How Does Bierce Create Suspense In An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge

In An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Ambrose Bierce uses many different literary techniques to maintain suspense throughout the entire story. There are different plot elements that also, towards the end, lead the reader to believe that the story will have a nice, classical conclusion, but turns any reader on their head, when they to the last few sentences, combining all the suspense into one, mind-boggling, occurrence.

One of the main ways that Ambrose Bierce maintains phenomenal suspense throughout the entirety of the story is through foreshadowing. After the rope breaks and Peyton falls into the river, there are a variety of different ways that he could have died. Bierce employs his genius writing skills to round-out these ideas. First, after many a volley had been fired into the river, Peyton thinks to himself that he cannot dodge a single bullet as well as a volley, this is false foreshadowing of his obviously imminent death.

Next, there are a few different cannon shots into the river, after Peyton has already landed on the shore.

The first shot is just the classic cannon ball, it misses by a long-shot. Afterwards, Peyton says that they will use a grape shot, and in a moment of self-doubt, says that it will surely hit him. It doesn’t, and the story moves on th the next moment of massive suspense.

Now, Peyton runs into the forest with only the sounds of the distressed soldiers to trail him. Eventually, after emerging from the forest once several hours of rigorous travel are over, Peyton finds a road that he recognises leads straight to his destination, conveniently, his home.

Peyton has been walking for a while now with all the hopes of seeing his beloved waiting for him at the door, even though they knew that he was to be hanged on this day, and he falls asleep while walking. Now, if one were an experienced reader of all the various genres, they would know this as an intense moment of foreshadowing as to what he is going to suffer

next.
As the story comes to a close, the reader starts to realize that Peyton may or may not be experiencing the things that have been happening to him over the course of the last few hours. When he arrives at his house his wife is coming down the stairs to greet him. They embrace, and then the moment dissipates, revealing the true, and very confusing nature, of his predicament.
Afterwards, Peyton finds himself back at the bridge and or gallows, where he is then hung and the story ends. This turns out to be quite the occurrence, at owl creek bridge.