An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Literary Analysis
"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" Literary Analysis
“Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge.” This is the last sentence in the story revealing a shocking twist. "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is a short story emphasizing how alive someone feels right before they die. The main character, Farquhar, is being hung and he dreams he is escaping but in reality all the sensations he is seeing, hearing, and feeling associate with being hung. In "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", we learn that the mind can be very deceiving. The author, Ambrose Bierce, deceives the reader by using imagery to describe what Farquhar sees, hears, and feels in those final moments. Farquhar imagines numerous things that he is seeing within the time he is falling. The most important thing he saw that gave away that he was really being hung was “a blinding white light blazes all about him." There is a myth that people believe you see the light right before you die. This could have symbolized him entering heaven. Another example of something he saw that represented his death was “the black bodies of the trees formed a straight wall on both sides." The color black symbolizes death, and also the walls the trees formed could represent a coffin. He was being trapped by death and had no way of escaping it. Farquhar's sense of hearing also deceives him. "Tick... Tick... Tick..." was what he heard right before he died. He believed it to be the ticking of his watch, but it was just another hint that he was going to die. This ticking sound could have been his heart slowing down as he was hanging there. One stereotype angels have is they play the harp. Farquhar heard “the wind make in their branches the music of AEolian harps." This example was at the end of his dream. It symbolized the angels welcoming him into heaven while playing their harps. As people are being hung, the
“Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge.” This is the last sentence in the story revealing a shocking twist. "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is a short story emphasizing how alive someone feels right before they die. The main character, Farquhar, is being hung and he dreams he is escaping but in reality all the sensations he is seeing, hearing, and feeling associate with being hung. In "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", we learn that the mind can be very deceiving. The author, Ambrose Bierce, deceives the reader by using imagery to describe what Farquhar sees, hears, and feels in those final moments. Farquhar imagines numerous things that he is seeing within the time he is falling. The most important thing he saw that gave away that he was really being hung was “a blinding white light blazes all about him." There is a myth that people believe you see the light right before you die. This could have symbolized him entering heaven. Another example of something he saw that represented his death was “the black bodies of the trees formed a straight wall on both sides." The color black symbolizes death, and also the walls the trees formed could represent a coffin. He was being trapped by death and had no way of escaping it. Farquhar's sense of hearing also deceives him. "Tick... Tick... Tick..." was what he heard right before he died. He believed it to be the ticking of his watch, but it was just another hint that he was going to die. This ticking sound could have been his heart slowing down as he was hanging there. One stereotype angels have is they play the harp. Farquhar heard “the wind make in their branches the music of AEolian harps." This example was at the end of his dream. It symbolized the angels welcoming him into heaven while playing their harps. As people are being hung, the