A flashback in the story reveals that a Union soldier disguised as a Confederate soldier lures Farquhar to demolish the bridge, but Farquhar is caught in the act. When Farquhar is hanged, the rope breaks, he escaped, and runs home to his beautiful wife and children. At the end, it is revealed that Farquhar never escaped and imagined everything between falling off the bridge and his last breath. Farquhar imagined a several hour event in a matter of seconds. How can someone visualize a non-realistic event in such a short period of time?
The troops take their duties seriously, and there is a ritualistic quality to the event. Bierce asserts that their hushed attention is a form of respect to the man they are under orders to execute. Though death is not unexpected for Farquhar—the disguised Northern scout had warned Farquhar of this potential punishment during their brief exchange at the plantation—he is ultimately unable to accept it. Rather than “respect” the magnitude of the moment, he resists death by unspooling an elaborate fantasy of an alternate fate. To give his story authenticity and authority, Bierce drew on his experience fighting for the North during the Civil War.
Bierce uses subtle instances of foreshadowing in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” to gesture to the gap between reality and illusion that widens throughout the story. Bierce’s story hinges heavily on the unexpected final revelation—that Farquhar, far from escaping, has actually been hanged. Although Bierce intends the unexpected ending to startle the readers’ assumptions, he peppers his story with various clues to signal in advance the unreliable and completely fantastical nature of the concluding section. For example, the description of the soldiers’ weapons in the first section—with the company of infantrymen holding their guns at “parade rest” with the butts to the ground and the commanding officer standing with the point of his sword also to the ground—stands in stark contrast to the rounds fired and volley of shots lobbied at Farquhar during his imagined escape. The weapons are in truth merely ceremonial and harmless, and Farquhar is and remains in the company’s custody throughout.
Bierce, begins this story with much detail. Farquhar, a Southern gentleman who was not a rebel soldier but nonetheless a slave owner and rebel sympathizer, is standing on Owl Creek Bridge, about to be hanged. A brief flashback enlightens the reader as to why. Farquhar, having been visited by a Union soldier in disguise, was lured into trying to sabotage the bridge. After the flashback, the hanging commences.
The story starts out describing a man (Farquhar) on a bridge, wrists bound, and noose around his neck. Farquhar is on a loose platform, laid over train tracks, and expecting to be executed in the coming moments. There is a small squad of individuals surrounding Farquhar, in full military attire, awaiting the order to begin the execution. It is at this time that Farquhar imagines escaping the execution, and returning to the safety of his home (Bierce 300). Peyton Farquhar is a successful Alabama planter, who finds; himself, his wife, and his property very close to the front lines of the Union advancement into the Confederate controlled Southern states.
Eric D. Gross Professor Duenas English 104 – Narrative Essay 7 November 2011 An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge: Life in the Blink of an Eye If you found yourself about to be executed, how would you respond? Would you beg for your life? Would you resist defiantly until the very end? In Ambrose Bierce’s short story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” Peyton Farquhar is a man standing in the face of his own mortality, about to be hung from the very bridge he attempted to destroy. Bierce’s narrative continually interweaves the present to the past and back to the present, leading the reader into a state somewhere between dream and reality.
He was first stationed in Missouri in 1846; this was when America went to war with Mexico. By the end of the war he was promoted to first lieutenant. He continued to serve in the army until 1854, when he decided to retire and buy a farm. This was when there was a lot of speculation about his drinking, which I have found to be just a lot of rumors. The farming did not work out so well for him and he eventually had to sell his farm.
Derek Tagert Mr. Albers ENGL II April 17th, 2012 Critical Essay of An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge In An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge, Ambrose Pierce strays from a typical Naturalist story tone in order to make the reader first identify with the protagonist before revealing the nature of his predicament. Bierce’s aim seems clear once one takes into account his military past, including 4 years of service in the Union Army during the American Civil War and his participation in multiple battles such as the Battle of Rich Mountain (July 1861), the Battle of Shiloh (April 1862), and the Battle of Kennessaw Mountain (June 1864)(Ambrose): to humanize the men who died needlessly in that war, regardless of allegiance. In the first two words of the first sentence of section I, we already see the attempt to create a vague description of the protagonist, Peyton Farquhar, thusly appealing to the human nature of the reader. It is much easier to identify with a vague description of “A man” (P.730) than to readily identify with him as a Confederacy sympathizer and attempted saboteur. Bierce then proceeds to paint a picture for the reader of a simple man in a dire situation: “The man’s hands were behind his back, the wrists bound with a cord.
The story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce, takes place during the Civil War in the southern United States. In the opening paragraph, the main character, Peyton Farquhar, a young slave owner and rebel sympathizer, is standing on Owl Creek Bridge, about to be hanged. The story then goes into a brief flashback to enlighten the reader on how the man go in this predicament. Farquhar, having been visited by a Union soldier in disguise, was lured into trying to sabotage the bridge in which they were planning to cross. After the flashback, the hanging commences and as Farquhar begins to fall, the grave sensation of his death is described.
Rena Korb in Short Stories for Students states, “ In the first section, Farquhar denies what is about to happen”(Korb 169). Korb is saying that Farquhar doesn’t believe he is about to be hanged. He begins to describe everything around him. In the story, it states “…two private soldiers of the Federal Army, directed by a sergeant who in civil life may have been a deputy sheriff”(Bierce 306). Bierce is showing that the story takes place during the Civil War, which shows that execution was used a lot during this time.