What really happened is that the rope did not break. Farquhar is dead, his neck is broken, and his body hangs beneath the bridge. The reader assumes the death of Peyton as he undoubtedly dies after the last sentence of section I. In the first section, Peyton Farquhar is standing on a railroad bridge prepared to be hanged. In the third section however by some miracle, the rope snaps as he falls into the water, and manages to escape from his executioners.
Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”: Reality vs. Illusion Ambrose Bierce’s short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” gives the reader an insight look on what is reality and what is illusion. Set during the American Civil War, Peyton Farquhar, a strong supporter of the Confederacy, is fixed to be hang to death from Owl Creek Bridge by the Union. The story opens up with Farquhar standing at the bridge’s edge. 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.
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 “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.
Talzani has a firm belief that “some live, some die, that’s all” and appears to be relatively unaffected by the deaths he is responsible for. Joaquin, much like Talzani, seems to also be fairly candid about the deaths he was liable for, except when it comes to his granddaughter Elena. Mark on the other hand becomes so psychologically disturbed about his part in the death of his best friend and is so overcome with guilt that his legs fail to work. “There is no pattern to who lives or dies in war”. The author uses the character of Dr Talzani as a representation of someone who can be responsible for people’s deaths and remain unaffected by it.
Ambrose Bierce’s An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is a story told in limited third person. Bierce used this to tell what Peyton Farquhar was thinking. In the story, it talks about how Farquhar gets away and he makes it to his house at dusk. But in reality “Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek Bridge.” This all happens in a couple of seconds. If it had shown that it all lasted a few seconds from the beginning there would not have been a story.
I believe that the author is showing us what could have happened if luck had been on Peyton’s side. Even though Peyton has lived through the hanging he is now faced with more obstacles, trying to get himself free of the ropes binding his hands so that he can rid himself of the noose before he drowns. We are able to feel what he felt the noose still strangling him while he sinks, the fight and strength that it takes to break the bindings to save himself. Once he over comes that obstacle he still has to swim away from the soldiers without being shot not only by guns but by cannons. The authors writing was able to make me imagine what it would be like to be stuck swimming for my life while bullets and cannons fired at me with little hope of escaping before being hit.
Marla Scott Mrs. Walden Honors English 13 October 2010 Making it Out Alive or Die Trying? Will he make it out alive; will he see his family again? In this short story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce, Peyton has multiple ideas floating around in his head. He has been captured by other soldiers for trying to set the bridge on fire. Ambrose Bierce uses a particular piece of writing skills in his story.
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.