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Owl Creek Bridge Foreshadowing

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In “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce, a respected Alabama planter and slave-owner, Peyton Farquhar, is being hanged for disobeying an order from the Yanks. The order is to stay away from bridges during a Civil War advance, and Farquhar is conspiring to blow up a bridge. Farquhar’s demise is foreshadowed using several literary techniques, such as preternatural plot elements and imagery. To start, preternatural plot elements are implied to foreshadow Farquhar’s death when he hears the distant sound of something striking a metallic object while he is awaiting his execution. “Striking through the thought of his dear ones was a sound which he could neither ignore nor understand, a sharp, distinct, metallic percussion like the …show more content…

Farquhar’s merely escapes being shot by the soldiers and vividly describes his surroundings. Ambrose depicts what Farquhar visualizes when “He looked at the forest on the bank of the stream, saw the individual trees, the leaves and the veining of each leaf--saw the very insects upon them” (Bierce ). One knows that he is a good distance from the trees since he is in the river and looking at the forest. This concludes that he is not living in reality at that moment due to the impossibility of being able to see the leaves and insects in such detail from far away. Hence, he will most likely still be hanged since nothing he is experiencing is real. In conclusion, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” demonstrates several foreshadowing techniques to predict Farquhar’s fate, such as imagery and preternatural plot elements. The preternatural ability to hear a watch ticking at a vociferous volume reveals that Farquhar was simply imagining that his time is ticking away. Also, the use of imagery when he is unnaturally describing the distant trees in great detail shows that he is dreaming about that as well and not living in reality, so he has not escaped the fact that he will die in real

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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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Farquhar stands on the bridge, hands tied and able to see all that's around him. He stands over the river thinking of his family and the possibility of escaping. He begins to fall into the river and tries to make his way home escaping death. He finally arrives home with

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Literary analysis of “An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge” Ambrose Bierce, the Author of “An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge” about a man who was being hanged, throughout the story Peyton hallucinates and thinks that he has escaped the hanging but in reality he’s dying. Bierce uses symbolism in “ An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” to foreshadow that Peyton is going to die. There are multiple allusions throughout the story that Bierce used to convey the death of Peyton. Imagery is used throughout the entire story to show that Peyton is hallucinating. Throughout the entire story Bierce uses multiple literary techniques to foreshadow Peyton’s death.

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When a federal spy disguised as a confederate soldier tricks Farquhar into risking his life to become the hero he had always dreamed of, Farquhar is put in his unfortunate situation. Farquhar inability to recognize the difference between a federal spy and a confederate soldier leads him to the decision that results in his untimely death. The story itself gives the readers a false sense of hope that Farquhar might actually escape his own death. Palmisano illustrates the author's deception when he writes"Bierce does not overtly inform the reader that Farquhar's escape is a hallucination but expects that the careful reader will realize the impossibility of events described in the final section of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge". Bierce expresses his disdain for the deceptive tactics used during the civil war by causing the reader to feel remorse for Farquhar's death.

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In literary terms foreshadowing is a method by which the author uses specific verbiage in a story to tell, or foreshadow, what is going to happen. The reader may feel as if they know what is going to happen before they read it, they could feel like a clairvoyant or that they are having a déjà vu experience. Ambrose Bierce’s story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” has instances of foreshadowing that allude to the death of Peyton Farquhar before the story reaches the climactic point of telling of his fate. The first instance of foreshadowing is when Peyton Farquhar thinks that he can escape the hangman’s noose and swim home.

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Farquhar was able to deviate away from the reality of his death through his vivid imagination. He escaped all the pain that he otherwise would have felt. Upon falling down the bridge, his defense mechanism kicked in and led him to imagine an escape he desired. He didn’t feel any pain for he quickly “lost consciousness and was as one already dead.” He was not in fear during his last moments because he believed that “despite his suffering … he now (stood) at the gate of his own home.”

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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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As the story goes on, the marks on Farquhar's neck grow darker and darker. He also begins to feel more and more pain as the rope strangles him to death. This quote shows the first sign of struggle and pain that Farquhar had, “ His neck ached horribly… His whole body wrecked with an insupportable anguish!” (Bierce 4).

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The story begins with Confederate farmer, Peyton Farquhar, staring down into the water, noose around his neck, surrounded by soldiers who are responsible for his unfortunate demise. In the moments leading up to his hanging, his reality and perception of time become distorted and, "A sound which he could neither ignore nor

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Throughout the story, Bierce writes in a way that seems to oppose the theme he uses. Through Bierce’s telling of the story, he suggests fantasies like Farquhar’s are cowardly and will often lead to negative consequences (“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” 163) “…he feels a stunning blow upon the back of the neck; a blinding white light blazes all about him with a sound like a shock of a cannon – then all is darkness and silence.” (Bierce) This quote, near the end of the story, is what reveals that Farquhar has been fantasizing the whole length of the story. The quote also shows that he is ultimately executed and that the fantasy was his personal distraction from the harsh reality he faces.

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Farquhar attempts to escape his death and believes that he found life, but reality catches up to him and he eventually meets death. Bierce parallels this to real life, because countless people create false hope for themselves, but as time moves on, that false hope is proven false and those people are disheartened and disappointed. The bridge is a major symbol in Bierce’s story and has multiple meanings, which help make the story be interpreted more

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The story focuses on the execution of Peyton Farquhar, a Confederate sympathizer captured by the Union. Right as Farquhar is about to be hanged, though, he imagines himself escaping. The rest of the story takes place inside his fantasy, within a few seconds before his death. Within the fantasy, Farquhar makes it all the way back to his home, but snaps out of his dream right before reuniting with his wife and children. (Bovey) Despite being faced with impending demise, Farquhar refused to simply give up without a fight.

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