Understanding Ambrose Bierce An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Do Now: Using a plot diagram, outline section II from An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Exposition Rising Action Climax Falling Action Resolution
Objectives Identify key themes throughout the short story with concrete examples
Homework Study for Quiz, Wednesday o Gift of the Magi o An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge o Literary Terms
Understanding the Text Reality Effect the appearance that the fictional object has the same objective depth as a real object Exact positioning of the military Citing geographic and historical references
Understanding the Text Tone: considered to be the author’s way of revealing an attitude Dry, exact, pedantic (minute-by-minute details)
Themes Time can be portrayed and manipulated Bierce is able to distort the readers idea of time by revealing at the end of the story that Peyton imagined his escape in the seconds leading up to his death Time is subjective and phenomenal, especially during times of mental or emotional distress
Themes Death and Dying, the story examines the human desire to escape death and what takes place physically and psychologically Bierce provides a detailed description of what a person could experience at the moment of death Physical realities to imagined scenario o Falling from the bridge, snapping of the neck, swinging on the rope Superhuman perception (senses are heightened) o Saw spiders gliding across the water o Saw the prismatic colors across a million blades of grass o Hear the beating of dragon flies’ wings
Themes Deception (deceive: cause someone to believe something that is not true) Bierce addresses deception on a variety of levels by using a complex narrative structure causing the reader to believe what is impossible and unlikely Farquhar deceives himself into believe it is possible to escape hanging – the reader wanting to believe this is possible (misses clues from the texts that Farquhar is hallucinating) Farquhar allows himself to be tricked by the Union (north) solider posing as a Confederate soldier(south)
Understanding the Text Dreams vs. Reality Dreams are presented as a way with coping with the harsh realities of life Farquhar has a romantic and idealized view of war – when he is confronted, he fantasizes that he escapes The use of vague comments such as “it seemed to him” Absurd dream logic – the noose keeps the water from his lungs and so is protection which ignores the effect of strangulation Unreal nature of passages – the description of his effort to free his wrists should warn us of the unreal nature of this passage o He ceased to be a participant even in his struggle for life; instead, he is an interested observer