Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge -Ambrose BierceName______
Section I- p. 481
1. From which point of view does the story in your text begin?
“A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, looking down into the swift water twenty feet below. The man’s hands were behind his back, the wrist bound with a cord…”-page 481
2. p. 481 – gives a description of the scene. What is the scene?
3. To which point of view does the story shift into in the following phrase from the 2ndfull
paragraph on p. 482? ______
“He closed his eyes in order to fix his last thoughts uponhis wife and children…”-page 482
Section II – p. 483
4. What is the setting (time period) of the story? How do you know?
5. What type of “work” does the main character, Peyton Farquhar do?
6. How does Farquhar come to his desperate circumstance?
Section III – p. 484
7. Section III begins with
“Farquhar fell straight downward through the bridge he lost consciousness and as one already dead. From this state he was awakened - ages later it seemed to him – by the pain of a sharp pressure upon his throat.” p. 484
What is probably happening to him?
Then at the bottom of p. 484:
“The power of thought was restored; he knew that the rope had broken and he had fallen into the stream. There was no additional strangulation; the noose about his neck was already suffocating him and kept the water from his lungs.” p. 484
8. p. 484: Two sentences before the end of the top paragraph, Farquhar states,
“To be hanged and drowned, ” he thought, “that is not so bad; but I do not wish to be shot. No; I will not be shot; that is not fair.” p. 484
What point of view are the above lines an example of – there are two different ones?
9.- 10. p. 485: Which details in the second paragraph of section III are revealed through the use of stream of consciousness, a technique in which thoughts are presented as the mind experiences them—in short bursts without obvious logic?
b. What is the sharp pain that sparks Farquhar’s thoughts?
After Reading:
11.Does Bierce seem to have an agenda for either the Union or the Confederate side? In other words, does he seem to “enlist” your views toward one side of the war over the other? OR – is he just illustrating a basic story about war in general? Explain!
12. Point of View – look at the last line of the story (page 489). What point of view is this told from? Explain your thoughts about why you think this is the point of view?
13.What is the theme of this story? Explain what you think this “theme” means.
14. How does Bierce’s story fit into the Realism literary genre?