Good Example Of Essay On An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge

The story in question written by Ambrose Bierce is one of those extraordinary masterpieces of literature which never allow to forget them. It wakes up our feelings and emotions presenting its bright character and raising thoughts to think over. It shows the setting during the Civil War when people were protesting and struggling for freedom and against slavery.
The most interesting and the most thrilling element of the story is its twisting and rapidly changing plot. The short story itself has a very bright and organized structure and consists of 3 parts which reflect different time period in the life of Peyton Farquhar. The process of execution of the main character is interrupted by its prehistory and the reasons which led to this severe punishment. However, it is still not clear what for exactly this man was condemned to death. Whatever he did, we symphasize him and support him and pull for him as he is a freedom fighter, alone under the gun of military regime and on the verge of his death. It is an important writer’s trick that in the end of the first part of the story we already know what is going to happen, but we all wonder what will be the next, if the condemned man will escape capital punishment or not. Then after a slight lyrical regression, the character is still alive and finds the way to avoid his execution. At this particular moment it resembles something more like an adventurous story. Later on we observe some blurred sequence of action as Peyton looks like losing consciousness and appears in one place and then in another. As a result, he is back to reality and dead. This retrospective twist of plot development contributes a lot to the originality of the short story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and keeps the readers on the back of their seats. Another essential technique used by the writer is here and there detailed descriptions with simple words and plain language which properly reflect the writer’s intent and emphasize particular moments of the plot.
Consequently, Ambrose Bierce bases his short story on the range of remarkable and mostly deathly symbols which support his point of view and his profound interest in the concept of death. First of all, symbolic meaning is traced already in the title of the story in question. As it is known, an owl symbolizes death, night, cold and passivity. It already causes some negative connotations and from the first seconds of reading we expect something unpleasant, bad, evil to be happening in the story. The greatest symbol of the story is the very bridge. It symbolizes the transition from one world into another or from one state into another. The other striking example of symbolic meaning is hidden in the Peyton Farquhar’s watch. It is a very ordinary thing, but in death agonies it makes a considerable influence on him ticking and symbolizing the approaching end of his lifetime. All symbols are interrelated into a complex symbolic structure and have a deep symbolic sense which makes this short story meaningful and exciting.