“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge ” Questions

1. In Part 1, Bierce includes few details about the condemned man and does not reveal the reason why he is being hanged. How does this help create suspense? This creates suspense because the reader doesn’t know why the man is being hanged or who he is in the first place. This leaves out the exposition and starts at the inciting incident.

2. In what ways are the condemned man’s perceptions of time and motion distorted as he is waiting to be hanged? Why are his distorted perceptions important? His senses slow down and he is more aware of the surroundings and things that are happening that a regular person would have no chance of realizing. These changes are important because it helps create suspense.

3. What seems to be the narrator’s attitude toward Farquhar in Part II? What is the narrator’s attitude toward war? The author’s attitude of war is that the union during the time was very sneaky and skeptical. The union dressed up as a confederate soldier just to set him up and to get killed. The authors position is anti war.

4. Considering the outcome of the story, what is ironic or surprising about Farquhar’s longing for the “larger life of a soldier?” What is ironic about the fact that Farquhar agrees with the saying that “all is fair in love and war?” He wanted to be a soldier but in the end he was too weak to fight. “All is fair in love and war” this is an ironic statement because he was tricked into killing himself by being setup by the union army.

5. What details in Part III suggests that Farquhar’s journey occurs in his mind? How is the journey connected with the plan of escape that occurs to him moments before he is hanged? His thoughts that occurred are a detailed depiction of the surrounding around him. He thought of his escape but it never happened. He was falling while thinking about his escape which is ironic.

6. Explain whether you think the portrayal of Farquhar’s final thoughts and sensations is realistic. I do not think they are unrealistic because for a man that is about to die I don’t think that the first thing on his mind is looking at the veins of the leaves instead of trying to survive or escape.

7. Point of view refers to the vantage point from which the story is told.  Why is the limited third-person point of view appropriate for this story? How might the story be different if Bierce had used an omniscient third-person narrator? If the story was not told in third person then we wouldn’t know what way it was being told in the story.

8. How does Bierce’s use of flashback contribute to the effectiveness of the story? Bierce’s use of flashbacks contribute to the effectiveness of the story by making the story seem longer when in fact the action is happening over few seconds.