“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is a study in narrative structure, with the writer using plot devices such as red herrings and misdirection to explore themes like life and death, the nature of time, and the blurred boundaries between reality and illusion. The story is told in the third-person, switching between an omniscient narrator and the protagonist’s point of view. Divided in three parts, the narrative roughly corresponds to the traditional tripartite story structure of scene-setting (the description of the condemned man on the bridge), exposition (the flashback), and action (the escape). The irony here is that the story’s actual, physical action is complete at the first stage of scene setting itself. What happens in the other two parts is either in the past or inside the protagonist’s mind. By deliberately complicating these divisions, the author poses crucial questions about the way time and reality are perceived.

Bierce uses detailed scene-setting to convey the story’s tense, dramatic, and ominous tones. Since the action takes place in a single, contained setting—Owl Creek Bridge and its surroundings—each sensory description and fine detail is treated meaningfully. Peyton, the doomed protagonist, is given a name, and his suffering described in precise detail , such as the way his hands and neck are tied to the crossbeam above, whereas the soldiers remain nameless and opaque. Thus, the narrative immediately forces the reader to identify with the lone, suffering hero. Further, when the soldiers are described, their movements are mechanical and unthinking. The narrator notes with bleak irony that “in the code of military etiquette silence and fixity are forms of deference.” From the very onset, a binary is established between individual and institution, courage and cruelty. 

However, the story doesn’t lionize Peyton, whose politics contribute to his fate. At one point, the narrator notes that Peyton supports the Confederates, because he is “a slave owner and like other slave owners a politician,” pointing to the intersection of wealth, politics, and slave ownership. Peyton’s actions prior to the hanging paint him as a confused, foolhardy character who acts recklessly for false glory. It is implied that he falls for the Federal scout’s trap, goes off to burn the bridge, and is imprisoned. Peyton’s fate can therefore be read as an indirect indictment of his politics: he supports slavery and war and suffers for it.

Apart from detailed imagery, Bierce also uses symbolism and surrealism to build the atmosphere of his story. One example of symbolism is through the color gray, which is the color of the uniform of the confederate army. Peyton is described as having dark gray eyes. The scout who visits Peyton’s house is “gray-clad” to trick the Farquhars into believing he is a Confederate. Coming up for air in the river, Peyton glimpses gray spiders in the woods. He spots a marksman with a gray eye in the distance, noting that “gray eyes were keenest.” That a Union marksman is associated with the color of the enemy’s army shows the blurring of lines between the opposing camps. Ultimately, the machine of war devours all involved, eliminating their individual characteristics, values, and dreams. Gray becomes a symbol of this inevitable truth. 

Another important symbol is Peyton’s ticking watch. Its growing loudness and slowing beat suggest the enormity of time. Not only is time perceived differently in a time of peril, its march cannot be ignored. Time only moves forwards, which foreshadows Peyton’s inevitable end. Other symbols in the story include the bridge, which symbolizes the crossroads between life and death as well as the historical divide between the Confederate and Union forces. Further, the noose, referenced several times in the story, represents the universal symbol of death but also the inescapable nature of reality. In this, the noose symbolizes a closed circle, a motif which recurs in the story in the form of the whirlpool Farquhar gets briefly caught in, as well as the black mark of the rope around his neck—the “circle of black where the rope had bruised it”—as he lurches through the forest. 

The story also contains elements of surrealism, which are heightened in the last third of the narrative. Once Peyton falls through the railroad ties, his perception is altered. His experiences now begin to follow the logic of dreams. His senses become heightened and populated by sharp, distinct images. It is obvious he has fallen into an imagined reality, yet the story doesn’t disclose his fate until the end. This preserves the note of ominous tension, keeping the reader guessing as to whether Peyton’s perception is altered. The line between clock time, perceived time, dreams and reality dissolve, resulting in a surrealistic sequence that ends with the final, clarifying passage of the story.

Peyton’s end symbolizes a broader end: the life of the southern plantation cannot be sustained, and the Civil War has changed society in an irreversible way. Bierce’s nuanced views on war were no doubt based on his own experiences as a journalist and a veteran of the Civil War. Though Bierce fought for the Union army, his experience of war left him circumspect about taking sides. That is why in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” no one involved in the war is left unscathed, whether it is the Union soldiers, the duplicitous scout, or the Confederate-leaning Peyton. 

The Civil War informs the specific setting of the story, and its politics permeate the proceedings. The story is set in the southern Confederate state of Alabama, and Peyton is described as a wealthy plantation owner. Peyton, like all slaveholders, supports the Confederacy. The text makes specific references to events in the Civil War to highlight Peyton’s state of mind. For instance, Peyton is said to be chafing at the humiliation the confederates suffered in the Battle of Corinth. The historic battle occurred between October 3–4, 1862, ending in the victory of Union forces over Confederate forces in northeastern Mississippi. It is believed around 2,500 Union soldiers and over 4,000 Confederates died in the battle. Peyton wants to avenge this battle, even though he, as an individual, has little to do with it. Thus, he suffers from misguided notions of honor. 

Peyton and his wife live the antebellum plantation lifestyle made possible by the ownership of slaves, which marks them as morally compromised. The corrupt politics of their culture, which is based on the institution slavery, cannot hold. That is arguably why Peyton’s dream of escape is interrupted the moment he returns to the plantation. Though Bierce’s political philosophy is apparently liberal, he doesn’t defend either side. He presents the Civil War as necessary but also destructive, its victory costly like that of any other war.