An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge By Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Bierce’s short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” contains a profound collection of information which causes the end of the selection to be exceptionally more shocking. Bierce alludes to Peyton Farquhar’s demise while still describing his adventurous escape from death. Through the use of a variety of literary techniques including imagery, preternatural plot elements, allusion, and more, Bierce foreshadows the damagingly shocking end of “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”. Bierce’s use of imagery throughout the short story contrives a sense of eeriness from his readers. A common occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is Bierce’s manipulation of time. Bierce alludes Farquhar’s death with the ticking of his watch. The watch ticking down symbolizes the ticking time of Farquhar’s remaining life. The dancing driftwood down a sluggish stream is another occurrence. Bierce describes a scene where time transitions from a regular, lively pace to a slow, sluggish procession. Farquhar is holding on to the

When Farquhar initially begins his escape from death, his body is noted as swinging “through unthinkable arcs of oscillation, like a vast pendulum” (Bierce 484). Similar to how in the end of the selection where his body swings “gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge” (Bierce 489). Bierce also allows his readers to know of Farquhar’s dreaming when he expresses Farquhar fixing “his last thoughts upon his wife and children” (Bierce 482). The dream is the beginning of the end for Peyton Farquhar, who later claims to be exhausted and famished, but keeps going because “the thought of his wife and children urged him on” (Bierce 488). Nearly right after this final incentive from his family, Farquhar finally meets death. When in his tall tale of survival, he falls asleep while walking, Peyton Farquhar is actually dropped under the Owl Creek Bridge and