Payton Farquhar In An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge

Everyone has this small voice that is in the back of their mind. This small voice is called your subconscious, which is very powerful. It's a voice that is so powerful that it makes people believe things and do things that they think are real and it is actually just all made up. Just like Payton Farquhar's subconscious in the short story, “ An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” by Ambrose Bierce. Payton Farquhar lets his subconscious take him on a journey throughout his last few minutes as he is still alive on earth. This story connects the power of a humans subconscious with imagery and suspense. The story begins when Payton Farquhar commits a crime and is being hung for his punishment. Bierce gives the reader a strong sense of imagery when …show more content…
The man's hands were behind his back, the wrists bound with a cord. A rope closely encircled his neck.” (Bierce) That also is a foreshadowing element in the beginning of the story, before he actually lets you know that Farquar is being hung. “ A piece of dancing driftwood caught his attention and his eyes follow it down the current. How slowly it appeared to move! What a sluggish stream!” (Bierce) This vivid imagery was what Payton Farquhar saw in last few minutes before the noose supposedly breaks. This example of imagery was also explained by Don Asher Habibi. Another article talks about the amount of imagery that Bierce has in his short story. The article written by Professor Clayton Tarr, who teaches college english and has a PhD in literature. Professor Clayton states his opinion on a certain quote that has vivid imagery in it. “'He felt the ripples upon his face and heard their separate sounds as they struck. He looked at the forest on the bank of the stream, saw the individual trees, the leaves and the veining of each leaf--he saw the very insects upon them: the locusts, the brilliant-bodied flies, the grey spiders stretching their webs from twig to