Foreshadowing In An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge

Ambrose Bierce wrote the short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” Ambrose Bierce’s story takes place during the Civil War. Ambrose Bierce designed this story to be very interesting and to keep the reader’s attention throughout the whole story. Ambrose Bierce writes a suspenseful story about a man named Peyton Farquhar being hanged. Ambrose Bierce uses many different literary techniques to create and maintain suspense in the story. Ambrose Bierce uses foreshadowing to help create suspense throughout the story. Ambrose Bierce writes about how Peyton falls into the dark, cold water, this foreshadows Peyton’s hanging because death is usually dark and cold. Bierce writes about how Peyton’s neck was hurting in the beginning of the story this foreshadows the reader to believe he gets hanged which brings suspense to the story. Bierce also creates suspense by Peyton imagines himself walking through the open gates of his house, the open gates foreshadows Peyton going through the gate …show more content…
In the story Ambrose Bierce said Peyton was running around everywhere to avoid being shot, but while Peyton was supposedly running away he was also supposed to be getting hanged. This is ironic and suspenseful because Ambrose Bierce makes it seem like Peyton was trying to run from is death while he was incapable of running anywhere. Ambrose Bierce made both Peyton Fahrquhar and the soldier that was hanging him both have grey eyes. This is ironic because both Peyton and the murderer were both in the wrong state of mind. Them both having grey eyes creates suspense and irony by showing they might have some similar qualities. Ambrose Bierce made it seem like Peyton was living for a long period of time when he was being hanged, this is ironic because Peyton really only had a matter of seconds before his life was over. The ironic twists Ambrose Bierce applies to the story makes it more suspenseful for the