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Owl Creek Bridge Literary Analysis

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In “An Occurrence of Owl Creek Bridge” Ambrose Bierce uses stream of consciousness narration to reveals the thoughts of Peyton Farquhar with heightened realism and drama. He tells a story during the Civil War in which the protagonist, Peyton Farquhar, experiences a continuous flow of thoughts in his mind as he is about to be hanged on a railway bride for attempting to sabotage the Owl Creek Bridge seized by Union troops . In section one he highlight a sense of realism by describing Peyton Farquhar physical attributes, the setting, and the situation Peyton is experiencing. During this time Peyton is standing on a railroad bridge with his wrists bounded behind his back, and around his neck is a noose that is tied to a beam overhead. The author add realism to the story by …show more content…

Ambrose uses a lot of vivid imagery for example “Keen, poignant agonies seemed to shoot from his neck downward through every fiber of his body and limbs” in this quote the author is describing what Peyton is feeling as he is hanging on a rope tied around his neck, thou we do not know exactly what the feeling is like we must believe the author words and it contributes greatly to plot twist we all couldn’t see. We were blinded from the actual events because we were seeing the reality is told through Farquhar’s imagination and can see only the fantasy he believes is true. “He had come to the surface facing down the stream; in a moment the visible world seemed to wheel slowly round, himself the pivotal point” is an example as we assess from this like that he has losing conscious and we can assume he survived the fall barley. However it is only true in Peyton eyes not I reality of what really happening. The story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce incorporates stream of consciousness written from the Protagonist point of view. This technique gives the reader a dramatic and realistic experience while it also allows them to further trust the

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Bierce wrote “As Peyton Farquhar fell straight downward through the bridge he lost consciousness and was as one already dead.” (Bierce 8). What the quote is foreshadowing is that Farquhar is still actually in the hemp waiting for his death to arrive, and one can infer that Farquhar falling downward through the bridge and the many events that happen afterward are all of Farquhar’s delusions. Everything that Farquhar saw and experienced, or perceived wasn't actually the truth nor was it his reality. Another way Bierce uses foreshadowing is when he wrote “His neck was in pain and lifting his hand to it found it horribly swollen.

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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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"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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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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This foreshadows Peyton Farquhar’s death because no living person would be able to see all of what Peyton Farquhar says he sees. Bierce also demonstrates this technique when he says “The man in the water saw the eye of the man on the bridge gazing into his own through the sights of the rifle. He observed that it was a gray eye…”. These things are just so extraordinary that they could not have happened, which just adds to the foreshadowing of Peyton Farquhar’s death. Bierce also used the technique of allusion to foreshadow Peyton Farquhar’s death.

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Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” revolves around the manipulation of time through the conflict of man versus nature. Bierce uses time in his favor as he switches between the past and the present life of the main character, Peyton Farquhar, as he lives his last moments. He uses this to show how time can be “subjective and phenomenal during times of emotional distress”. (BookRags). The manipulation of time that is unnoticeable whilst reading the story strengthens the themes that are present in this work, such as man’s denial of mortality, and the conjuring of irrational situations.

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