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Occupancy At Owl Creek Bridge

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In the short story An Occupancy at Owl Creek Bridge a man is moments from being hanged by federal soldiers. One does not know why this is happened because there is a flashback that occurs later in the story that tells the reader why he is being hanged. This short story was written by Ambrose Bierce in 1890. This story describes death by setting it on a timer, creating suspense leading up to it, and telling what the man Peyton sees right before he dies. The author drags the death of Peyton Farquhar out so that one can understand the full effects of death, reaction to death, and understand how fast it can happen. The theme of an occurrence at owl creek bridge is that every person will have different reaction to death and how they handle the fear …show more content…

It is used throughout the story to describe the moments Peyton goes through and the dream he has. For example, in the first scene there are multiple examples of imagery and what everything looked like and what everyone was doing in the eyes of Peyton. Right before the board that Peyton is standing on is about to be moved out from underneath him by one of the federalist soldier Farquhar saw something in the stream of water that he calls a “dancing driftwood”. As he watched the driftwood go down the stream he starts to think to himself how slow the stream is and says “what a sluggish stream” (Bierce). One reader might make the connection that Peyton is comparing his death to the stream. He might think that it is going very slow, and now his life is inactive, or how quiet but rapid the waters are like his life. In addition, imagery such as “the water, touched to gold by the early sun, the brooding mists under the banks at some distance down the stream, the fort, the soldiers, the piece of drift--all had distracted him,” could remind a reader of the happy thoughts that a person has before death (Bierce). One could predict by the first few lines of the first section of the story that this story is going to be dark and gloomy but the imagery as you continue to read helps lighten up what's really going on in the story. Likewise, this same imagery is used towards the end of the story when he dies he finally sees an image of his children and wife waiting for him with open arms. However, he had dreamed the whole image up of being rescued and coming home to his family when he is finally

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