An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Literary Analysis Essay

Ambrose Bierce, the author of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, was an American short story writer, journalist, and poet. He was an American Civil war veteran and experienced a lot of tragedy. Many of his stories consisted of war and death with many bizarre and ironic twists and turns. These fictional stories reflected the inscrutability of the universe and the absurdity of death. These stories showed many real aspects of the war which caused him to be famous in the 19th century. He believed that war was often overlooked so he added some aspects of horror and dark imagery to expose the cold truth to his audience. Katherine Anne Porter, the author of The Jilting of Granny Weatherall, was an American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist. Her stories became very popular in the early 20th century, and she was recognized to be one of the most important voices in American modernism. She uses forms of symbolism and irony in her writing but uses them in a way to form clarity and make her pieces easier to comprehend. Her fictional stories were shaped by the sorrow of World War I, the Great depression, and World War II. Her short stories became famous because of her themes of betrayal and death- much like some of Ambrose Bierce's stories. 

The story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is divided into three separate sections. In the first section we do not know who the main character is or what he did to get into the dilemma that he is in. The man is standing on a railroad bridge, tied up (around the neck too), about twenty feet above water. Surrounding him are two-armed soldiers, a sergeant, and a captain waiting for the execution. On one side of the bridge there is a forest and on the other is a small fort. The Sergent salutes the captain and they all back away from the man being hung. Before he dangles of the bridge's edge, the man glares at the swirling water beneath him. He closes his eyes, trying to escape the situation that he is in, and remembers his wife and children. Suddenly, he hears a sharp ringing which is oddly distant and close by at the same time. Soon he realized it was his watch ticking. He glanced at the water again and imagined himself in the water, untying the rope, freeing himself, swimming safely to the forest and his home, past the enemy lines. After reading this first section we can infer that he is a spy that has been caught and is soon to be penalized. In the second section, we are taken back into the past and find out that the man's name is Peyton Farquhar. He is the owner of a plantation and very committed to the Southern Clause. However, he is not able to join the Confederate army but wishes to help the South's war effort in some way. One day, Farquhar and his wife were sitting on a bench at the edge of their property and a soldier who appeared to be a part of the Confederate army approached them. His wife went to get the soldier some water and the two of them talked for a while. Farquhar asked about any news of the war and the soldier informed him that the Northern forces had repaired the railroads. The soldier hinted at what he could do to sabotage the North. He told Farquhar that he could set fire to the driftwood that was piled up near the bridge. He also noted that if a civilian was caught messing with the North's efforts, they would be hung. The soldier left after drinking the water that Farquhar's wife had brought to them. The soldier left but rode by an hour later heading in the opposite direction. The soldier was a Northern scout undercover. In the third section we are brought back to the present.