Symbolism In An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge

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In "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce the reader is transported to Alabama during the civil war. The reader is told the struggles of a man trying to sabotage the union and contribute to the war efforts, however things take a turn for the worse. Bierce uses symbolism, flashback and foreshadowing to convey that the brain distorts the seemingly steady nature of time. The theme of time distortion is emphasized by the symbolism used throughout the passage. The railroad bridge is used as a symbol for transition. When Farquhar hears about the bridge repairs he senses the soon transition in power from the confederacy to the union, so he plans to destroy the bridge. Another transition the bridge provides in the passage is the transition from life to death. Throughout the entire story Peyton Farquhar is getting hanged, but by the end of the passage, the sentence is completed "Peyton Farquhar was dead" (Mays 605). The bridge represents the transition from innocent civilian to saboteur and from life to death. Another symbol used in Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is the water. The flowing water represents the change from reality to imagination. The water is "racing madly" (Mays 600) in the real world, but once Farquhar's brain starts distorting time and reality the water is described as …show more content…
Bierce uses flashback to show how stable Peyton Farquhar's mind was before he was convicted of sabotage and sentenced to be hung. Part II of the story is one big flashback to the decisions Farquhar made to get him in the position of execution. For example, when Farquhar is setting up his plan to sabotage the union soldiers on the other side of the bridge he asks "Is there no force on this side of the creek?" (Mays 601) to ensure that his plan to burn the bridge goes as smoothly as possible. Little did Farquhar know that this set of decisions would alter nit only his life but the lives of his family
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