...of the United States. In the short story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” the author, Ambrose Bierce focuses on one specific part of this war. The story’s main character, a southern man by the name of Peyton Farquhar, who is caught tarnishing with a bridge and then is sentenced to be hanged from that very bridge. Bierce uses immense detail and the story is written so well that it seems to play with the minds of its readers. Present becomes the past and reality is nowhere near the reality that it seemed to be. “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is suspenseful due to the effectiveness of the setting, the use of flashbacks, and the use of Peyton’s senses to successfully deceive the reader. At the start of the story, Bierce puts the reader into a scene of anxiousness as he presents a very detailed hanging that is about to occur at the bridge. The setting provides a major part of suspense in the story and Bierce successfully goes into detail about the bridge and the surrounding area. He uses Peyton’s senses to observe and describe the setting which makes the reader feel more embedded into the story. For example, “He closed his eyes in order to fix his last thoughts upon his wife and children. 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.” the strong use of imagery sets the gloomy mood of death in such a beautiful scene. We learn little about...
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...Ambrose Bierce was an author who had a way of writing a story that was deeply felt by its reader. In “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” the main character, Peyton Farquhar, is being hanged by war hardened soldiers. Farquhar has a vision just mere seconds before he dies, a vision in which the soldiers fire continuous rounds from cannon and rifle at him. “Chickamauga” is about a boy of just six years old who is a deaf mute. He wanders through the woods with a wooden sword in hand, playing soldier. He falls asleep and wakes to the sight of crippled, dying soldiers retreating from battle. In “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and “Chickamauga” Ambrose Bierce makes the reader understand the utter darkness of death by using imagery, foreshadowing,...
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...An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge takes place in the United States Civil War era. The short story is divided into three parts. Part one introduces Peyton Farquhar, the main character. Peyton is standing on a bridge surrounded the Northern Army and is about to be hung. Part two explains why Peyton Farquhar is being hanged. He was tricked by a Northern Solider in disguise as a Confederate Soldier explaining how the war was going. The Northern Solider told Farquhar about the repairing of the Owl Creek Bridge. Farquhar wanted to help out the Confederate Army and expressed to the in disguised solider that he wanted to sabotage the bridge. The solider explained how it could be done and went on his way away from the bridge. At night fall on his way back Farquhar was outside his house again and the Solider came back dressed in his usual Union uniform and took Farquhar to be hanged on the bridge. Part three starts with Farquhar falling off Owl Creek Bridge in a noose. The rope breaks and falls into the river beneath him. The Union Army shoots at Farquhar and to no luck he escapes the volley of bullets. He then escapes the river and travels back to his house. When...
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...An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Ambrose Bierce A man and his executioners stand on a railroad bridge in Alabama. The Civil War has begun and military justice is about to be served; the only spectators are a handful of soldiers. The man to be executed is a civilian dressed in the clothes of a plantation owner, and his executioners are Union soldiers. As he waits for his executioners to start, the man looks down at the water below him and imagines ways he could escape home to his wife and children. With a nod of the captain's head, the hanging begins. Part 2 introduces Peyton Farquhar, a wealthy Alabamian slave owner. Farquhar is not in the army because of personality issues, but he is determined to support the Confederate cause. An opportunity appears when a soldier dressed in a gray Confederate uniform rides up to his house. The soldier tells him that Union troops are repairing railroads in the surrounding area and have recently rebuilt the nearby bridge over Owl Creek. Apparently the chief has issued an order saying that any civilian caught tampering with the railroad will be hanged. The soldier leaves after informing Farquhar that a pile of flammable timber was piled up near the bridge. An hour later, the soldier rides past the Farquhar residence heading north. It turns out that he is actually a Union scout. Part 3 begins with Farquhar falling through the bridge. Unable to think wisely, he feels himself freeing his hands from their bindings, removing the noose around...
