An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge - Assignment Example

y Literature 29 May An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Short store by A. Bierce An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is a third person narrative. This type of narrative is generally perceived as objective and trustworthy. By choosing such point of view the writer creates the world that does not depend on the opinion or evaluation of the author. The narrator does not distort reality using the power of his imagination. In the story the narrator is a dispassionate witness observing destiny in action.

However, describing certain scenes the narrator seems to be hesitating and failing to understand what is happening. It is evident in the use of words such as “may”, “probably”, “perhaps”. The writer describes the setting in details to create the effect of “presence” and appeal to the readers’ imagination in order to convince them that the universe of the short story is real: “Beyond one of the sentinels nobody was in sight; the railroad ran straight away into a forest for a hundred yards, then, curving, was lost to view.

Doubtless there was an outpost farther along. The other bank of the stream was open ground--a gentle acclivity topped with a stockade of vertical tree trunks, loopholed for rifles, with a single embrasure through which protruded the muzzle of a brass cannon commanding the bridge. Midway of the slope between the bridge and fort were the spectators--a single company of infantry in line, at "parade rest," the butts of the rifles on the ground, the barrels inclining slightly backward against the right shoulder, the hands crossed upon the stock”.

The narrator shows little emotion in order to make the readers feel that the situation cannot be changed, that the course of events if predefined and the character would not escape his fate. There are two conflicts in the story. The first one is a literal conflict between Peyton Farquhar and the Federal Army. As a farmer, he was “longing for the release of his energies, the larger life of the soldier, the opportunity for distinction. That opportunity, he felt, would come, as it comes to all in war time”.

He is talked by the Federal scout into planning to burn the bridge. The conflicts feeds on the destructive instinct that lay dormant in Farquhar. As soon as the farmer saw an opportunity to take part in the war, the mechanism of destiny was set in motion and the death of the protagonist became inevitable. Even though Farquhar knew about the order to punish the deeds he was planning by death, he became too excited by the chance to show his real quality and was no longer cautious. The literal conflict led to the farmer’s arrest and his standing on the Owl Creek Bridge awaiting execution.

The symbolic conflict in the story is the conflict between life and death. The character is unable to accept the imminent death so he tries to subdue the thoughts about the execution, control it using aesthetic illusion. The symbolic conflict becomes the basis for the structure of the short story. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge has double denouement that corresponds to the protagonist’s view of the situation because his approach to the execution is both rational and irrational. The symbolic conflict was created by the writer to show the readers physiological experience of a dying person.

In this view, time and consciousness play a crucial role. Unable to stand the waiting for the execution Farquhar dreams of new possibilities in life because his consciousness refuses to contemplate the unbearable truth. In several minutes that pass between the farmer’s life and death he elaborates a convincing and detailed story of his successful escape. At first the reader is inclined to believe that Farquhar managed to trick death itself. However, certain details such as large number of events that follow each other in a short span of time make readers start to doubt the story of miraculous escape.

The illusion created in the farmer’s consciousness is gradually undermined. First, the fantasy gives an account of distorted by the physical pain of dying “His neck was in pain and lifting his hand to it found it horribly swollen. He knew that it had a circle of black where the rope had bruised it. His eyes felt congested; he could no longer close them. His tongue was swollen with thirst; he relieved its fever by thrusting it forward from between his teeth into the cold air”. Then the protagonist gives account of seeing wonderful garden “He dug his fingers into the sand, threw it over himself in handfuls and audibly blessed it.

It looked like diamonds, rubies, emeralds; he could think of nothing beautiful which it did not resemble. The trees upon the bank were giant garden plants; he noted a definite order in their arrangement, inhaled the fragrance of their blooms”. Then his consciousness starts to give way, there are times of blackout, lapses, the story grows inconsistent. And in the end the protagonist opens his eyes into the darkness, i.e. dies. The story suggests that trauma affects physical state of human beings while perception grows more acute and senses are sharpened.

Several seconds before his death the protagonist still is able to think quite coherently and logically.The story suggests that war appeals to the universal human instinct, the need for fight, desire to take part in the struggle. That is why the farmer is not content with his insignificant role in the big war. However, as soon as the instinct of destruction awakens, the person becomes doomed. In this view the protagonist’s fate is inescapable and inevitable.