Ambrose Bierce's An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge

The short story by Ambrose Bierce, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is a story of many different feelings. The story causes the reader to visualize the preciousness of life itself and takes the reader on a roller coaster of different feelings on as to what is going on and in doing so, Bierce’s style tells the story through visual aids and highly descriptive language. The story begins on a railroad bridge, where many northern troops stand with Peyton Farquhar standing on the edge of the bridge on a plank of wood in his last moments of life. Farquhar; being the man he is, was unable to join the military due adverse circumstances. Instead he went on to continue on in a normal lifestyle as a plantation owner, but still heavily supported the southern agenda. Peyton would do anything to to help the south, he was always searching for a golden opportunity to aid in the efforts of the south. The opportunity arises for Farquhar to sabotage the bridge and decides to take that chance in which results in the capture and the events leading up to intro to the story. Ambrose Bierce is an exquisite writer who’s writing prose can be, at times, confusing and open to different forms of interpretation. Bierce uses sentences, for example “Suppose a man--a civilian and
Bierce jumps around in the story and tells different aspects of the time line in separate parts. Part one being where the audience finds out who the story is about, and the circumstances he is currently in. His writing techniques bring part two in as a flashback as to why the events of part one are happening in the first place. The time line flow follows a, Present to Past then back to the Present. This technique gives the reader a much needed answer to all their questions that might have accumulated during part