An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
The story An Occurrence at Owl Bridge is about a Civil War solider named Peyton Farquhar. He has been captured by the enemy troops. The story opens by saying “A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, looking down into the swift water twenty feet below. The man’s hands were behind his back, the wrists bound with a cord. A rope closely encircled his neck.” The story starts in a dangerous predicament, a solider is being hanged. This captures your attention, you want to keep reading to see if he escapes.
Peyton Farquhar is a Southern planter. He comes from a rich Alabama family who owns acers of land and many slaves. He is a civilian who supports the Confederacy. …show more content…
Fluid nature of time is show in how the story is told, time moves from present to past, reflects this fluidity as well as the tension that exists among competing notions of time. The second part of the story interrupts what at first appears to be the continuous flow of the execution taking place in the present moment. When he is on the edge of the bridge he closes his eyes, which is a signal of his slipping into his own version of reality. As the ticking of his watch slows and more time elapses between the strokes, Farquhar drifts into a moment that doesn’t seem to end. In the short window of time between the officer stepping off the plank and Farquhar’s actual death, time slows and alters to accommodate a comforting vision of Farquhar’s safe return to his family. Despite Farquhar’s manipulation of time, he cannot escape reality. Whether he lives a few moments or days longer, death ultimately claims him. The theme of blurred lines between reality and illusion come in when Farquhar creates his fantasy world out of desperation. He is minute away from being put to death, and him imaging his escape is a way of regaining control over the facts of his current state. His mind is giving him the escape his body can’t achieve. The theme
The story An Occurrence at Owl Bridge is about a Civil War solider named Peyton Farquhar. He has been captured by the enemy troops. The story opens by saying “A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, looking down into the swift water twenty feet below. The man’s hands were behind his back, the wrists bound with a cord. A rope closely encircled his neck.” The story starts in a dangerous predicament, a solider is being hanged. This captures your attention, you want to keep reading to see if he escapes.
Peyton Farquhar is a Southern planter. He comes from a rich Alabama family who owns acers of land and many slaves. He is a civilian who supports the Confederacy. …show more content…
Fluid nature of time is show in how the story is told, time moves from present to past, reflects this fluidity as well as the tension that exists among competing notions of time. The second part of the story interrupts what at first appears to be the continuous flow of the execution taking place in the present moment. When he is on the edge of the bridge he closes his eyes, which is a signal of his slipping into his own version of reality. As the ticking of his watch slows and more time elapses between the strokes, Farquhar drifts into a moment that doesn’t seem to end. In the short window of time between the officer stepping off the plank and Farquhar’s actual death, time slows and alters to accommodate a comforting vision of Farquhar’s safe return to his family. Despite Farquhar’s manipulation of time, he cannot escape reality. Whether he lives a few moments or days longer, death ultimately claims him. The theme of blurred lines between reality and illusion come in when Farquhar creates his fantasy world out of desperation. He is minute away from being put to death, and him imaging his escape is a way of regaining control over the facts of his current state. His mind is giving him the escape his body can’t achieve. The theme