An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge Foreshadowing Essay

Ambrose Bierce, in his short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” uses the literary technique of foreshadowing in a variety of ways; that may or may not be easily noticed by the reader. Upon the first reading of “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” the death of the main character may come as an abrupt shock to readers. This is normal because attention to some finer elements of foreshadowing may have been overlooked in the reading of the selection. Multiple creative means are used to foreshadow the ending of this short story. One example of the foreshadowing used is the abnormally high perception of the protagonist, referenced in the line from the story “...saw the individual trees, the leaves and the veining of each leat-saw the very insects upon them: the locusts, the brilliant-bodied flies, the gray spiders stretching their webs from twig to twig” (Bierce 485). This absurd level of perception is inhumanly false and would never happen under any circumstances. It can be inferred that Peyton Farquhar, the protagonist is so afflicted by the sadness and stress that his brain is going on a venture to sooth him. The level of fear (manifested in his mind as a very vivid dream) foreshadows something very …show more content…
This is spoken of in the lines “... a sound which he could neither ignore nor understand, a sharp, distinct, metallic percussion like the stroke of a blacksmith’s hammer upon the anvil…” and “... the sounds increased in strength and sharpness. They hurt his ear like the thrust of a knife; he feared he would shriek. What he heard was the ticking of his watch” (Bierce 482-483). The drastic, imagined change of time shows yet again that there is something quite serious going to happen. Again, Farquhar’s perception is severely altered; to the point he is hearing a small geared mechanism as if it were a roaring piece of heavy industrial