Thinking Question: How does time affect the structure of the story in An Occurrence at Owl Creek?

“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is a short story written by Ambrose Bierce in the late 19th century. As a civil war soldier, Bierce is known for accounting the harsh realities of war and the senselessness of warfare through post war short stories effectively. In this suspenseful tale, the theme of time and the unexpected sequence of events imposes a large impact on the narrative. I think that the manipulation of time in this story is not just a stylish art of writing but also essential to how it is understood by readers.

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The story recounts a tale of a man named Peyton Farquhar who is about to be hanged, due to his attempt on sabotaging a railroad bridge. However, the story unfolds in a rather unconventional way with a sharp turn at the ending. In the three sections of the story - the present, past and the period of hallucination, time is used for multiple purposes that help build up suspense and reach the author’s writing intention.

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We start by getting to know the current situations faced by the protagonist. The events are narrated in a very straightforward manner with the use of vivid imagery to describe the surroundings of Farquhar, who is about to get executed. This section is filled with minute details of the setting that appeal to all five of the senses, as well as slowing down time to create tension in the reader.

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The next section is a flashback that gives the readers a brief overview of the character, as well as the reason why he ended up in the unwanted predicament of getting executed. Readers learn that Farquhar is a Confederate sympathizer who has been sentenced to death due to an attempt on sabotaging a Union railroad bridge. Bierce constantly shifts between describing Farquhar’s internal thoughts and his external surroundings. Here time is used to establish the setting, character, atmosphere, and to build up tension for the moment where Farquhar embraces execution.

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The third part of the story is most complex, as Bierce manipulates the sense of time. As Farquhar is about to get hanged, he finds himself falling into the river, swimming downstream and being fortunate enough to escape from the Union soldiers. Eventually, he finds his way back home, just like how he imagined before he was about to get executed. Here time is stretched out to allow Farquhar to experience the events that were in his mind. However, the story comes to a sharp turn at the end where time is used to reveal a dramatic conclusion - Farquhar’s escape was just a hallucination, and in reality he is already dead. Moreover, hours of experience in subjective time were compressed into seconds of real time.

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In “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, the role of time is that each of the three sections is salient in shaping the structure of the story and constructing tension and anticipation in the reader. From providing background information at the beginning, using imagery to build up suspense to delivering a surprising twist at the end, each manipulation of time reached its aim of hooking readers into the sequence of events. It also reaches its purpose of allowing us to understand the themes of this short story, including the brutality of war, contrast between illusion and reality, the perception of time and many more.