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...Death through Literary Techniques “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is about a hanging of a man. Ambrose Bierce wrote the short story, talking about Peyton Fahrquhar. Fahrquhar was hanged for trying to torch a bridge during the Civil War. Bierce had a goal to keep the reader interested; he achieved his goal by using many literary techniques. Ambrose Bierce provided a shock factor in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, that foreshadowed the ending through symbolism, allusion and irony. Symbolism was used to help the reader understand the short story. Ambrose used the watch, the timber, and the color gray to symbolize multiple things to give the reader a clue that Fahrquhar was dying. The watch that was used in the story...
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...Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and Stephen Crane’s “The Blue Hotel” though different, compare as examples of Naturalism with their theme of human survival of the fittest and harsh telling of the human condition. The human condition in these stories is that while it seems humans have free will, fate is already predetermined. “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and “The Blue Hotel” characters differ. Peter Farquhar is a wealthy plantation owner, desperate to help the Southern cause. His family background is well established in the area. In contrast, little is known about the Swede, his name and background is not known at all not even where he is from. Peter Farquhar is trusting while the Swede is paranoid and afraid. Both...
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...Unit: Realism and Naturalism Name: Chayse French Literature: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Section: 07 Date: Nov. 13, 2014 Directions: Fill in the left column with a quotation or fact from the reading you like or found interesting. In the center column, discuss what we can infer about the fact. In the right column thoughtfully explain the significance or importance of the fact and inference within the story. Demonstrate your understanding of the reading selection. Fact/Quote Inference/Meaning Significance in the story |“Sample Quotation” |What does it mean? |Why is it important? | | | | | |An important fact from the |What can we infer? |What impact does it (the fact) have on the story and the | |reading. | |story’s outcome? | | |What does it reveal? | | |(Write responses in complete | |Why did the author choose to include that fact into the | |sentences.) |(Do not simply restate the fact in |story? ...
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...In the short story, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, by Ambrose Bierce, a southern planter by the name of Peyton Farquhar is being hung on the account of treason against the south during the civil war. Bierce uniquely uses symbolism to show his opinion on what a person’s journey during the afterlife looks like. All of the things that happen in the story to Farquhar symbolize something about the afterlife. The bridge that Farquhar is being hung on represents life in general and the rope used to hang him is Farquhar’s lifeline. After he is dropped from the bridge, the snapping of the rope represents the ending of Farquhar's life line on earth. When he hits the water it means that he has entered the afterlife and that journey begins. Farquhar...
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...Whats the setting as the story begins? On a bridge over the owl creek in northern Alabama. What was "occurrence" about to take place?A hanging. Who was the captured man?Peyton Farquhar. What side of the Civil War did he sympathize?Confederacy. Ambrose Bierce was born in Ohio in 1842. He enlisted to fight in the civil war at 19 years old and fought through the entire war. After the war, Bierce worked as an editor, journalist, and short-story where he wrote about his experiences in detail. In 1914, Bierce went to Mexico and joined Pancho Villa's army as an observer. His last letter to a friend said he was heading to an unknown destination. He disappeared and was never heard from again. The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is his best-known...
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...In "An Occurrence on Owl Creek Bridge," by Ambrose Bierce, a man who wanted nothing more than to fight for his country gets scammed by a soldier from the North, and gets sentenced to death for crimes against his country that he wanted nothing more than to protect. Those who have read this story conclude that there is something to be said about the concept of war that Bierce portrays. Based on his track record, those people would be correct, that there is a hidden ulterior motive behind all of Bierce's stories. In "An Occurrence on Owl Creek Bridge," Ambrose Bierce seems to project his campaign of anti-war to produce a story where the criminal is the hero, the government is the enemy, and war is not what people believe it to be. "An Occurrence on Owl Creek Bridge" is broken up into three different sections. In the first section, Bierce illustrates what is happening at that very second. He describes the main character, Peyton Fahrquhar, awaiting...
