi...

    Read More

  • Ambrose Bierce’s Experience During the Civil War and Its Influence on His Writing

    921 Words  | 2 Pages

    The story an Occurrence at Owl creek bridge, shows how a man , named Farquhar when

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Ambrose Bierce's An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge

    970 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ambrose Bierce was born in Ohio on June 24th, 1842. Bierce married Mary Ellen Day in 1871 and had three children, Day, Leigh, and Helen. Day and Leigh died in their twenties, one by suicide and the other from phenomena. Ambrose divorced Mary Ellen in 1904 and she died the year after. His daughter Helen was his only descendant that outlived him. Bierce served in the Union Army's 9th Indiana Infantry Regiment. A year after he enlisted, he was made First Lieutenant and worked as a topographical engineer, creating maps of battlefields. It is believed that he suffered from PTSD which influenced many of his later works. According to Bill Marx of Artfuse.org "He was the only major American author to serve in the Civil War, and his writing on combat, including yarns about the horrific battles he participated in, such as Chickamauga, catch the chaos of conflagration" (Marx). As M.A. Schaffner put it, "Bierce’s descriptions are fantastically horrible because the truth is sometimes fantastically horrible. (Schaffner)"

    Read More

  • Ambrose Bierce's An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

    697 Words  | 2 Pages

    “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...

    Read More

  • Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge

    1112 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of 'An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge'

    769 Words  | 2 Pages

    “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” by Ambrose Bierce is a short story about a man who seems to be lost in a world between reality and imagination. The story shows trials, triumphs, and the matters of life and death. The main character Peyton Farquhar is a proud confederate, husband, planter, and politician, not only is he all of those things but he is an optimist and this is what takes him on the journey of his life. After being put in a sticky situation he has nothing else to do but hope for a miracle. It’s not till the end that we find out Peyton has been dead throughout most of the story after breaking his neck from being hung.

    Read More

  • An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce Analytical Paper

    1863 Words  | 4 Pages

    “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true” (Kierkegaard)- Misleading oneself by accepting things as true or valid when they are not is a common phenomenon of nearly every human being, especially when faced with life changing of threatening situations. Self-deception can therefore be considered an option to escape reality in order to prevent oneself from dealing with the weight of a situation. Basically, those strong influencing psychological forces keep us from acknowledging a threatening situation or truth. However, oftentimes people do not realize that they are deceiving themselves, for it is mostly the action of the subconscious mind to protect especially the psychological well- being. This psychological state is depicted and in Ambrose Bierce’s short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”. He shows that people try to escape reality and seek refuge in self-deception when confronted with life-threatening situations, through characterization, alternate point of view, and the fluidity of time.

    Read More

  • Styles of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge versus The Tell Tale Heart

    481 Words  | 1 Pages

    The authors, Ambrose Bierce of 'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge' and Edger Allan Poe of 'The Tell Tale Heart' have unique styles to pull the reader into the story. Both authors use unreliable narrator and imagery to allow the reader to picture and follow the narrator's way of thinking. In the Tell Tale Heart, the man is very repetitious and his psychotic behavior is what intrigues the overall dark madness of The Tell Tale Heart. In Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Bierce uses illusions to allow the reader to follow wherever his ideas lead which also intrigues the overall dark madness effect.

    Read More

  • Reality is Like A Dream in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been by Joyce Carol Oates

    1504 Words  | 4 Pages

    Have you ever experienced a dream or a nightmare that seemed like reality? Most people in the world today would say that they have. Although this realistic dream experience does not occur often, when it does, clear distinctions are hard to make between the dream and reality. Theories exist that explain dreams as our subconscious

    Read More

  • Imagination In Ambrose Bierce's Owl Creek

    672 Words  | 2 Pages

    However, in order for a difficult circumstance to be dealt with, a combination of the two are required. Realists who can dream and dreamers who can be real are ideal in order to overcome terrible obstacles even if those obstacles result in your death. An occurrence at Owl Creek told in an objective third person narration. This story was also told in a nonlinear narrative, thus showing in literary form how an imagination works by jumping around from place to place and time to time. Throughout the story, Ambrose Bierce calls attention to a Farquhar's heightened senses and abilities. This was his way of spoiling the outcome of the story by hinting to the fact that Farquhar's escape was in fact an illusion . Irony is running rampant within this extraordinary work of literary art. A Dramatic example of irony is the fact that Farquhar says that he is a student of hanging and yet he's the one being hanged, "suppose a man -- a civilian and student of hanging -- should elude the picket post and perhaps get the better of the

    Read More

  • ghfng

    843 Words  | 2 Pages

    However, because illusion shows his fantasy as a surge of strength out of weakness and reality shows this creation as desperation to escape life. We can never really tell the difference between the two. Bierce’s ability to blur reality and illusion makes the reader reflect on their own existence. To emphasize for readers the confusion of Farquhar’s reality and illusion helps readers better understand what actually exists and what is fantasy in life.

    Read More

  • Dreams in A Midsummer Night's Dream

    2238 Words  | 5 Pages

    Oprah Winfrey once said, “The best thing about dreams is that fleeting moment, when you are between asleep and awake, when you don't know the difference between reality and fantasy, when for just that one moment you feel with your entire soul that the dream is reality, and it really happened.” But, what actually is a dream and what do dreams really have to do with one’s everyday life? In essence, a dream is a series of mental images and emotions occurring during slumber. Dreams can also deal with one’s personal aspirations, goals, ambitions, and even one’s emotions, such as love and hardship. However, dreams can also give rise to uneasy and terrible emotions; these dreams are essentially known as nightmares. In today’s society, the concept of dreaming and dreams, in general, has been featured in a variety of different mediums, such as literature, film and even music. While the mediums of film and music are both prime examples of this concept, the medium of literature, on the other hand, contains a much more diverse set of examples pertaining to dreams and dreaming. One key example is William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. While the portrayal of dreams, in general, plays a prominent role in Shakespeare’s play, the exploration of many aspects of nature, allows readers to believe that dreams are merely connected to somewhat unconventional occurrences.

    Read More

  • Owl Creek Bridge Symbolism

    591 Words  | 2 Pages

    The short story, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, keeps you at the edge of your seat with its interesting story plot. Bierce uses symbolism, a form of literary technique, to bring deeper meaning to the short story, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. Bierce also uses allusion, another form of literary technique, in the short story to keep the reader interested. The gray eyes mentioned in the story are a very important element included to symbolize the gray line within Farquhar’s mind because he has become lost. Ambrose Bierce uses literary techniques and foreshadowing to ultimately shock you with a tragic ending.

    Read More

  • William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream

    736 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ke for instance in act four, scene one, when Demetrius is talking with the other three characters after waking up in the woods. He says, “Are you sure/that we are awake? It seems to me/That yet we sleep, we dream.” His accusations are quickly followed by the other three young characters agreeing with him that they too feel as if everything has been a dream. Along with the younger characters accusations, many other mystical dream-like situations occur. You have the case where Nick Bottom is given the head of an ass by Puck during one of his mischievous bouts, which we all know cannot happen except in the state of someone dreaming. Another thing that would be dream-like would be when Puck uses the love juice from ‘Cupid’s flower’ to make the several love mishaps happen that take place thanks to the orders of Oberon and even sometimes mixing those very same orders up.

    Read More

More about An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce

Open Document