An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge

4 Pages 947 Words

In "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, Ambrose Bierce tells not only of humanity’s will to survive, but also of the willingness to become greater than, and more powerful than that which is natural. The story is about the hanging of a civilian, Peyton Farquhar, because of his attempt to help the Confederate forces. Before Farquhar was hanged, however, his mind takes him through a heroic escape. Bierce does an excellent job of describing the escape in a dream-like fashion. He shows the mind’s ability to escape reality, and to escape the inevitable.
The first sighting of Farquhar’s supernatural capabilities came after he closed his eyes to think about his family. ''A short distinct, metabolic percussion like the stroke of a blacksmith’s hammer upon the anvil; They hurt his ears like the thrust of a knife… What he heard was the ticking of his watch.'" (Bierce 571). The mind will enhance the senses before death. It will allow aspects of nature to be highlighted and to appear most significant. As in this case, Farquhar was able to hear a pocket watch tick in his pocket. The sound, he thought, was extremely bothersome and was almost overbearing.
Like anyone would do, Farquhar planed his escape at the end of the first section. He thought about freeing his hands, throwing off the noose, and eluding the bullets in order to get home. We can see from Payton Farquhar’s dream that our visions can seem real and life-like when in desperate situations. His journey begins with the “survival” of the fall from the bridge. '"…he swings through unthinkable arcs of oscillation, like vast pendulum, then all at once, with terrible suddenness… The rope had broken and he had fallen into the stream.'" (571).
Farquhar started his escape; he freed his hands in the water and took the noose off from around his neck. Bierce alludes to the dream-like nature of the hero when Farquhar congratulate...