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Character Analysis: An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge

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Darius Bunch Mr. Moreno English 1023 25 September 2017 An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge The author Ambrose Bierce, served with distinction in the Union Army during the Civil War, rising to the rank of major. He is known for his two finest achievement’s, his two novels: Tales of Solders and Civilians and Can such things be (par. 1). The story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, the narrator uses a limited omniscient point of view to deeply describe Peyton’s thoughts and feelings. The narrator does not go into details of any of the soldiers thoughts. So we are forced to focus on Peyton’s thoughts as he faces his finals minutes of life. The narrator goes into deep details in the story, that sets a precise time for the actions that take place. The story easily portraits that the setting is during a historical time. “Being a slave owner and like other slave owners a politician he was naturally an original secessionist and ardently devoted to the Southern cause” ( 601). The story time line takes place during the civil war in the south. The narrator uses this time period to advance the readers insight on Peyton and the situation he is put in. The story is made up of 6 characters, the …show more content…

The last minutes heading into his hanging. Peyton's reality had started to slur. "He had became conscious of a new uproar. A sound which he could not ignore. Peyton Farquhar only hears the ticking of his watch”(602.) The author expresses how significant the few moments are before Peyton’s death. This lets the reader knows what Peyton is hearing during his final moments. As "the noose tightens around his neck, and he is "as one already dead" (603.) Knowing that his life was going to end in such a cruel way, leaves Peyton reminiscent of his wife and kids at home. "He closed his eyes in order to fix his last thoughts upon his wife and children." (603.) Even though he knew he would not escape, that did not stop Peyton for

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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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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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As Peyton realizes he is dying, “He closed his eyes in order to fix his last thoughts upon his wife and children” (345). This realization does change in Part III of the short story when Peyton hallucinates his escape from the gallow. Likewise, in Part II, Peyton also demonstrates denial. Because he was a “well-to-do planter” (346), Peyton had not gone to war as a soldier. Ultimately, he did nothing for the Southern cause in the Civil War.

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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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Tom stood at the edge of his brother’s gravesite, his eyes fixed on the mahogany-colored casket lying at the bottom of the six-foot hole. The graveside service had taken less than ten minutes, the only mourners himself, Booker, and Captain Fuller. The officiating celebrant had spoken fondly of a man he didn’t know, respectfully acknowledging Will’s service to the community while blissfully unaware of his lewd, criminal behavior. For Tom, it was an unfitting send off for the brother he’d adored, but for Booker, it was a suitable ending for the cruel, sadistic officer who had made his friend's life a misery. In death, Will was friendless and alone, which was somewhat apt, considering he’d forced Tom to live in social isolation all his adult life.

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People say that before you die, your life flashes before your eyes. That's pretty much what happened to Peyton. In the story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" the main character, Peyton Farquhar, could only have imagined his escape home before he died. In the story Ambrose Bierce foreshadows the fatal ending by using literary devices. Two literary devices Bierce uses is imagery and detail.

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In midafternoon (it was all the same) a curious darkening of the sky, and a lull in everything that had made life tick.” (White, 5) This is his realization that time has moved on, and he is getting older, and closer to death. Though the narrator tries to go back into denial and back into his illusion, and he does for a second, but he ends the illusion shatters for good, and we see this when the narrator says, “As he buckled the swollen belt, suddenly my groin felt the chill of death.” At that exact moment, is when the narrator understands that death is inevitable, and he realizes that he can’t escape

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The concept of time changes with traumatic events. The duration of these stretches an intermediate length, allowing one to remember former fallacies and lament on what led to this dire situation. In his short story, The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, Ambrose Bierce illustrates an execution and its effect on the mental processing of the victim.

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In the short story, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, by Ambrose Bierce, the author tells the story of a man named Peyton Farquhar who was hanged for his crimes and being a Confederate saboteur. Within seconds of being hung, Farquhar imagines himself surviving being hung and escaping to his family. Ultimately, he actually dies since it was only a manipulation of reality. Besides the fact of his death, Time is an idea that it clearly present in the story and demonstrates an important role. Time plays an important role in the story by displaying how extraordinary the mind can do in a short period of time, that 8 manipulation of time does not remove one from reality and Farquhar’s lack of control of events.

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"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" begins with the capture of the protagonist Peyton Farquhar, a plantation and slave owner. Bierce paints a vivid picture of the surroundings around Farquhar as he awaits to be hanged. It then flashes back to the days leading up to the hanging. Where Farquhar was deceived by a federal spy claiming to be a confederate soldier. In the end, we see Farquhar escape from reality as he is serving his sentence to finally his demise.

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As you can tell from the title, something big happened at the Owl Creek Bridge, but you have to wait until the end of the story to find out the truth, or else you could be lost in someone’s daydream. The story had me intrigued by the different directions it could take you, but it all made sense in the end, and I discovered you sometimes have to dig a little deeper to find the whole truth about someone. Peyton Farquhar, a plantation owner in his mid-thirties, is being prepared for execution by hanging from an Alabama railroad bridge during the American Civil War. Farquhar, a supporter of the Confederacy, learns from a soldier that Union troops have seized the Owl Creek railroad bridge and repaired it. The soldier suggests that Farquhar might be able to burn the bridge down if he can slip past its guards.

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The soldiers around Peyton before his death can be seen as the personification of death itself, the faceless troops look on with order and cold precision, and Peyton remarks that “gentlemen are not excluded,” implying that just as death does not discriminate, neither do these soldiers. At the time that Peyton is being hung, he creates a fantasy in his mind that he has survived this, even though he is surrounded by these soldiers, by death, which finalizes his fate. Choosing not to accept his death, as many people continue to do even today, in a split second his mind creates a wild vision, that is devised to protect him from the reality of his inescapable death. This vision could have been conjured in the seconds before he truly died, with simple thoughts of escape, or a dream to see his wife and family one last time. But his thoughts do not save him, as death is a reality that must be accepted by all, and he meets his end while still grasping at

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He exclaims his surprise and regret at his pride taking a blow when he says “Better he had died at once! Never did mortal suffer what this man has suffered. And all, all, in the sight of his worst enemy! He has been conscious of me. He has felt an influence dwelling always upon him like a curse.”

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