An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

A man is about to be executed by army officers. The man that is about to be executed is a civilian (probably a planter). Before he is executed the man thinks about his wife and children and how he might be able to escape.

Peyton Farquhar is a southern slave owner with Confederate sympathies, but is unable to enlist in the Confederate Army although he really wants to fight. A Confederate soldier stops by Farquhar’s house one day for water and tells him about the Union Army at Owl Creek Bridge and how they are rebuilding the railroads. The Union Army threatens to hang anyone who interferes with its progress.

Farquhar and the soldier covertly discuss how the bridge might be taken down. The Confederate soldier turns out to be a Union spy. The rope breaks and Farquhar falls into the stream. He gets the rope off of his wrists and takes the noose from around his neck.

He swims to the surface and finds that his senses seem very acute. The soldiers begin to shoot at him. Farquhar begins to swim with the current and gets caught in a whirlpool which throws him onto the bank. He makes it back home to his wife, but as he is about to embrace her, the reader learns that the entire escape was a fantasy and Farquhar dies.

Point of View Is the perspective or vantage point from which a story is told. Omniscient POV – the narrator is an observer of all that happens. Third-Person Limited POV – readers’ information is limited to what a single characters thinks, feels, and observes.

Stream of Consciousness Reports thoughts and ideas the way the human mind experiences them – in short bursts, without full sentences, and often without clear or logical connections.

“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” Creates a compelling depiction of the Civil War hanging of a Southern planter who has attempted (and failed at) an act of sabotage. Setting – a railroad bridge in Northern Alabama during the Civil War Characters - Peyton Farquhar, a Southern plantation owner; Mrs. Farquhar, his wife; Union Soldiers; Union Scout

Characters Peyton Farquhar: Southern plantation owner who is to be hanged by Union soldiers as punishment for his attempt (or suspected attempt) to destroy Owl Creek Bridge.  Mrs. Farquhar: Farquhar's wife. Union Soldiers: They include executioners, sentinels, and overseeing officers on the bridge Union Scout: Soldier who wears Confederate gray when he rides onto Farquhar's plantation (in a flashback) and asks for a drink of water. He puts the idea of burning down the Owl Creek Bridge in his mind.

Visions vs. Reality “Occurrence” plays games with vision and reality, on two levels The apparent Confederate soldier is in fact a “Federal [Union] scout” Farquhar’s apparent escape is only imaginary The confusion is not only Farquhar’s but the reader’s as well

Structure of the Story Section I: Present; Realism: Military Ritual of Hanging; hint of subjectivity/fantasy Section II: Flashback; Realism/Satire: Framing of Peyton Farquhar by Union spy Section III: PresentFuture; Fantasy; ends realistically in present

Conclusion “Occurrence” is a psychological study of consciousness and its struggle against death Like the other stories in this section, it portrays a man lost in a journey beyond the home, trying to regain his place Like “Rip Van Winkle,” there is a political dimension: here the Civil War Southern Plantation life portrayed as fantasy

Theme In "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," there is no glory or romance in war; it is a brutal exercise in which human lives have no value and death becomes merely an “occurrence.” Reality destroys illusions, and during a war, illusions are deadly. Under martial law, punishment is swift, efficient, and pitiless, carried out with cold military precision.

Theme The formal conventions of warfare attempt to imbue death with dignity, but they do not mitigate its horror. At the moment of death, the fear of dying and the will to live distort reality, providing a psychological escape from the pain of the inevitable.