Throughout the story, Connell uses suspense, irony, and foreshadowing to hold the reader's’ interest. Suspense is used in the beginning of the story when Rainsford dropped his pipe off the boat when he heard a gun that was fired three times. He lunged for the pipe but then realized that he went too far and and fell into the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea. The author uses suspense to hold the reader’s interest.
The reader is informed that Farquhar is standing on a plank of wood, which is being held by the sergeant of the Federalist, and “At a signal from the former the latter would step aside, the plank would tilt and the condemned man go down between two ties”. Although the reader presumes the man, which is later revealed to be Farquhar, is dead Bierce still continues short story about Payton Farquhar’s grand escape from his death. Bierce states that “…he (Farquhar) knew that the rope had broken and he had fallen into the stream” eluding his death. Ironically Bierce also adds that “His neck ached horribly; his brain was on fire; his heart, which had been fluttering faintly” which are indications of strangulation and lack of oxygen according to “rightdiagnosis.com”. Another example of foreshadowing is at the very end of the short story.
“Suspense combines curiosity with fear and pulls them up a rising slope,” quote by Mason Cooley summarizes the idea of how W.F. Harvey creates suspense in his short story, “August Heats.” Everyone likes a little suspense in their life so W.F. Harvey attracts his audience by using foreshadowing, “the use of hints to suggest events later in the plot,” (source 1) a reversal is involved, “a sudden change in a character’s situation from good to bad or vice versa,” (source 1) and the narrator withholds information from the reader. With these steps the author intrigues the audience to continue reading and cause them to feel frightened as they read. W.F. Harvey first begins to get the character interested in the reading by the way he signals hints towards the reader in order to get them thinking about events that could possibly happen. As the reader continues reading W.F. Harvey introduces more hints that might change the way of thinking of the reader.
Another example from the text is, “As he rose to the surface, gasping for breath, he saw that he had been a long time under water; he was perceptibly farther downstream-nearer to safety.” (487). This example allows us, readers, to get the concept that Farquhar is traveling downstream, realizing he is getting closer to safety. The details allow us to grasp the visual effect of the story. Another technique that Bierce uses to apprehend foreshadowing is allusion, Bierce uses an allusion to grasp the reader’s attention by making them think something is going to happen and is left with an astonishment.
All readers long for an exciting story; no one wants to read a boring book. Readers want a book that captivates them, rocks them to the core, changes the way they view things. Without a doubt, this is something Ambrose Bierce accomplishes in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and “Chickamauga.” In modern times, most readers are used to plot twists and expected endings; however, Bierce was one of the first authors to incorporate these into literary works. Because of this, the shock, violence, and gore used in his stories made his stories to become immensely influential at the time of their publication and still remain important literary works today.
Bierce wrote “As Peyton Farquhar fell straight downward through the bridge he lost consciousness and was as one already dead.” (Bierce 8). What the quote is foreshadowing is that Farquhar is still actually in the hemp waiting for his death to arrive, and one can infer that Farquhar falling downward through the bridge and the many events that happen afterward are all of Farquhar’s delusions. Everything that Farquhar saw and experienced, or perceived wasn't actually the truth nor was it his reality. Another way Bierce uses foreshadowing is when he wrote “His neck was in pain and lifting his hand to it found it horribly swollen.
Suspense in live to tell and the interlopers The two stories “live to tell” chapter two and “the interlopers” both stories have suspense so the end of the story is ironic. And the both have real interesting endings of the sort’s stories. “Live to tell” was mad by Lisa Gander and “the interlopers was written by Saki.
Literary 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.
Ambrose Bierce explains the water below Farquhar’s feet with such extreme detail that one can imagine the “'humming of the gnats that danced above the eddies of the stream, the beating of the dragon flies' wings, [and] the strokes of the water-spiders' legs” (Bierce) reading the story. Using this technique helps the reader further focus and comprehend the message of the short story, the cruel Civil War is romanticized. In addition to the imagery, Ambrose Bierce’s well known short story also includes a significant theme of the contrast of a soldier’s glory with the reality of war. In “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” Farquhar enters a dream-like delusion of escaping the bullets and his unavoidable hanging, only to be suddenly awakened by the reality of the cruel situation- he was going to be hanged. Bierce creates Peyton Farquhar as a character whose romantic ideals blind him from the harsh truth of war, and therefore contributes to the overall theme contrasting the idealistic mindset of soldiers and the gruesome reality of
In the short story, the author indicates how important the role of time is by showing how much the mind can carry out in such a short period of time. In the first section of the story, time passes normally and fluidly, but by the end of the first section and during the second. It alters completely in which it interrupts the flow of time and slows it down tremendously. In the first section, Bierce says, “He wondered what [the
All is as he left it, and all bright and beautiful in the morning sunshine. He must have traveled the entire night” (30). At this point in the story, Farquhar escapes the grasp of death and travels back to his home. The author includes imagery such as “bright” and “morning sunshine” to give the story a sense of peace and comfort. The author fools the reader with a sense of resolve and victory; however, Bierce soon reveals what truly happens.
In one of his most famous short stories, “The Most Dangerous Game”, Richard Connell uses many devices to develop suspense. The devices that are most successful for creating suspense are the devices of foreshadowing through dialogue and imagery along with his cryptic cliffhangers in the forms of narrative description and unanswered questions. Connell foreshadows the events Rainsford has to go through using dialogue and narrative description that is open to interpretation. Connell uses dialogue to foreshadow the events that will happen when Whitney notices that “‘There was no breeze’” but instead felt a “...mental chill; a sort of sudden dread’"(Connell, 2).
In stories both fiction and nonfiction, the author’s choice in the structure of the said story can greatly affect the meaning given to it, as well as the reader’s response to the story. In Edgar Allan Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death, Poe uses chronological order as well as metaphors and allegory to create a particular feel. Similarly, in A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, the author uses different structure - beginning with the end, then going more chronologically - to create a different feeling. Both stories would be completely different if it were not for the methods the authors chose to use for their stories’ structure.
Bierce alludes Farquhar’s death with the ticking of his watch. The watch ticking down symbolizes the ticking time of Farquhar’s remaining life. The dancing driftwood down a sluggish stream is another occurrence. Bierce describes a scene where time transitions from a regular, lively pace to a slow, sluggish procession. Farquhar is holding on to the
“A Rose for Emily” is a unique short story that keeps the reader guessing even though its first sentence already reveals the majority of the content. William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is the epitome of a work that follows an unconventional plot structure and a non-linear timeline, but this method of organization is intentional, as it creates suspense throughout the story. William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” follows an unusual plot structure, which creates an eccentric application of suspense to a short story. Throughout the story, there are no clear indications of standard plot structure in each section, such as intro, climax, and denouement. Instead, there are sections, which are not in chronological order, that describe a particular conflict or event, which in turn creates suspense, as each conflict builds upon each other to make the reader question the overall context and organization of the story.
