Owl Creek Bridge Duality

Some authors capitalize the dualities of two concepts such as life and death, and in many cases, subjective or objective reality of characters ' lives. The duality of the two concepts creates an interesting story for the reader, but it also allows the reader to acknowledge the difference between realistic and imagined aspects. For example, readers tend to be oblivious to see the real facts in a story about the main character and thus deceived by their subjective personal opinions and beliefs to an already established story. In the short story, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", Ambrose Bierce illustrates the last few minutes of a man named Peyton Fahrquhar who is executed by being hunged over a bridge but creates an illusion of escaping home when he truly died. Certainly, through his application of literary elements such as imagery, symbolism, and structure, the author demonstrates his dark gothic style in writing to portray a subjective versus objective theme and as a result, create an introspective realism towards his audience.

To begin with, the author uses imagery when he narrates the tragic demise of Peyton Fahrquhar’s life to convey a subjective versus objective theme. Similarly, the author uses imagery to influence and bring the reader to establish, a reader to character relationship. Bierce uses imagery to influence the audience by expanding the reader 's mind by painting a vivid image of the events occurring. The concept of using flashback as imagery is due