An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
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“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”
Ambrose Bierce weaves a tale of intrigue and captivation, by using shifts of voice and time in the story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”. In the first four paragraphs, Bierce begins the story using third person, and in this point of view, he creates reality. We can view the situation and all aspects while it is written in third person; we know precisely what is going on, we know it is real. Near the end of the fourth paragraph, the author shifts cleverly from third person to limited omniscient. After having us view the story in third person, Bierce transfers from reality, to the main characters thought processes, having us view Peytons thoughts and dreams also as reality. “He looked a moment at his “unsteadfast footing,” then let his gaze wander to the swirling water of the stream racing madly beneath his feet.” (P.67) it is here where Bierce shifts and starts to mislead us, by using Peyton Farquhars thought processes as a filter. It is a clever shift, because in this moment, we are getting closer to the time of Farquhars death, and we have previously read reality.
Time then slows down; the explanation of the phenomenon, of Peyton Farquharss death, is both detailed and plausible, and there is a special trick: “He closed his eyes in order to fix his last thoughts upon his wife and children”(P.67) It is in this sentence that Ambrose Bierce starts to evoke hope in the reader. The author knows that the majority of people view death as morbid; the majority believes that there is often an alternative to death; we often want to think that the result will be a “fairy-tale ending”. Then after evoking hope, the sergeant steps aside, and Peyton plunges to his death, but the author moves back in time, taking the focus away from Peytons death. After the brief description of the past Bierce a transfer back to the future and continues to describe Peytons “escape”. He has taken our mind off of death for long enough.
Bierce does not shift voices again until the last paragraph of the story; meanwhile he weaves the “fairy tale” through Farquhars thoughts. We get caught up in all the drama of Peytons “escape” that we dont tend to notice the aphorisms that have been worked into the text. There are many clever