How Does Bierce Use Irony In An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge
Carly Maisel
Coach Pitzer
English III - 4th
10 December 2017
One Last Breath The story takes place during the Civil War, with a southern family man named Peyton Farquhar. He was sentenced to be hanged by the Federal army. “The man’s hands were behind his back, bound with a cord. A rope closely encircled his neck” (Bierce, 1). Because of the damage and tarnish he had done to the bridge this would be Farquhar’s fate. Bierce tells the story in an almost confusing way, by using both back flashes and foreshadowing. In the short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce he uses many different literary techniques to amplify the suspense of the text. Symbolism is shown many times in Bierce’s writing. He shows the water as freedom, from death and punishment. In Farquhar’s daydream, he begins to think of a plan. If the rope drops him into the water, only then could he escape. “He knew that the rope had broken and he had fallen into the stream” (Bierce, 4).
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Peyton Farquhar, enters a deep daydream during the fall, he is imagining what would happen if he was not deceased. His aspiration is that he will receive the freedom to get back home to his wife and children. Farquhar experiences many indications of how he wants his future to turn out. “To die of hanging at the bottom of the river!--the idea seemed to him ludicrous” (Bierce, 4). When Farquhar finally gets loose and is on his journey back home, he was experiencing the pain from his bruised neck. Bierce describes it as “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” (Bierce, 7). He used that word choice to create a vivid picture of what Farquhar was
An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge Suspense Analysis
474 Words | 2 PagesAmbrose Bierce uses characterization, irony, and foreshadowing to create forms of suspense in An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge. In part one of the story, Bierce creates suspense in the form of expectancy by characterizing who Peyton Farquhar is thought to be by directly telling what he looks like. He states: He was a civilian, if one might judge from his habit, which was that of a planter. His features were good--a straight nose, firm mouth...dark hair combed straight back, falling behind his ears to the collar of his well fitting coat...
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418 Words | 2 PagesForeshadowing in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” A dead man swings back and forth on the Owl Creek Bridge. The short story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce depicts Peyton Farquhar about to get hung, when his mind begins to take over the story. The true ending is revealed in the story through foreshadowing.
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858 Words | 4 PagesHis fantasy of escape depends on the current of the stream, which pulls him to wellbeing and hurls him shorewards. In this sense, water actually gives our protagonist freedom. Indeed, even before it spares his life, water is related with freedom. Having taken after the "dancing driftwood" (1.4) with his eyes, Farquhar, at the times previously his death, progresses toward becoming as free as the coasting branch. As the completion of the story demonstrates, in any case, Farquhar's body is never free and he never escapes military justice.
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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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425 Words | 2 PagesIn conclusion, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” demonstrates several foreshadowing techniques to predict Farquhar’s fate, such as imagery and preternatural plot elements. The preternatural ability to hear a watch ticking at a vociferous volume reveals that Farquhar was simply imagining that his time is ticking away. Also, the use of imagery when he is unnaturally describing the distant trees in great detail shows that he is dreaming about that as well and not living in reality, so he has not escaped the fact that he will die in real
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453 Words | 2 PagesThe story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” focus on the story of a man named Peyton Fahrquhar who was sentenced to die by hanging by the soldiers of the Federal Army. It was not made clear to the reader upon the exact reason of his death by can assume it was because of the order that forbid any civilian from interfering with the railroad, the bridges, tunnels or trains. The overall themes of this story can be seen as to persevere or not to give up. This theme shows up throughout the whole story and was carried by the main character Peyton Fahrquhar.
An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge Essay
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473 Words | 2 PagesLiterary analysis of “An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge” Ambrose Bierce, the Author of “An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge” about a man who was being hanged, throughout the story Peyton hallucinates and thinks that he has escaped the hanging but in reality he’s dying. Bierce uses symbolism in “ An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” to foreshadow that Peyton is going to die. There are multiple allusions throughout the story that Bierce used to convey the death of Peyton. Imagery is used throughout the entire story to show that Peyton is hallucinating. Throughout the entire story Bierce uses multiple literary techniques to foreshadow Peyton’s death.
An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge Time Essay
749 Words | 3 PagesThroughout the course of the story, the author takes the reader back and forth between time and has a strange flow of it. As readers, we found out Farquhar’s name and what happened after he fell through the bridge. It connects back to how Farquhar tries to manipulate time and reality but ultimately leads to his death. By moving between the present and the past, it shows how much Farquhar lacks control of time. In the story, Bierce writes, “The sergeant stepped aside.
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688 Words | 3 PagesHe constantly swoops in on her, and ends up realizing that he cannot get to her. The green light that shines so brightly in front of him, was already miles behind him, somewhere in the streets of New york. Also in An Occurrence Down By Owl Creek, While Peyton is getting dragged out of his home to be hanged for betraying the Union Army, he has the wildest dreams of escape. While falling from the platform with a noose around his neck, he dreams of an impossible escape where he dodges all the bullets being fired at him while his surroundings start to look beautifully unreal. By the end of the story, he realizes that he's already dead, and it ends with them telling us that his body is hanging from the platform by Owl Creek.
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