“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is written by Ambrose Bierce with a plot that has a very unique twist to it. The fictional story takes place during 1860’s during the Civil War. Farquhar the main character in the story was caught trying to destroy the bridge and is sentenced to death by being hanged. The story is very thrilling because of the amounts of flashbacks including the settings, Farquhar’s senses. An Occurrence of Owl Creek Bridge presents the readers with many themes throughout the fictional story. Reality and illusion is one of the themes, the theme shows us that the character is trying to make his main problem go away by making and thinking of a happier moment. Time is another theme this is showing us that the story …show more content…
is taking place in three minutes and the sound of the time ticking is making time become an illusion. Symbolism is shown throughout the story; symbolism is imagery represented in literature. The indistinct line between reality and illusion is one of the themes presented through the reading.
Illusion and reality are working together and until the end of the story we the readers aren’t fully alert of the separation between reality and illusion. Farquhar creates his own make-believe world out of his nervousness about him dying and trying to imagine an escape plan and a way to recover control of his death. Farquhar believes he is escaping his hanging death but in reality there is no way he can escape it. The ticking of his watch goes from ticking fast to slow telling the reader that time is becoming an illusion. Farquhar drifts into a moment that is not life or death but an illusion of what he wants the outcome to …show more content…
be. The nature of time is one of the themes presented throughout the story. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge moves from the present to the past toward what Farquhar sees as the fictional present-day. This reflects the fluidly and the pressure that’s showed among the race of time as he’s on the bridge with his hands bound behind his back and his neck is tied to a beam. Self-assured at the edge of the bridge, he shuts his eyes showing the readers that he imagines himself freeing his hands, removing the noose around his neck and jumping into the stream freeing himself from the enemy lands until the captain nods and gives the signal to hang him. In the short amount of period between the officer stepping off the plank and Farquhar’s death, time slows showing the comforting vision of Farquhar making it back home safely to his wife. He was unable to escape reality but death eventually claims him. In the second part, we learn exactly how Farquhar got in the position he is in in the above paragraph.
Even though Farquhar was unable to join the Confederate army he desired to help the Souths war in one way or another. A confederate soldier shows up to Farquhar’s property line in need of some water. While his wife fetches the soldier water Farquhar asks for information about the front. Farquhar asks how a person can interfere with the North’s efforts; the soldier tells him that the driftwood could ignite fast and easily. However, Farquhar eventually figured out that the soldier that approached them was from the Northern
Forces. Death is a reality and very individual must experience death one way or another and they should except the fact of death. Farquhar having to face his death leaves him remembering his wife and home “he closed his eyes in order to fix his last thoughts upon his wife and children.” (pg. 2) This quote shows Farquhar is in denial and want to think about happier memories in his life. Symbols are represented through the story. Driftwood is one of the symbols, as the driftwood drifts down the stream the representation is him making it out of the water and freedom. The driftwood at first makes him think of his children and wife, but after the driftwood symbolizes him drifting down the stream like a driftwood. Another example of symbolism is when Owl Creek Bridge joins together its joining life and death together for Farquhar. As he escapes into the water in his illusion the bridge stands for fantasy and reality. The author Ambrose Bierce wrote this piece to keep the readers interested and to keep the readers guessing the next chain of events. The author takes the reader through Farquhar’s mind during Farquhar’s moments before his death, his astonishing escape and when he snaps back to the future leaves the readers wondering what is true meaning of time and the effect.
Ambrose Bierce’s An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, which is a short story released in 1890, gained much popularity over the years. It is most famous for it’s manipulation of time. Though the events in the book only take seconds, the story is over eight pages long. Time seems to slow for the man in the noose and at the same time speed up for the reader. In this way, Bierce presents his manipulation of time in the story.
In the story, Farqhar was cut off from his family and friends, in his attempt to help to confederacy by destroying Owl Creek Bridge, which was a major supply line for the Union Army. The second he was cut off from his peers by the Union, he was ultimately doomed, because of this naturalistic law. In the story, he says he was trying to escape to get back to the safety of his family, when he says, “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
The short stories, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and “The Luck of Roaring Camp”, written by Ambrose Bierce and Bret Harte respectively, share similar conflicts, notions, and themes. In Bierce’s story, a man is being held for execution for his crimes in the Civil war as a part of the Confederacy; as he imagines himself cleverly escaping the military executioners through a river under the bridge, until his seemingly brilliant streak of luck ends, and he dies from the noose he never left. Similarly, in Harte’s story, an entire town in California during the gold rush is stuck with again, seemingly brilliant luck, when Thomas Luck is born, only to have that hope crushed when Thomas is killed
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.
