Characterization

I found the characterization is very lacking in this story. Normally, this would make me upset because I LOVE characterization in stories and books. But I actually think it is better that she kept it out of this story. The lack of characterization. made you look at the details of the story, which is more important to the story. Some stories need good characterization to make the plot line make sense, but it really doesn't matter who Peyton Farquhar is. He is a man who is being hung. His background doesn't matter, all that matters is present day reality. This also helps set the mood and tone of the story. Farquhar lacks emotion,  personality and background. He seems almost void, giving the cynical and dark tone and mood.

Theme

The theme I picked for this story is: No matter how hard you try to hide from your circumstances, reality will always catch up to you. The entire basis of the story is Farquhar's imagination. As he is being hung he imagines that he is escaping. It doesn't matter what he pretends is happening, in the end he is killed anyways. Bierco shows this through imagery. Every time Farquhar is imagining something there is so much imagery and personification, but as soon as reality hits the story goes back to being very dry. "A blinding white light blazes all about him with a sound like a shock of a cannon." This is the last colorful descriptive sentence. The last lines of the story are: "Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently." The ending, back to reality, goes back to being very dry again. Your imagination is very colorful, while reality is much dryer and darker. 

Tone

The tone of the story is similar to the mood. There is a very cynical feel to the way the story is written. The story is in third person so it lacks barely any emotion. In the second section she writes "which is unnecessary to relate here" Giving the story an omniscient narrator. You also aren't aware that Farquhar is a criminal until the second section where it is confirmed through a quite confusing monologue. When I began the story I assumed that he was the good guy. This gave me a weird point of view for the rest of the story. I started out with a different perspective then I ended with and it gave me an eerie feeling because I almost wanted to root for him.

Similar to how the mood was established, the lack of emotion set the tone as well. "The intellectual part of his nature was already effected; he had power only to feel, and feeling was torment." There is only a focus on physical pain, not emotion pain, or any emotion at all. Bierco also uses figurative language to show tone. "He distinctly heard whispers in an unknown tongue." Whispers in an unknown tongue is not necessarily a cynical phrase, but it gives an eerie vibe that helps set the cynical tone.

Mood

The mood I came up with for this story was dark and dry, but it was not boring. The story lacked emotion, but it had a lot of imagery and even some form of personification. The beginning of the story was very descriptive, it lacked literary elements AND rhetorical devices. Whenever Farquhar begins to daydream the story blossoms into imagery such as "dancing driftwood" and "water touched
by gold." During the entirety of the story, any form of nature is very colorful. Farquhar's fear and pain is also highly colorful. There is no other emotion other than fear that is focused on. Farquhar's lack of emotion makes the feeling of the story dark.

Bierco also added elements of personification. "Death is a dignitary who when he comes announced is to be received with formal manifestations of respect." She refers to death as a person, or greater being. I think its interesting that she only refers to death as a greater being and not nature or anything else. Death is obviously a very dark aspect of life to personify. To me it seems like death is being used to foreshadow the ending of the story. Farquhar is sentenced to death and takes it respectfully, although he wishes for a different outcome.

Introduction

When I was looking for short stories to read, I was honestly looking for something dark and sinister. Those kinds of short stories interest me the most. I remember earlier in the year, The Masque of the Red Death was my favorite short story to dissect. I wanted to find two stories similar to that because I knew that I would be able to read them easier if they kept my attention. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierco caught my attention while I was skimming through.


In short, the story is about a man named Peyton Farquhar (which reminds me of Lord Farquaad from shrek) who is being hung at Owl Creek bridge by federal soldiers after the Civil War. The story is in three sections, the first section is present day right before he is about to be hung. He begins to think of his family and daydreams of nature and such. Then section two flashes back to before he was caught, and you learn that he in fact was a criminal, he owned slaves and sided with the Confederate army. In the flashback, a northern soldier in disguise comes to Farquhar's house and begins talking about a possible sabotage at Owl Creek bridge from the south. The soldier says anyone who is involved is to be hung, implying that this is how Farquhar was caught and tried. The last section is back to present day. In a long montage, Farquhar's rope breaks and he plunges into the water and escapes. He travels though the woods all night to get home. When he finally makes it home, he is about to embrace his wife when he feels a sharp blow on his neck and sees a blinding light. In reality, the entire escape montage was all in his head and he was daydreaming all of it. He never left the bridge and was hung and killed right before he imagined finding his wife.