American Literature

Ambrose Bierce wrote An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge in 1886 and had it published in 1890, around three decades after he served as a soldier in the Civil War and fought in the front lines. His experience as a soldier serves as the major influence in this short story. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is famous for an irregular time sequence and a shockingly twisted ending. This paper seeks to prove that Bierces technique and this trick he employs at the end of the story is fair, or in a sense, nothing but a proof of his literary genius.

ESSENTIALS OF THE STORY
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge has three parts. The first starts with the preparations that the Union Army has made for the execution of the 35-year-old Peyton Fahrquhar. The second part explains why this well-to-do planter was sentenced to death. He was deliberately tricked by a Unionist soldier who was disguised as a Confederate by successfully coaxing him into burning and thereby sabotaging the newly-fixed railroads by the Union Army. Thus, although it was not exactly mentioned, Peyton was caught and was summarily sentenced to death by hanging. The third part of the story goes back to the present. It starts with a series of vague physical sensations which tells the readers that Peyton knew that the rope had broken and he had fallen into the stream (Bierce, 1988). His escape is followed by a mysterious survival from the bullets and cannon shots as he makes his way through the river until he reached the river bank. This was further followed by an exhausting trip through the forest, a dark deserted road, and finally to his home where as he is about to embrace his wife, Peyton suddenly snaps out and everything goes back to the reality that in fact he is dead and that he just imagined the whole third part of the story. This is the trick that some people believe is one way Bierce treats his readers unfairly. However, I personally believe that this trick is but fair in that at several points in the story, Bierce has already signaled the shocking conclusions of Peytons death.

PROOFS OF THE FAIRNESS OF BIERCES TRICK
Foreshadowing is the technique used by Bierce in leading the readers to think that every event that unfolds in the story would still somehow lead to Peytons death. Foreshadowing is most evident in the physical environment that Peyton experienced during the whole of part three, as well as some events in the first and second parts, a few symbolisms and one particular line in part two.

In the first part, there are a few statements that lead us to this conclusion. While he was still tied at the bridge, he noticed a piece of driftwood floating in the water and how slowly it appeared to move What a sluggish stream (Bierce, 1988).  This is the first sign that time will somehow stand still for the remainder of the events in part three. He also heard the ticking of his watch like the stroke of a blacksmiths hammer upon the anvil and the intervals of silence grew progressively longer (Bierce, 1988). All these are Bierces signals that time will freeze for the forthcoming events. The first part of the story ends with Peyton telling himself, if I could free my handsI might throw off the noose and spring into the stream (Bierce, 1988).

The second part of the story is a flashback and this flashback itself is full of foreshadowing techniques. First of all, the horseman who asked Peyton for a drink of water is actually a Union soldier who is just disguised as a Confederate. His unsolicited information on the death penalty imposed by the Union Army as well as his comments on the dryness and combustibility of the driftwood all lead us to think that Peyton will go for the trick and will consequently be punished by hanging. But perhaps one line that somehow predicts Peytons punishment is his own question for the soldier Suppose a man  a civilian and student of hanging  shouldget the better of the sentinel The mention of hanging here is, I believe, very significant.

The third part is the part where all the foreshadowing has been maximized. The first line tells us exactly what this part is all about As Peyton Fahrquhar fell straight downward through the bridge he lost consciousness and was as one already dead (Bierce, 1988). This is followed by a series of strange physical experiences where it was mentioned that Peyton swung through unthinkable arcs of oscillation like a vast pendulum (Bierce, 1988), which is the perfect symbol of either a dead man hanging by the neck or the swinging pendulum of a clock as an indicator of the distortion of time.
The remainder of the whole third part prior to Peytons death is all fictitious in nature and there are several indications of this in the events that follow after his falling into the stream the magnification of the small animals crawling on the trees, the amplification of the sounds and the feel of the water, the clear high-pitched voice in a monotonous singsong, his whirling round and round like a top, his heightened sense of smell, the seemingly interminable forest, and the untraveled city street with black bodies of trees. The gloom towards the end of the story speaks of a chilling, impending death.
Peytons confusing yet hair-raising experience is furthered when he looked up into the night sky and saw great golden stars unfamiliar and grouped in strange constellations and that he saw a secret and malign insignificance in their order (Bierce, 1988). Also, the wood on either side were full of singular noiseswhispers in an unknown tongue (Bierce, 1988). It is clear at this point that Peyton is already in a realm of reality which is unknown to him  maybe a figurative path to the world of the dead or just some sort of purgatory.

Right before the story concludes, Peyton finds himself standing at the gate of his own home (Bierce, 1988), which is not logical at all as he was on a dark road before this  something which leads us more to the suspicion that everything that happened in part three so far has not been real. Peyton sees his wife  perhaps the last remaining piece of his humanity before death  and as he springs forward with extended arms to embrace her, all is darkness and silence (Bierce, 1988). Bierces trick ends. Peyton is finally dead. Everything from the preparations to the river to the forest to the road and to his house was just An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. None of us has left the bridge after all.

The trick employed by Bierce in An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is actually not a trick at all. It is justly and extensively foreshadowed by the various events of the story that finally lead to Peyton Fahrquhars death. The various events that signal the end of the story are characterized by a certain kind of vagueness, mystery, illogic, an unusually intense clarity, and horror. This is perhaps the trail of death that each man walks before he finally meets death. And maybe just like in An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, our deaths are not a surprise. There will always be a foreshadowing.