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An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge Literary Analysis

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The One Thing Man Cannot Escape In 1976, the Blue Öyster Cult told the World not to fear the reaper. Even though it happens to every living organism, humans have a contradictory fear of dying. This aversion to death is a prominent theme among all types of literature. In the book Slaughterhouse- Five by Kurt Vonnegut and short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce, the main characters fear death so much that they create an alternate reality to avoid it. Billy Pilgrim from Slaughterhouse-Five also tries to avoid his ultimate demise by living in the nostalgia of his past and staying away from the future. In the play Endgame by Samuel Beckett, the main characters try to stay alive by remaining stagnate in their desolate world. …show more content…

He tries to live forever by creating an alien race called the Tralfamadorians. These aliens, “escape the potential despair by a theory of the universality of time which allows them to slip away from present difficulties into past or future happiness” (O'Sullivan). Pilgrim quickly accepts this idea and it allows for him to travel through time and to a happier memory when something bad happens to him. Even at certain times he is taken to the planet Tralfamadore where he is, “trapped in the amber of [that] moment” (Vonnegut 77). Pilgrim’s travels to this planet are what open his mind to time travel and how to escape dismal times. Peyton Farquhar in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” also follows a similar fate. The readers of this story, “ wander with [Farquhar] through a field of illusions which become more attractive as [he escapes] the confines of reality” (Folsom). Throughout the story, Farquhar manages to escape death multiple times, from the initial hanging to cannon blasts from Union soldiers. Eventually, Farquhar and the readers are convinced that he escapes until, “[Peyton] feels a stunning blow upon the back if the neck… Then all is darkness the silence” (Bierce). It turns out that the “occurrence” is just the main character being hanged, not the outlandish adventure that Farquhar

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An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is a story created by literary genius Ambrose Bierce and is set during Civil War times… The short story tells the narrative of Peyton Farquhar, a sympathizer of confederates who has been sentenced to his end by lynching from the Owl Creek Bridge…An occurrence at owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce shows why having an imagination is critical in making it through impossible times… An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is a richly formulated observation on the flowing nature of time and need for imagination when a person going through tricky situation in his life… In the short story, the main character, Farquhar, generates his dream world out of desperation… Farquhar is on the verge of death, and imagining that escape

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An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge was a story written by Ambrose Bierce. He wrote it to be a suspenseful and confusing short story. The suspense brought on by Bierce employed to clench one's attention throughout this short story by using numerous literary techniques. With his use of imagery Bierce displayed that, in his mind, Farquhar, while being hanged, still had all of his thoughts and he believed that he was escaping the army, bringing suspense to the story. Farquhar thought that the rope had snapped and that he had fallen into the water, he imagined himself escaping the military by swimming away.

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Only telling the readers the dialogue, actions, and the settings of the characters in the small american town. Making it seem normal until they reveal what actually happens in the long standing gruesome tradition of the lottery. While in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is also in 3rd person point of view; the readers are only limited to the characters thoughts. Which in the ending is accomplished when it is revealed the man being hung (Farquhar) thoughts are cut short. The two stories share the same point of view and both were told by a narrator.

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Farquhar gets captured by the Union troops and he realizes that he’s going to die from getting hanged. Meanwhile, the noose is around Farquhar neck and he starts to daydream about the possibility of noose breaking and falling into the creek. He then escapes the Union troops, and finds himself back home where his wife awaits him. As soon as he tries to embrace his wife he is forced back into reality by being hanged.

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The passages following the hanging of Mr. Farquhar showcase a separate style from the exposition. As his mind shuts down from asphyxiation, his experiences become wrought with imagery and alliteration, such as “dancing driftwood” (Bierce 2). In addition to leaving the linearity of the normal timestream, Mr. Farquhar has begun a journey into the surreal as he loses consciousness. The flashback recounts

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Throughout the course of the story, the author takes the reader back and forth between time and has a strange flow of it. As readers, we found out Farquhar’s name and what happened after he fell through the bridge. It connects back to how Farquhar tries to manipulate time and reality but ultimately leads to his death. By moving between the present and the past, it shows how much Farquhar lacks control of time. In the story, Bierce writes, “The sergeant stepped aside.

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