How Does Bierce Use Imagery In An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge
Time is the motif of the short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce. Peyton Farquhar tried to set an important bridge on fire to help the confederalist but was captured by the federalist during the American Civil war. For this he is to be hanged until dead but manages to free himself. Thanks to his use of imagery, symbolism, and plot structure Bierce created a story where time is fluid and not rigid.
Bierce’s use of imagery is a prominent point in the story as in any story. His imagery creates the scenes of the entire story and helps to let the reader actually go there with all their senses. His explanation of not just the color of the world around him but including the details such as “it was uncomfortably warm” when talking about the bullet helps you get the feeling of being there with him. This use of imagery helps use understand what happens when the cannon fires and he gets tossed around and helps the reader understand what is going on.
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He talked about the guards on the bridge being similar to stone statues which tells us that they barely move. This frequent use of extreme symbolism helped to give the reader the idea that Farquhar is already dead for almost all of act III. Thanks to the symbolism it helps the reader stay connected to the story and hang on to the end.
This story is not normal in its plot structure due to it being out of chronological order. This story starts with a unknown man on the bridge but it is not until part two that we learn who it is and then go back forward in time to when he is on the bridge. In part III he creates a vast world where he manages to escape in the matter of seconds before he dies by hanging. The story not being in chronological order makes it so that time seems to jump back and
An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge Essay
948 Words | 4 PagesAs 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. Peyton Farquhar, a plantation owner in his mid-thirties, is being prepared for execution by hanging from an Alabama railroad bridge during the American Civil War. Farquhar, a supporter of the Confederacy, learns from a soldier that Union troops have seized the Owl Creek railroad bridge and repaired it. The soldier suggests that Farquhar might be able to burn the bridge down if he can slip past its guards.
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