Hangings In An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge

Hangings are not fun, but in the short story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge we get to look in the mind of a man named Peyton Fahrquar who suffers this gruesome fate. Along with that, Ambrose Bierce used many literacy techniques such as irony, foreshadowing, and shock affect to help the reader visualize what was going through his mind during this terrible event. Irony is an event that the reader expects to happen, but is the quite opposite, usually for a funny or dramatic effect. In An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, Peyton Fahrquar is sentenced to death by hanging by the federal military during the civil war for attempting to burn a bridge they were controlling. In this short story, Fahrquar jumps off of the bridge with the noose around his neck and his hands and feet tied, but he still lives. This is an example of irony because the reader will expect him to die instantaneously, but suddenly it was as if the rope grew longer and he fell into the water. As he ‘escapes’, sharpshooters aim and fire, but not a single round will touch him. At the end of the short story, it explains how Fahrquar runs all night to get to his family, just as
The text talks about Fahrquar jumping from the bridge, the noose around his neck, as he jumps he lands in the water almost as if the rope was too long. Many literary techniques are used in this scene, but the ones that stand out the most are irony and shock effect. Irony is used in this scene by him getting ready to die, but the reader is led to believe that he is still alive, but the reader later finds out that he never escapes his fate; that is where the shock effect comes into play. Shock effect is used in this text by leading the reader to believe that Fahrquar is going to survive, but in the end we come to later find out his fate stays the same. Shock effect is very comparable to irony, but in many ways they are two very different