An Occurance At Owl Creek Bridge

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An Occurance At Owl Creek Bridge

• Written By Ambrose Bierce

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• Ambrose Guinnet Bierce
• Born 1842, January 24th in
• Horse Cave Creek, Meigs County, Ohio.
• Death Unknown last correspondence dated
  December 26, 1913 in Texas

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• 1861 Bierce enlisted in the Ninth Indiana
  Infantry for the Civil War. He was a soldier for
  the entire duration of the war until resigning in
  1865 after receiving a bullet wound to the head.

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• As a soldier, the war and the experience
  influenced many of his works Bierces short
  story An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge was
  written with the setting of the war, the mood and
  the people of the war in mind.
• An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge was published
  in 1890, collected in Tales of Soldiers and
  Civilians, a book of Bierces short stories
  published in 1891.

23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Color Guard
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• The story is set during the Civil War, focusing
  on the Confederate Soldier, Peyton Farquhar, who
  is awaiting to be hanged.
• The story was written in three parts

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• Part 1 Reader is introduced to Peytons present
  situation and his mind set.
• Part 2 Peytons background and how he obtained
  the misfortune of having a noose around his neck
  on Owl Creek Bridge.
• Part 3 What goes on in Peytons mind before his
  hanging an imagined escape from the noose, the
  bridge and death. Ending in a realistic turn,
  Peyton is hanged, his neck breaks and he does die.

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• Ambrose Bierces story takes the reader on a
  journey with the hero in an almost convincing
  adventure that nearly reassures the reader that
  the hero will escape until shockingly he
  doesnt, he dies and swiftly after, the story is
  over.
• Bierces An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge
  would not have had succeeded in having such a
  shocking ending if it were not for the language
  used.
• How does Ambrose Bierce use descriptive or poetic
  language?

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His neck was in pain and lifting his hand to it
found it horriblyswollen. He knew that it had a
circle of black where the rope hadbruised it.
His eyes felt congested he could no longer close
them.His tongue was swollen with thirst he
relieved its fever by thrustingit forward from
between his teeth into the cold air. How softly
theturf had carpeted the untraveled avenue--he
could no longer feel theroadway beneath his
feet!Doubtless, despite his suffering, he had
fallen asleep while walking,for now he sees
another scene--perhaps he has merely recovered
from adelirium. He stands at the gate of his own
home. All is as he leftit, and all bright and
beautiful in the morning sunshine. He musthave
traveled the entire night. As he pushes open the
gate and passesup the wide white walk, he sees a
flutter of female garments hiswife, looking
fresh and cool and sweet, steps down from the
veranda tomeet him. At the bottom of the steps
she stands waiting, with a smileof ineffable
joy, an attitude of matchless grace and dignity.
Ah, howbeautiful she is! He springs forwards
with extended arms. As he isabout to clasp her
he feels a stunning blow upon the back of the
necka blinding white light blazes all about him
with a sound like theshock of a cannon--then all
is darkness and silence!Peyton Farquhar was
dead his body, with a broken neck, swung
gentlyfrom side to side beneath the timbers of
the Owl Creek bridge.
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• In this final passage of the story, the reader is
  faced with coming to terms with the fact that
  Peyton is now going through the bodily effects of
  being hanged.
• Bierce introduces the same stylistic elements he
  uses in the beginning of Part 3 as a
  foreshadowing of Peytons death. Using both
  fantastic elements and the reality of the hanging
  process he maintains the readers uncertainty and
  hope that Peyton may actually survive. However,
  this time around, the foreshadowing ends with a
  blunt conclusion.

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• His neck was in pain and lifting his hand to it
  found it horribly swollen. He knew that it had a
  circle of black where the rope had bruised it.
  His eyes felt congested he could no longer close
  them. His tongue was swollen with thirst he
  relieved its fever by thrusting it forward from
  between his teeth into the cold air. How softly
  theturf had carpeted the untraveled avenue--he
  could no longer feel the roadway beneath his
  feet!
• What is highlighted in red are all the indicators
  of the fact that Peyton is going through the
  hanging process the reality of being hanged.
• What the reader is left with is still the
  fantastic to dwell in. The fantasy/reality mix
  allows the reader to slowly break from the
  fantasy and come into a slow realization that
  Peyton is in fact dying.

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• Doubtless, despite his suffering, he had fallen
  asleep while walking, for now he sees another
  scene--perhaps he has merely recovered from a
  delirium. He stands at the gate of his own home.
  All is as he left it, and all bright and
  beautiful in the morning sunshine. He must have
  traveled the entire night. As he pushes open the
  gate and passes up the wide white walk, he sees a
  flutter of female garments his wife, looking
  fresh and cool and sweet, steps down from the
  veranda to meet him. At the bottom of the steps
  she stands waiting, with a smile of ineffable
  joy, an attitude of matchless grace and dignity.
  Ah, how beautiful she is! He springs forwards
  with extended arms. As he is about to clasp her
  he feels a stunning blow upon the back of the
  neck a blinding white light blazes all about him
  with a sound like the shock of a cannon--then all
  is darkness and silence!
• Through this passage, Bierce introduces the light
  of death, the sudden clarity that one may
  experience before death recovering from
  delirium.
• Bierce is painting multiple pictures with his
  words. The reader is both given three ways to
  identify with the story Peyton is in fact dying,
  Peyton found his way home, Peyton is experiencing
  a face of heaven.
• Bierce continues the fantasy, adding the taste of
  reality until the end of the story.

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• Peyton Farquhar was dead his body, with a
  broken neck, swung gentlyfrom side to side
  beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge.
• The reader is then returned to the bluntness and
  description that is reality. Much like Part 2 and
  the first half of Part 1, the text goes back to
  realistic description instead of fantastic
  narration. The ending is cold and uncomforting,
  much unlike the paragraph before, but much in the
  nature of the reality of death itself.

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• Ambrose Bierces An Occurrence At Owl Creek
  Bridge uses descriptive and poetic language as a
  device in many ways throughout the story
  foreshadowing, character portrayal, identifying
  between fantasy and reality and to evoke a mood.