Boekverslag Engels An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

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5 april 2022
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Factual information about the book

Title: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

Author: Ambrose Bierce

First publisher: The San Francisco Examiner

Published in: 1890

Genre: short story, realism, historical fiction, adventure, stream of consciousness

The summary

Part 1

The story starts off with Peyton Farquhar, the protagonist of the story and plantation owner, standing on a railroad bridge. He is being prepared for execution by hanging. There are six military men and a group of infantry men present to guard the bridge. Peyton thinks of his wife and children at home, but gets distracted by the sound of loud ticking, which turns out to be the ticking of his watch. He imagines freeing his hands, jumping of the bridge and swimming to safety, back to his family. However, he is dropped before he can carry out his plan.

Part 2

In a flashback, Peyton and his wife are at home when a soldier rides up, asking for some water. While his wife is getting the water, Peyton, a supporter of the Confederacy, asks the soldier if he has any news, to which the soldier responds that he has. The Union Troops have gotten their hands on the Owl Creek Bridge and are repairing it. The soldier says that this can easily be sabotaged by burning the driftwood that had piled up near the bridge, but that any civilian that attempts to sabotage the mission will get hanged. It is revealed that the soldier is secretly a Union Scout, leading Peyton into a trap.

Part 3

The story returns to the present, where Peyton is dropped from the railroad bridge. He feels pain running through his body, and he is awakened by a loud splash. He realises that the noose has broken, since he fell into the water. He is afraid that he will be shot when he is spotted in the water, so he quickly frees his hands and takes a breath of air. He begins swimming downstream to avoid the bullets. He gets out of the river once his executioners are out of sight, beginning his long journey home. He walks through a seemingly never-ending forest, and experiences strange hallucinations, such as hearing whispering voices in an unknown language. However, the thought of his family keeps him going. The next morning, he arrives at the gates of his plantation. He sees his wife and rushes to greet her, but he then feels a sharp pain on the back of his neck. There is a loud noise, white light, and then, darkness and silence. It is revealed that he never escaped at all, but that he imagined it all while he was falling. Peyton is dead, hanging from the Owl Creek bridge.

Characters

Peyton Farquhar (round character): Peyton Farquhar is the protagonist of the story. In part I, he remains unidentified, and the reader gets to know him and his backstory in part II. It becomes clear that he is not a likely candidate for execution, since he comes from a privileged family and is a successful plantation (and slave) owner.

He is a Confederacy supporter, but unknown circumstances made him unable to join the confederate army. Not being able to serve made him desperate to contribute to the cause in other ways, which led him into the trap of the soldier. Not only was attempting to set the railroad on fire inconsiderate to his family, he was also very unprepared.

What the reader sees here is that there is a big difference between his actual character and the way he sees himself. This is also seen in chapter III, where he thinks he can escape and get back to his family, but is successfully hanged instead.

Farquhar’s wife (flat character): Farquhar’s wife is written from the stereotypical feminine ideal of that time. She is beautiful, obedient and disposable. Her name and character are unknown, with her only physical appearance being when she fetches water for the soldier. Her main purpose in the story is providing comfort to Peyton.

Time

This story covers a very small time period, excluding the flashback and the hallucinations; less than an hour. However, the hallucinations take up around a day. The story is not written in chronological order, since it makes use of one flashback. Time delay and acceleration is also used, such as that the part where he is getting ready to be hanged is much more elaborated than the part where he is walking through a forest for a day.

Romantic themes

The story is written in 1890, twenty-five years after the Civil War, during Romanticism. Civil War was a very important event in this time period, so in order to understand the story, it is important to know the historical context.

The Civil War and the Confederacy. While the story is written after the Civil War, it does take place during the American Civil War. The American Civil War was a war in the United States from 1861 to 1865. The war resulted from decades of tensions between northern and southern states over slavery, states' rights and westward expansion.
It was the last straw when Abraham Lincoln, a member of the anti-slavery Republican party, became president. Many Southern states did not want to be part of the United States any longer and began forming a new country called the Confederate States of America, also called the Confederacy. The northern states that were loyal to the USA government and Abraham Lincoln were often called ‘The Union’. Abraham Lincoln did not think the Southern states had the right to leave the United States, and sent in troops to force the states to re-join the Union.

