An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge Essay

An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge Analysis "An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce, is a short story with an extraordinary plot twist. The author uses time to manipulate the readers thoughts and perspective. While reading a story, the reader can't distinguish a difference between real reality and perceived reality. The way the sequence of events is presented in this story, makes the reader question Peyton Farquhar's real character based on his thoughts. By allowing the reader to have access to Peyton Farquhar's thoughts prior to his death, the reader is left thinking about time and how it is used in reality, especially in a situation such as Peyton's. The description of the details to the story sets a specific time period for the events that take place. The reader can easily catch on to the historical time line for the story. This story is set in the south, during the civil war. By labeling Peyton Farquhar as a "slave owner," "politician," and 'original secessionist" (Bierce p. 661) the author uses the time period as a method of developing the reader's perception, of not only the …show more content…
The moments leading up to his hanging, is when his reality becomes percieved and inaccurate. Ambrose Bierce clearly expresses the importance of the moments before death. Her reason being is that "time" itself, when employed to correct human experience, seems to become unstipulated at a time when one is suffering emotional disturbance. For example, in reality Peyton only heard the ticking of his watch prior to his death. This makes the reader question just how many ticks on Peyton's watch actually occured during the upcoming