Hope In An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge

The word “Hope” originated around 900 A.D. and defines as, “a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.” When asked, high school students described hope as a new beginning or a light at the end of the tunnel. The “light at the end of the tunnel” varies among who is asked. For high school seniors it could possibly be graduation; for a struggling family it could be a paycheck at the end of the week; for a sick and hurting patient, it could be the top of the hour when their medicine is readily available. Hope comes in different forms. Hope shines light through hard decisions, politics, tragedy and everyday life.

In the story, Peyton Farquhar dies, but as a reader, we do not learn this fact until the very end. Ambrose Bierce hides this fact until the end by providing an adventure through the mind of a dying Peyton Farquhar. Along the incredible journey of “escape”, Bierce alludes to the inevitable end to which the reader is captured by the idea that Peyton Farquhar could actually get away. The short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” has several literary techniques that capture the reader’s attention.

These following quotations are examples of people having hope help them through the tough times. People hope that others are still alive even if they could be dead. Not long ago Elie and his father were just separated from his mother and sister. Now it was evening and they were laying in their cots, listening to Akiba Drumer, and the only they could think about at the moment was them. “Mother is still a young woman. She must be in a labor camp. And Tzipora, she is a big girl now. She too must be

Life can really suck sometimes. It can give us the illusion that everything is going to go smoothly as planned, but then it surprises us with tragedy or rough, unexpected circumstances. It is during these times that we just don’t know what to do and feel hopeless. But hope is always there. Sometimes it’s obvious, and sometimes it seems impossible to find, but there is always hope for any situation or circumstance. Hope is alive and can be found in more places than one might expect. In Lisel Mueller’s poem, “Hope”, Mueller uses metaphors to describe hope and show that it can be found in many places.

In the Merrriam-Webster dictionary, hope is defined as; to cherish a desire with anticipation. However, those words don't convey the meaning deep enough, hope is more than that. Hope is a feeling deep in the gut, a motivating force, for some hope is everything. Hope must be stronger than any fear and it must have fight in it. Lina Vilkas, a fifteen year old Lithuanian, she fights for hope. In Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys a family is ripped apart by russian soldiers and sent to prison camps. The prison camps have the worst living conditions and the soldiers are brutal to anyone. Lina meets Andrius in the camps, a friend who helps her stay strong while she is imprisoned for 12 years and loses both parents and almost her brother. Lina finds her hope even in the darkest situations, because hope is bright and believing in a brighter future it isn't giving up because of fear. Ruta Sepetys theme of the power of hope on a survivor is expressed when a young girl loses everything, finds

Paul Tillich was an American theologian and philosopher who born on August 20, 1886, in Starzeddel, Brandenburg, Germany. Tillich was a deep thinker and very compassionate where faith was concerned, and he used different avenues to describe faith and belief to grasp the attention of readers, other theologians, and believers of faith. According to author Wendy Morrison from the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, Tillich's understanding of faith differs from the common understanding of faith, as he relayed that message in Dynamics of Faith, where he states that there is hardly a word in the religious language, both theological and popular, that is subject to more understandings, distortions and questionable definitions than the word "faith" (Morrison, 2011).

In the short story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, written by Ambrose Bierce, he tells the story of white southerner during the American Civil War who has committed a crime against the Union and is punished to death by hanging. Throughout the short story Bierce takes us the readers on a journey through northern Alabama filled with suspense and foreshadowing. Through the entire short story Bierce uses many different types of foreshadowing to anticipate the fate of the main character. Bierce foreshadows the ending of the story in three ways, 1.) Peyton Farquhar’s heightened senses, 2.) at the commencement of part III he expresses that Peyton Farquhar is already dead, and 3.) Bierce uses inmediares to convey foreshadowing to us the readers.

Hope can mean many things, it can also be represented by different things. In the book Lord of the Flies hope is represented by the fire. It's a chance at getting off the island. “A fire! Make a fire!”(Golding 52). In this moment the boys realize that if they have a fire they have a chance at getting off the island. Hope in WWII would be the HIghway act of 1956. “Speedy safe transcontinental travel” (“The interstate” par. 1). Having better ways of getting to places, safer roads, and less traffic jams people are going to be able to have hope in safer travels. Hope that you can get from point a to point be safely. The

“Faith is seeing light with your heart when all your eyes see is darkness.” This quote, by Barbara Johnson, illuminates faith’s capabilities to help people see the best in their situation. Examples of these and other positive effects of faith are pervasive throughout the text of Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett’s play, The Diary of Anne Frank. In this play, two Jewish families- the Franks and the Van Daans- along with a Jewish man, Dussel, are forced to hide in a small attic for two years to avoid being captured during the Holocaust. They are unable to breathe fresh air or take a step outside for this entire time. However, despite their unfortunate situation, they have faith that everything will be alright. Regardless of what some might argue, this faith, if too strong, does not make people feel dislike towards opposing views. Rather, faith- the complete trust or confidence in someone or something- leads to optimism and an open mind, because it is above all hatred and gives people a future to look forward to.

How do you cope with the reality of day to day life? I would like to think I handle the reality of day to day life moderately well like everyone else. However, I began to question myself once again as I read Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” This story, with its unexpected ending, had me rereading it several times to pull out key details that led me down the wrong path the first time. As you can tell from the title, something big happened at the Owl Creek Bridge, but you have to wait until the end of the story to find out the truth, or else you could be lost in someone’s daydream. The story had me intrigued by the different directions it could take you, but it all made sense in the end, and I discovered you sometimes have to dig a little deeper to find the whole truth about someone.

The Finest Hours by Michael J. Tougias and Casey Sherman is the true story of the brave men who risked their own lives to save others. The journey across the sea consisted of many situations that they had to face. Not many people would risk their own lives to save someone else’s. The book describes the situations in a great deal, and any reader will enjoy reading the book.

Farquhar gets captured by the Union troops and he realizes that he’s going to die from getting hanged. Meanwhile, the noose is around Farquhar neck and he starts to daydream about the possibility of noose breaking and falling into the creek. He then escapes the Union troops, and finds himself back home where his wife awaits him. As soon as he tries to embrace his wife he is forced back into reality by being hanged. Farquhar had a goal, he failed, but it was that he believed he had to carry

Hope is a feeling inside you that makes feel like you can do anything. When you have that feeling you set yourself up for success and it makes you want to live life like a fairytale. The war started at Valley Forge, George Washington made an army that he had hoped for. Then the British came and forced war over them. “The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” (Paine 153) What Paine is trying to say in this quote is that the better we fight, the more joyous and exciting the win will be. I have decided to re-enlist for three reasons which are: sicknesses, the encouragement of the soldiers, and the congressmen helping the soldiers.

Imagine a single, lonely flame. Its vitality, its survival, depends on you. Now imagine the emotional commitment you have set forth to preserve this oscillating light, this sliver of hope. Now imagine that it wisps out of existence, from one moment to another. Such was what men devoted to communism, like George Orwell, author of the book Animal Farm, might have beheld when facing the despotism in Russia under the charade of communism, and such was the sight of the animals of Animal Farm, when the pigs march out of the farmhouse on two feet, triumphant, as dominators, as humans. Though late in the narrative, multiple factors clearly make this the turning point. It is because of the animal 's protests, the indifference of the pigs, and the sharp contrast the author draws between the mood before and after this scene that this is the turning point where the reader is simultaneously enraged and disappointed.