Now, what does this have to do with our story? The protagonist of ‘An occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, Peyton Farquhar, a supporter of the Confederacy, since he is a slave owner himself and they have made him quite wealthy. He was unable to join the Confederate army to fight against the United States, which made him desperate to help in other ways. So, when a Union scout disguised as Confederate soldier tells Peyton that Union troops has repaired the Owl Creek railroad bridge, Peyton wonders what he can do. When he learns that the repair could be easily boycotted by setting the driftwood near the bridge on fire, he attempts to do it. He is such a supporter of the Confederacy that he does anything to help them, even if that means putting his life on the line.

This story was written shortly after the Romantic era, which is why it captures the transition of the styles, containing both romantic and realistic themes.

In “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” the central character Peyton Farquhar functions as a symbol of romanticism. He is an idealistic man with a romantic view of war. However, the way Farquhar is described in the story is very realistic, and his romantic manners are often made ironic by the narrator.
The story is far-fetched (romanticism), while still being believable (realism). In the beginning, a realistic setting is created by describing military rituals and conduct with correct terminology, as well as precisely describing what is needed to hang Peyton. Without this kind of realistic setting, it would be less surprising to the reader when they find out Peyton imagined his escape.
‘An occurrence at Owl Creek bridge’ is also a Realistic work because of how it does not attempt to romanticize the war and death. Ambroise Pierce, along with other realistic writers, showed horrifically detailed portrayals of violence and death.
The writing style of the story could still be considered Romantic because of how detailed and varietal it is.

Space & place

The story takes place in northern Alabama. The most important place is the Owl Creek bridge, as said in the title. It is the railroad bridge where Peyton was hanged, and allegedly escaped from. When Peyton ‘escapes’, he ends up in a self-invented forest. A wide railroad ran right through it, but it was not used; there was no indication that anyone lived nearby. During the travel, Peyton began seeing strange constellations in the sky, and heard whispering in a language unknown to him.

After a night of walking, another scene is introduced, one the reader has already seen in the flashback of part II: Peyton’s house and the plantation. It has large gates and he and his wife often sit on the rustic bench near the entrance of their house.

Writing style

The writing style of ‘An occurrence at the Owl Creek bridge’ is quite descriptive. The writer takes a lot of time describing the scene where a certain situation takes place, such as when Peyton is being prepared to be hanged. Mostly long sentences are used with complex words.

Many statements throughout the story are also ambiguous, they are open to interpretation. While many details and facts are mentioned throughout the story, some poetic descriptions and metaphors are also used.

“Keen, poignant agonies seemed to shoot from his neck downward through every fiber of his body and limbs. These pains appeared to flash along well-defined lines of ramification and to beat with an inconceivably rapid periodicity. They seemed like streams of pulsating fire heating him to an intolerable temperature. As to his head, he was conscious of nothing but a feeling of fullness – of congestion.”

Perspective

The story uses third-person-perspective. The narrator shows the situations objectively, such as when he goes into great detail about the scene of the hanging of Peyton. However, the narrator also shows what Peyton thinks and feels, while not revealing the thought patterns of anyone else. In some sense, the narrator could be considered unreliable, however, the narrator does know that the protagonist is dreaming the whole time. He just does not mention it until the end to get some kind of reaction from the reader; he only foreshadows Peyton’s death. Peyton is the only one that is unreliable, since he thinks what he is experiencing is real.

