Ambrose Bierce "An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge"

Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” remarkably plays with the illusion of time. As Farquhar stands on the bridge with a noose around his neck, Bierce leads the reader to believe that the rope breaks and that Farquhar falls into the water below, only to escape to his farm, where he is reunited with his wife. However, at the end of the story it is revealed that Farquhar has, in fact, been hanged and that these imaginings took place in the seconds before his death. Bierce gave a very detailed description of what Farquhar had supposedly gone through while getting away from the soldiers. “Farquhar dived-dived as quickly as he could. The water roared in his ears like the voice of Niagara, yet he heard the dulled thunder of the volley and, rising again toward the surface, met shining bits of metal, singularly flattened, oscillating slowly downward” (137). The reader finds that he or she is rooting for Farquhar and wants him to get away.
The remarkable point of Bierce’s writing is being able to stretch out only a couple seconds into a well developed thought process. The reader can picture Farquhar as he finds himself in the water, after the rope supposedly breaks and allows him to have another shot at freedom. It is not until Part III that the reader realizes what was previously described was only Farquhar’s imagination; it was simply wishful thinking on his part. But the reader cannot forget that in reality, it would be more or less impossible for this to take place, since Farquhar would not have enough time to so descriptively think about his get away. From the time Farquhar was falling, to the snapping of his neck and him swaying back and forth from the rope, was not a sufficient amount of time in order for all his thoughts to process through. And for that reason, Bierce’s story is a true fiction masterpiece.