Journal for Bierce (extra credit)
English 48B
March 17,2011
“Objects were represented by their colors only; circular horizontal streaks of color-that was all he saw. He has been caught in a vortex and was being whirled on with a velocity of advance and gyration that made him giddy and sick” (page 365).
“The human limitations . . . that lead the reader to misread "Owl Creek Bridge" are the same as those that lead Farquhar to believe the rope has broken or that, more abstractly, lead him to Owl Creek Bridge in the first place.” (Quote by Cathy N. Davidson on Ambrose Bierce’s official website).
An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge is a narrative that explains every detail of the mind of Farquhar. He is being executed when suddenly the noose of his rope breaks and he falls into the rushing river below. He dodges the bullets of the soldiers shooting from the bridge and runs through the woods all the way back home to his wife. As she comes to the front of the house to greet him, he awakens (or rather the reader is awakened) to the sad reality that his escape was not real. It was merely an imagination that took place in the few split seconds from when he was hanged to when he dies (and is seen as hanging from a noose below Owl Creek Bridge).
The most notable theme of this short story is the blurred line between illusion and reality. Bierce pulls the audience in because of his use of such descriptive language. When Farquhar falls into the water, Bierce describes the light above the characters eyes so meticulously that the reader cannot help but believe him! “He opened his eyes in the darkness and saw above him a gleam of light” (363). Bierce pulls us in so close because he reveals the most inner emotions of Farquhar in a way the makes the reader feel like they are experiencing it all as well! In the process we fail to notice the small details that prove it’s all an illusion. For instance, the first time I read the story I didn’t notice any of the small things, but after reading the story again (and knowing the fatal ending), my eyes focused on the words that highlighted the notion that it was all a fantasy. “Objects were represented by their color only” (365) writes Bierce. At first I just thought that maybe Farquhar was not completely awake after swimming through rushing rapids and dodging bullets, but then I realized that the “objects” that were represented by “color only” were in fact pigments of Farquhar’s imagination. It was all a made up escape hatched by the few seconds of strong emotion before his death!
This was actually one of my favorite stories of the quarter because it honestly made me feel like I was right there with the protagonist. I could feel everything that Bierce was writing, and when the verdict was delivered in the abrupt, short closing lines, I too felt like I had been yanked from my seat and strung from a rope. My mind was tricked as much as Farquhar was at Owl Creek Bridge.