Theme

The theme of the story is the blurred line between reality and illusion. This story would have been less interesting if it only described the parts where Peyton got hanged. By blurring the lines between reality and illusion,

Abstract motifs are:

Confinement and freedom. The tension between confinement and freedom is a constant theme throughout the story. Peyton goes from being imprisoned, to being free, to being imprisoned again. The story starts off with him being confined, since he is waiting to die by being hanged, without any way to escape. Then, he does allegedly escape, breaking free and returning to his family. However, the story ends with him being confined again, since his escape was made up.
One of the main characteristics of the story is the fluid nature of time. Both real time and perceived time is used in the story; the beginning and end uses real time, but the escape uses perceived time. This is because the protagonist imagined the escape in the few seconds he was in the air, while the escape itself lasted over a day.
Life and death. The struggle between life and death is highlighted in the story. The protagonist does not want to die, which is why he thinks about escaping and eventually imagines his escape. He does not want to die, and does not accept his death. He has his family to live for.
Although Peyton did not serve in the army, he was another victim of the war. That is because he did participate in the war by supporting the Confederacy and wanting to boycott the plans of the Union. Peyton would not have been dead if the Civil War did not happen.

The story has the following leitmotif:

The bridge. A bridge symbolizes transition and connection. While it is not clear why the Union repaired the Owl Creek bridge, it can be presumed that the Confederacy destroyed the bridge in order to prevent the Union from accessing their land. They did not want connection; they wanted to separate themselves from the United States. It is also possible to view the bridge as a symbol for the transition from life to death.
Owls have dual symbolism; they are a symbol of wisdom, but also a symbol for the mystical and supernatural. Now, Farquhar ends up on the bridge because of his foolish plan to burn the bridge. While falling, he imagines a world full of mystical things; he suddenly gets transported to shore, and he keeps hearing voices and seeing strange constellations.
The colour grey. The colour grey appears throughout the story. It symbolises the vague colour lines between friends and enemies, and symbolises the clouded sense of reality at the end of the story. Gray indicates the Confederacy, which made a soldier dressed in gray seem like a Confederate soldier. He however was a Union scout, the enemy of the Confederacy. Farquhar’s hallucinations started under a grey, gloomy sky, and even though he is in the water, he can see that the eyes of his prosecutor is grey.

The title of the story is ‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge’. This refers to the hanging of Peyton Farquhar, which takes place on the Owl Creek Bridge. The title is an understatement, since it is obviously more than just an occurrence. It purposely undermines the profoundness of the subject matter of the story.

Author

Ambroise Pierce an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and Civil War veteran. He was born in 1842 in Ohio, where he received limited education. He became a printer’s apprentice at early age instead. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Bierce joined the Indiana infantry unit; he was a Union soldier. He remained in the Union army during the entire Civil War. He left the army in 1866 and started working at the United States Mint. He started writing short stories and articles for various magazines and newspapers. He was an editor for the News Letter for four years, and then he moved to Europe.

Bierce returned to California in 1877 and became an associate editor for the Argonaut. He was hired as a writer for the San Francisco Examiner in that same year. His primary task was to write short stories for the paper, but he was also good at reporting. During this time, he wrote ‘An occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge’. However, this was not his most popular work, his most popular works throughout his lifetime were Nuggets and Dust Panned Out in California, Cobwebs From an Empty Skull, The Devil's Dictionary, and Tales of Soldiers and Civilians.

Ambroise Pierce became unhappy with his life in the United States in 1913, and being interested in the Mexican Revolution, he moved to Mexico. He joined Pancho Villa’s army as an observer. However, after moving to Mexico, he disappeared without a trace. His disappearance was one of the most famous in American literary history, and there are many theories about his death, but none have been confirmed.

Opinion

I liked this story because it had a compelling topic and it was easy to read. However, I did have a few issues with it. I firstly found it hard to sympathize with the main character. This was mainly because of the way he was introduced; as an unknown civilian. I got to know him a bit better in the next section of the story, but it felt a little forced. It also made me learn that he was a slave owner and supporter of the Confederacy, which made it even harder for me to emphasize with him. While it was a shock that he imagined his escape, his death felt inevitable to me. I was not surprised by the ending and I did not feel sorry for him.