"Short Stories :An occurence at owl creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce." 2009. Web. 2 Dec 2009. .
Particularly, Peyton Farquhar was an innocent civilian and a family man willing to help the southern cause. In part II of “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” a Confederate soldier stopped at Peyton’s plantation and discussed about burning down the bridge. The soldier implied that Peyton should do it. As a result, Peyton went down to the bridge in an attempt to burn the bridge. Afterwards, we learned that the Confederate soldier was a federal scout and that he had framed
Out of all the stories I have read in class so far, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce, has touched me most. When I first began reading the story I felt as though I was not interested, because my assumptions of what the story was going to be about were completely different than the stories actual content. As I set aside my judgment and let myself try to enjoy the story, I found myself anxiously reading to the bitter end. This story was not only interesting and unique, but also had an added twist at the end, which surprised most readers. Depending on how observant the reader is with picking up on foreshadowing and symbolic meaning, one may realize before the final sentences that Peyton Farquar was not actually escaping home but in fact hallucinating while desperately trying to escape the hangmen.
Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” brings upon many questions relating to its change in perspectives and the focus on the character. The story is classified as realism based on the fact that the author, Bierce, focuses more on the character than the plot itself. Readers worry about the characters hanging, not about the war and the chicanery used by both opponents. Bierce also uses a change in perspective throughout the story to show emphasis on the character and his thoughts. The change alters the reality in the readers minds, in a way they truly believe that he will survive the hanging and escape free to his family. Sadly, that wouldn’t have given readers the opportunity to classify it as realism and it wouldn’t have given Bierce the chance to show the readers the way our brains play tricks on us.
People can easily recognize that a butterfly, a horse, or a tree are alive and that a
OWLCREEK BRIDGE" ." ABP Journal. 1.1 (2005): n. page. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. Bierce, Ambrose “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”. The Norton Introduction to
"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 setting of the story is in a small area of Northern Alabama, but the setting has multiple locations within the different scenes of the story. In the first section of the story, Farquhar is in preparation to be hung at Owl Creek Bridge. Before Farquhar’s dreadful hanging, Bierce takes the audience back to the past where Farquhar seems to be the owner of a plantation. In this scene, Farquhar is consulting with a spy from the union who has effectively disguised himself as a thirsty confederate soldier. The
He now has to face man vs self once again. Throughout the story the author hints that while being hanged Farquhar dies, and the rest of the story is his dream of escaping. This dream is all a man vs self situation, because it is all happening in his head, but these dreams also contain hints of man vs nature as well. For example, the dream begins with his struggle in the water. The author states, “ Suddenly he felt himself whirled round and round- spinning like a top” (Paragraph 26). The dream then suddenly turns into a fight with nature for his wife. Once on land Farquhar runs into the forest in order to find his house. “ The forest seemed interminable, nowhere did he discover a break in it, not even a woodman’s road. By nightfall he was fatigued, footsore, famished” (Paragraph 28). He felt like the only thing keeping him going was the thought of holding his family again. At the very end of the story, at the very last sentence the author confirm that Farquhar had died at Owl Creek
The overall atmosphere of “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce is geared to keep you from assuming the ending, especially during the majority of the third section. With its nonlinear time structure, parts of the story can seem a tad convoluted in how they lead up to the finale. Many things can be said about the unexpected ending, but “typical” is most likely exempt from that list. In the days following this book’s release there have been a large quantity of authors wanting the same feeling from this book in their books.
“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is one of the best short story written by Ambrose Bierce. This short story has been adapted in numerous version. The most popular version of Bierce short story is the Alfred Hitchcock Presents version. Hitchcock version has lots of similarity and differences compared to the original story. The Hitchcock version, like the original short story, provided more backstory on how the man came to be sentenced to death. Original story and Hitchcock version, both shares similar themes, tones and gives more details of character background. The main difference between Hitchcock version and the original story is the effect of music, but it all depends on how readers and the viewers interpret the story.