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Symbolism In An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge

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An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

Identify a theme in Bierce’s story. How does Bierce use symbolism and imagery to establish his message?
Death is slow - Throughout the story Bierce describes the death of Farquhar, creating an illusion for the readers to believe that Farquhar’s escape from death is reality. In the last section from part one the author indicates his death- “the captain nodded to the sergeant. The sergeant stepped aside.” for many readers this is expected to be the end of the story but Bierce decides to jump to a flashback which brings the reader to thinking what the sergeant stepping aside meant. Later on in the story when Farquhar starts to imagine his death, deluding the reader to think that he has escaped but ultimately it is just his imagination and that indeed from the beginning of the story he was dead, this concludes the theme that death has two points of views, for the sergeant it was a fast process in which simply just stepping aside but as for the reader and Farquhar death is proven to be slow.

Symbolism is used deliberately in the story, the rope is a great symbol in this story. It symbolizes the line drawn between life and death. If the hanging is successful than the rope does not break nor can Farquhar escape, which in the story is reality. But in Farquhar’s fantasy the rope breaks and the outcome is that he can escape and live. The color grey is mentioned multiple times throughout the story. Gray is a combination of black and white which

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