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Questions and Answers: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

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Questions and Answers: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Khaled Almeshal
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
ENC1012

1.In what ways are the condemned man's perceptions of time and motion distorted as he is waiting to be hanged?
Peyton thinks that everything is moving slowly but the noise by the ticking watch is loud that time is in the forefront of his mind. While waiting for his execution, he stands on the plank for a very short amount of time so he can see his life in a heartbeat. This happens to us for example in a car accident God forbids, when the car is skidding it happens really fast but in our mind it is very slow.
2.What is ironic about the fact that Farquhar agrees with the saying that, "all is fair in love and war?
We can feel the presence of irony in the idea that all is fair in love and war. He is justifying all his actions to support the confederate forces since he couldn’t join them. Farquhar feels that it is fair to try to destroy a bridge to block the progress of the Federal army. However he also thinks it’s fair for him to be hanged as a condemnation for the operation of sabotage.
3.What details in Part III suggest that Farquhar's journey occurs in his mind?
According to me, there are many things that are happening in his imagination. For instance, his ability to see the bullets that hit the water and then are reflected towards him can’t be real. He also sees his own hands as not part of himself. In addition, the actions of the soldiers can’t be real, since it seems so unrealistic that they can fire at him and if they do it will be hard to believe they missed him.
4.Point of view refers to the vantage point from which the story is told. Why is the limited third-person point of view appropriate for this story? How might the story be different if Bierce had used an omniscient third-person narrator?
The limited 3rd person point of view is very useful in this story because it enables us to see the final intentions of a man who is condemned to die and hear it from him and not someone else’s. The
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