Ambrose Bierce's An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge

The short story by Ambrose Bierce, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is a story of many different feelings. The story causes the reader to visualize the preciousness of life itself and takes the reader on a roller coaster of different feelings on as to what is going on and in doing so, Bierce’s style tells the story through visual aids and highly descriptive language. The story begins on a railroad bridge, where many northern troops stand with Peyton Farquhar standing on the edge of the bridge on a plank of wood in his last moments of life. Farquhar; being the man he is, was unable to join the military due adverse circumstances. Instead he went on to continue on in a normal lifestyle as a plantation owner, but still heavily supported the southern agenda. Peyton would do anything to to help the south, he was always searching for a golden opportunity to aid in the efforts of the south. The opportunity arises for Farquhar to sabotage the bridge and decides to take that chance in which results in the capture and the events leading up to intro to the story. Ambrose Bierce is an exquisite writer who’s writing prose can be, at times, confusing and open to different forms of interpretation. Bierce uses sentences, for example “Suppose a man--a civilian and
student of hanging--should elude the picket post and perhaps get the better of the sentinel,”, “what could he accomplish?”. This style of writing Bierce uses does not plainly tell the reader what is going on, it is simply implied and is up to the audience to assume. Context clues tell from earlier in the writing tell the audience that Peyton would do anything to help the southern cause in this time of war so it is assumed that an attempt at burning the bridge is what landed Peyton in this mess. Harriet Kramer Linkin, a writer on the critiques of other narratives, talks about how the perspective Bierce uses on the entire story paves a panoramic view of the full situation (Linkin 137).
Bierce jumps around in the story and tells different aspects of the time line in separate parts. Part one being where the audience finds out who the story is about, and the circumstances he is currently in. His writing techniques bring part two in as a flashback as to why the events of part one are happening in the first place. The time line flow follows a, Present to Past then back to the Present. This technique gives the reader a much needed answer to all their questions that might have accumulated during part
one. Part three begins, after many questions are answered and yet curiosity is still very high due to the time line shifting back to the present. Bierce in many cases of the story uses the thoughts of Peyton, as well as the detailed feelings he has in the moment to tell the story and leave it up to the audience to empathise with Peyton and feel what he is going through. In part one, this phenomenon pulls in the audience and makes them feel as if they are in Peyton’s position, struggling for life and ensuing a form of hopelessness in the audience. There was a section in part one where Peyton felt the his time has come and his life was about to end; in this part, Bierce writes about how he heard a maddening sound which turned out to be his watch. The narrator described these moments as “a sharp, distinct, metallic percussion like the stroke of a blacksmith's hammer upon the anvil;”. When describing these events, Bierce did a great job in building the suspense and anxiety of the moment, and causes the reader to be on edge the entire time. Towards the end of part one, Peyton, in his mind says, “"If I could free my hands, I might throw off the noose and spring into the stream. By diving I could evade the bullets and, swimming vigorously, reach the bank, take to the woods and get away home. ”
This one line in the entire story resets the tone; that there may still be a chance that Peyton and the audience may escape unscathed. It leaves a positive feel in this story, which has been negative up until this point. When part three rolls in, the reader is starving for what is to happen next to Peyton. Harriet Kramer Linkin states “Using innovative narrative techniques, Bierce plays a cat and mouse game with readers in the tale;”(Linkin 137). This is where Bierce relieves the stress that is built up till this point by revealing to the audience that upon the release of the plank Peyton stands on; the noose around his neck snaps and the reader is led to believe Peyton is escaping. The reader is put into a state that prompts them to ponder life and death, but up until now, hope was nowhere in sight. When somebody reads this piece, they are hit with the same feelings that Peyton is feeling. This is due to Bierce’s unique style; he takes the situation and delves into extreme detail by describing what the character is seeing, feeling and their thoughts. A great example of this is when Peyton is just about to be dropped off he edge of the bridge; the last line of the first part states “As these thoughts, which have here to be set down in words, were flashed into the doomed man's brain rather than evolved from it the captain nodded to the sergeant. The sergeant stepped aside.” shows both the thoughts of Peyton, and the events in his surroundings while using as little language as possible to do so. From this point on, things are starting to looks good for Peyton, and the tone of the entire story has shifted into what is now pointing toward a possible happy ending. This cat and mouse effect Linkin spoke of is very apparent now that the audience gets a sense of possibly escaping the clutch of the soldiers. Bierce’s work is very admirable because of his ability to tell the story by instilling a visualization of the surroundings without telling the story the traditional way.
The audience seems to believe that Peyton is escaping and has a good chance of surviving. When the reader reaches the point where Peyton is in the creek and coming to terms with what exactly is happening to him, things start to seem a little off putting. The soldiers are firing at him and missing, one even shoots a cannon at him. At this point the audience is left with a pondering sense where they are unsure what is going on. Did Peyton Farquhar actually escape? Everything seems like a dream at this point and there are many context clues that show just that. For example the text says “He had been caught in a vortex and was being whirled on with a velocity of advance and gyration” and immediately after it states “In a few moments he was flung upon the gravel at the foot of the left bank of the stream ”. The reader is now to believe that a magical vortex has swooped in and saved his life. The events are starting to sound more like fiction than fact and drive the reader to start to wonder if anything happening is actually real. When Farquhar gets up to escape, he travels through the woods and is hearing illiterate whispers. In the story, a sense of fantasy is in play and leaves the audience dumbfounded. In the end, everything leads up to what looks to be the happy ending the audience is led to expect. The way Bierce describes the final events as the beautiful moment when Peyton finds his wife and returns home. When he extends his arm to grab his wife, this is when Bierce tears the entire story down in one blow. The line says “As he is about to clasp her he feels a stunning blow upon the back of the neck; a blinding white light blazes all about him with a sound like the shock of a cannon--then all is darkness and silence! ”, in a split second, Bierce took the happy ending and crushed it. This technique is neat because it takes the feelings of the reader and completely molds their feelings in the exact opposite way they were expecting to go. Not all stories are happy in the end and that is what makes this story so interesting. Ambros Bierce’s writing techniques make this piece a very unique read. It takes what little hope is instilled into the reader and swings it in a completely unexpected direction. Bierce has a unique style that shows that somebody can tell a story without following the traditional flow of a normal story.