Bierces’ short story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, tells the story of a gentleman named Peyton who has been captured by federal troops. The story has many unrealistic aspects to make it seem like peyton is making his escape, but it is the use of the realistic aspects that really fools the reader. Bierce uses realistic details by fully describing the scenery, the soldiers, and what Peyton looks like. The story starts by stating that the railroad bridge is in Alabama and it is directly above “swift waters” below (Bierce 318). Bierce goes on to explain that past this bridge the “railroad ran straight away into a forest for hundreds of yards” and that the other bank of the stream was “crowned with a stockade of vertical tree trunks, loopholed for rifles, with a single embrasure through which protruded the muzzle of a brass canon commanding the bridge” (318). The story then goes into detail about how the infantry line is set up. The ends of the riffles are on the ground, the barrels are “inclining slightly backward” against their shoulders, and their hands are “crossed around the stock” (318). The story then goes on to describe Peyton, as he is standing on the plank. He is described as a thirty five year old civilian with a “straight nose, firm mouth, and broad forehead” (318). He also had a mustache and a “pointed beard with no whiskers (318). By going into such great detail about the scenery and the people, Bierce is able to really focus the readers mind on the story. Which is why many readers where tricked into thinking Peyton was making his escape. He gives so much detail in the begging and then he slowly starts to wane off. In the final section, Bierce replaces this realistic world with a fantasy, but because he was so descriptive in the first two sections it made the reader see this fantasy world as realistic. If the beginning of the story was not as elaborate as it was, the ending would not have fooled as many as it did.
