...Ambrose Bierce appears as a master of suspense in the Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. The way Bierce conveys suspense leaves the readers on edge, grabbing their attention. With Peyton Farquhar being the protagonist, readers know everything about him; who he is, what he does, and what he thinks and feels. Parts one and two of the short story the narrator gives an account of what Peyton Farquhar was accused of and/or guilty of but also why he was at the bridge, part three is told in flashback style, which is one of many methods used to contribute to the suspense of the short story. Bierce’s use of flashbacks, imagery, and the chronological order of the story all contribute to a suspenseful effect. Flashbacks throughout the story take part in a major role of suspense by making the story seem longer than it actually is. In part two of the story Peyton and his wife are visited by a soldier who informs them ”The Yanks are repairing the railroads…any civilian caught interfering with the railroad, its bridges, tunnels or trains will be summarily hanged”(532). With the scout being a soldier from the North and Peyton being a plantation owner from the South adds suspense due to the different of opinions of what is right and wrong. Normal chronological order is disrupted through this story with news of the hanging placed at the end rather than the...
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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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...Ambrose Bierce was one of the most notable American authors of all time he was especially talented in using literary techniques to contrive suspense using imagery, time, and story structure. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge demonstrates all of these techniques clearly and effectively immersing the reader deeper into the plot all the while accumulating more suspense along the way. The literary technique that was no doubt the most effective and the most utilized is the use of time and warping it to full the reader. Bierce uses it from the beginning of the 2nd act to the end of the 3rd by leading the reader to think that Peyton escapes and makes his way home but in reality is just falling to his untimely death. Another example of time being...
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...People all cope with events that occur differently. When a person dies, it is sad for everybody. You might have hated that person, but you would still be sad if they died a horrible death, right? Peyton Farquhar, a 35 year old man who lives in the south during the civil war in America. Farquhar is being hanged on a bridge the day after a federal scout was spying in the area. While Farquhar is being hung, he goes in between life and death and is put into an imaginary world where he escapes the hanging and gets back to his family. That is, until reality snaps back into place and Peyton dies, never having escaped the federal army. In the short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” Ambrose Bierce uses similes, inner thinking, and specific details to build a mood. First off, similes build the mood by comparing one thing to another. “...a sharp, distinct, metallic percussion like the stroke of a blacksmith's hammer upon an anvil...” (Bierce 2). In this part of the story, author Ambrose Bierce compares the metallic percussion that Farquhar is hearing to that of a blacksmith’s hammer upon an anvil, building the mood and getting the reader to predict what this sound is like, and...
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...English Composition II 8 February 2016 Time for a Hanging The Civil War was a time of immense turmoil and bloodshed throughout a great majority 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,...
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...“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is written by Ambrose Bierce. This short story takes place during the Civil War. A man, Peyton Farquhar, is caught tarnishing with the bridge and is sentenced to be hanged. Ambrose Bierce designed this piece of literature to keep the readers attention, by going into the mind of Peyton. While standing towards the edge of the plank, Peyton starts to dream of his escape back to his family. In the last paragraph of the story, the author tells of how Peyton is only dreaming and then he is hanged. “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is suspenseful due to the effectiveness of flashbacks, the setting, and the use of Peyton’s senses. Throughout the sequence of this story, the use of flashbacks describes the lifestyle Peyton Farquhar lives before he is caught tampering with the bridge. As the story describes Peyton’s life and work, they tell of how he is “a well-to-do planter, as well as a slave owner who is devoted to the Southern cause”(532). Suspense builds during this particular part of the story because a soldier arrives to their house asking for a drink of water. The soldier tells Peyton, “The Yanks are repairing the railroads…any civilian caught interfering...
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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 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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