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...One Warrior Down A man is being hanged on a bridge, the author, Ambrose Bierce, goes inside the man’s mind to show readers what Peyton Farquhar is thinking in his final minutes. Farquhar is being hanged for being found guilty of tampering with the Owl Creek Bridge. When Farquhar is actually hanged the rope breaks and he falls into the water, frees himself, swims away, dodges gunfire, and runs away to his family-or so he thinks! During his escape, Farquhar sees everything in grave detail, he sees insects as if he is looking at them under a microscope, and he sees the gun man’s eye color, he even describes them to the readers. Ambrose uses foreshadowing and literary techniques to create a shock effect in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and leads readers to a surprise resolution in the short story. Bierce uses Farquhar’s detailed vision, neck pain, and Farquhar running and running down a long drive trying to get to his home to foreshadow what’s actually happening. Peyton‘s detailed vision foreshadows him being in a dreamlike trance because he was just hanged and he is dreaming about his surroundings and what would happen if he escaped. Farquhar’s neck pain foreshadows him being strangled but the noose with which he was hanged with and his neck being broken. Farquhar...
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...An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge The time compression and surrealistic details from An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge captures the reader attention and imagination so much that the story becomes plausible. For instance, The author writes, “ the water roared in his ear like the Niagara,” to make the reader imagine what is taking place, hence making the reader believe what is going on in the story (Bierce 86). We sometimes wish that we could control time, rewind, fast-forward, pause, and play, if only we had such capabilities, then we could change the outcome of the situations that we caused for the better. Time does not change; however, time is the measurement of events whether it’s past, present or future. Usually, we have a concept of how much time an activity should take to accomplish, such as going for a walk or getting ready in the morning before going to work. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge uses time compression when describing Farquhar’s escape, yet we don’t realize this is happening until the end of the story, thanks to a vivid description of Farquhar actions, the way the author describes him as he comes up from under the water gasping for air, or a description of the setting and how desolate the place is while traveling that “not even a barking dog was there to show human habitation” (Bierce 86). Farquhar closes his eyes to slip into his own reality, a reality where nothing, absolutely nothing is impossible with this in mind, Farquhar’s imagination...
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...TUI University MODULE 1: Case Study ENG102 English Composition 2 Dr. Mike Frangos 12 October 2013 "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," by Ambrose Bierce, was set during the Civil War in Alabama. This gave me an insight to life during the war and what happens to people if they take sides. The author chronicled the experience of a southern secessionist identified as Peyton Farquhar, who was condemned to death by hanging from Owl Creek Bridge. Bierce's sequence of writing goes from the present time then to a flashback, an imagined present or fantasy, then back to the present again. The story began with an unidentified man being prepared to be hanged by a company of Union soldiers on a railroad bridge that runs over a river. His hands were behind his back, his wrists were in cords, and there was a rope around his neck. He and a couple of soldiers were the only people on the bridge. After all of the essential preparations, the two soldiers stepped aside and were ready to perform their duties. And then the author transferred the reality to the main character’s thoughts, having the reader view Peyton’s thoughts also as reality. “He looked a moment at his "unsteadfast footing," then let his gaze wander to the swirling water of the stream racing madly beneath his feet." Peyton Farquhar grew up as a rich southerner. He had everything that a man could ever want at that point in time: a wife, children, land and slaves. However, he had...
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...Bierce’s Fantasy Parading as Realism 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...
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...Day Mrs. Barber English 11-5 21 March 2013 Critical Analysis The Occurrence “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” has been read by any and every story critic in the nation. This short story by Ambrose Bierce has been read for over one hundred and twenty years. Bitter Bierce creates a very unsatisfying ending through the story for the reader through a unique plot structure, an intriguing setting, a common point of view, and a terrible sense of irony. The plot structure is a very weird way to tell a story. The story begins with a man ready to be hung for treason. One immediately sees that the conflict is going to be a man vs. man plot. He also learns what the scene looks like. A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, looking down into the swift water twenty feet below. The man's hands were behind his back, the wrists bound with a cord. A rope closely encircled his neck. It was attached to a stout cross-timber above his head and the slack fell to the level of his knees. Some loose boards laid upon the ties supporting the rails of the railway supplied a footing for him and his executioners—two private soldiers of the Federal army, directed by a sergeant who in civil life may have been a deputy sheriff. At a short remove upon the same temporary platform was an officer in the uniform of his rank, armed. He was a captain. A sentinel at each end of the bridge stood with his rifle in the position known as "support," that is to say, vertical in front of the left...
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