In Ambrose Bierce's An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is an enticing short story by Ambrose Bierce. Bierce used irony as a literary device to create many moods in this story, such as suspense, that entice a ready to read this story. Bierce is a great writer for using many literary devices that create and convey a sense of suspense. The sense of suspense was greatly transmitted throughout the story by numerous literary devices. Many events and things in this story give the impression of irony, which gives the story the mood of being a suspenseful story. In Payton’s hallucination he fell into the river in which he was about to be hanged above, which was ironic due to the fact that in his mind, he believed he was going to escape a hanging just to drown in the water
One symbol of the story was when the Union soldiers stole Payton’s watch causing the reader to believe that the watch symbolizes the life or time that Payton has left and the soldier taking the watch symbolizing the soldier taking or stealing the time or life away from Payton. This creates suspense by leading the reader to believe that he will be killed in one way or another. The snake that he evades in the river was a symbol and an allusion. The snake symbolized Satan and evil while the snake also alludes to The Bible when Satan came to Adam and Eve in the form of a snake in the Garden of Eden which was evil. This creates suspense because when he swam under the snake it symbolized the evil or death that was looming over him while he was in the middle of his daring escape that was of course not real. The gates in this story open by themselves, which leads the reader to believe that the gates may symbolize the gates of heaven or the gates of hell because the gates open which may lead him to the ”promise land” creating suspense in the sense that he is dead but his illusion is still your reality as a reader. Another literary technique used by the author was the fact that when he was running and running and running he kept feeling a pain in his neck, which can be either foreshadowing in the sense that he may die to the hanging after all while it may also be a symbol through the thought process of the pain in his neck is symbolizing the thought and feel of being hanged. This gives the story a suspenseful feel because if the reader gives detail of neck pain after supposedly escaping a hanging maybe he didn’t actually escape the hanging and all of what you are reading is just and illusion. In addition to the pain in his neck, the bridge on which he is hanged on is also a symbol of the bridge between life and death for he comes to the bridge alive but will most