Summary Of An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge

The story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce focuses on the theme about the perception of time. The story is about a man, Peyton Farquhar, who is a young plantation owner that is found guilty for trying to burn down the Owl Creek bridge during the Civil War. They are hanging him for his act of rebellion he had planned while trying to help the Confederacy to defeat the Union. As the man realizes how little time he has left, time emerges as a predominate theme in the story. Bierce supports his theme of time with his techniques of imagery, story structure and characterization. The fear of Farquhar had been over taking him to view the reality that he believed, and made it seem like reality. The time seems to pass slow as he is standing on the loosened up planks of wood. The ticking of his watch had began to hurt. As he was standing there he seen a piece of wood drifting down the Owl Creek. He began to fall and imagined that the rope snapped. As he fell he was dreaming that he had been able to escape and he had ended up on a road. He finally began find his way home and as soon as he reached his wife it came back to reality. The reader is forced to come back to reality due to the reasoning the story is told out of order. The reader may become confused from the …show more content…
He is a passionate confederate supporter. He is a well dressed man for getting ready to be executed with large grey eyes. His wife is a dutiful woman who wants nothing more than for him to come home to his kids after his reckless act of sabotage towards the north. The man that catches Farquhar is a northern scout dressed as a confederate soldier. The soldier had planted the seeds to go forward with the tragic set of events for Peyton Farquhar. He had lost all perception on his escape back to his wife as he has also ran out of time. His watch also began to tick louder and at a slower