Imagery In An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge

American literature is filled with classic stories that give the public not only a form of art but also ways to dissect the story and gain a better understanding of the author's intent. Literary themes allow us to explore meanings deeper than the surface level. Imagery is the author's use of wording that allows the reader to experience everything mentally as they read. This is not limited to sight, but all five of the senses. Ambrose Bierce takes the reader to American during the Civil war. This is a time period when northern Union and Southern Confederates clash over slavery and succession. In “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” Ambrose Bierce writes with the focus of reality versus illusion by using the following: characters, imagery,

The writer paints the picture of the “pain of a sharp pressure upon his throat, followed by a sense of suffocation” (Bierce 401). The strong imagery of the pain of being hanged is felt ias Farquhar experiences agony that starts in his neck and shoots through his body (Bierce 401). The only thing he was able to feel was torment as “streams of pulsating fire heat him to an intolerable temperature” (Bierce 401). This is the reality of his death, the opposite of its prior description as a dignitary. But even through this torture and pain where seconds seem like hours, Farquhar is able to escape through his mind through the post-mortem process. When he experiences the roseate light however, it implies that in reality he may have reached the last point in post-mortem conscious which is actual death. The light is accompanied by a splash could be symbolic for him seeing the proverbial light at after death, however the author deviates into his thoughts being restored and life continuing, which is an illusion (Bierce 402). Him being fully aware of all five sense was actually an awakening possibly in the afterlife. Bierce describes a dignitary being received with respect (Bierce 399). The description gives the reader a vision of a military official or a revered politician. In actuality, death is being described. As honorable as it may seem to Farquhar for standing for a political cause,

(Marcus). Section II occurs prior to the opening sentence. Bierce disorients the reader’s ability to understand their perception and Farquhar’s perception (Linkin 95). “If the second and third sections show Farquhar's predisposition for creating fantasy, this third and last part of the story is a sort of ‘living and breathing’ fantasy: that of Farquhar's escape” (Korb 2). As the gentleman is waiting to be hanged, he imagines himself miraculously escaping death and returning home. By suspending disbelief the reader accompanies Peyton’ through his escape (Linkin 89). Section I ends with the thought of him freeing his hands to free the noose and evading the bullets by swimming to the banks and getting through the