silhouette of a man half submerged in water wiht a noose around his neck

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

by Ambrose Bierce

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Discussion Topic

Point of view shifts in "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge."

Summary:

In "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," the point of view shifts from objective third-person narration to the protagonist Peyton Farquhar's limited third-person perspective, and finally to an omniscient viewpoint. This transition enhances the story's twist ending and immerses readers in Farquhar's psychological experience.

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What point of view is used in part 3 of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"?

Ambrose Bierce utilizes third person limited narration as well as third person objective narration throughout Part Three of the short story. Third person limited point of view is when the narrator only describes the thoughts and feelings of one character, as opposed to an omniscient narrator who describes multiple characters' thoughts and feelings.

Bierce utilizes third person limited narration for the majority of Part Three by describing Peyton Farquhar's thoughts and feelings as he imagines his escape. Peyton's thoughts of terror are described as he struggles to untie his bonds underwater. His sense of pain and fear are vividly depicted as he struggles to swim to the surface. The narrator recalls Peyton's keen sense of vision as he observes life in immaculate detail after rising to the surface of the water. Peyton's inner thoughts are once again narrated as he swims away from the bullets flying in his direction. As Peyton is swimming, he even mentions that the officer will not make the "martinet's error a second time" and command his troops to fire at will. Peyton's perception of the beautiful landscape is described after he reaches the shore and the narrator proceeds to illustrate Peyton's journey home.

The last sentence of the short story is narrated in the third person objective, which is when the narrator only describes what is happening without elaborating on any character's thoughts or feelings. The narrator ends the story by stating that Peyton Farquhar was dead and his body swung gently below the Owl Creek Bridge.

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What point of view is used in part 3 of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"?

In Ambrose Bierce's innovative and intriguing short story, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," there are variations in point of view:

  1. omniscient, in which the narrator knows everything about all the characters and events
  2. objective, in which the narrator simply reports without comment, must as a camera would record a scene
  3. third-person limited, in which the narrator focuses on the thoughts and feelings of a single character.

In Part III of his narrative, Bierce employs two variations of point of view, third-person limited and objective. Throughout most of part III, the third-person limted is used as Bierce's narrator zooms in on the sensations of Peyton Farquhar as he is "conscious of nothing but a feeling of fullness....of torment...of motion."  Interestlngly, it is through this third-person limited point of view that the psychology of Farquhar is explored, rather than through first-person point of view, which is more often used in such circumstances.  Then, it is only in the final paragraph that the realization of the extent to which Farquahr's imagination has contributed to the narrative strikes the reader who is jolted by the use of objective point of view:

Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge.

This effective use of point of view makes Bierce's short story one that serves as a sterling example of the creative manipulation of one of the primary elements of the short story genre.

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Comment on the point of view shifts in "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge."

You are right to identify that Bierce uses narration in a very interesting way in this famous story. For example, in section 3, the point of view shifts to the third-person-limited point of view seconds before the actual death of Peyton Farquhar. This of course is appropriate given the way that this section explores Farquhar's desperate flight of imagination. Such a detached perspective allows the narrator to maintain a realistic stance, even as Farquhar's mind is obviously running away from reality.

You might like to think how the story starts by being written in the omniscient point of view. In addition, the beginning of the story is well known for the way that it presents the opening scene almost as a film might present it:

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 wrists bound with a cord. A rope closely encircled his neck. It was attached toa stout cross-timber above his ead, and the slack fell to the level of his knees. Some loose boards laid upon the sleepers supporting the metals of the railway supplied a footing for him and his executioners--two private soldiers of the Federal army, directed by a sergeant who in civil life may have been a deputy sheriff.

Note the very visual nature of this description and how the scene is set, introducing the main character and providing us with lots of detail. Of course, as the story progresses, as previously noted, the point of view changes as we zoom in on Peyton Farquhar, and his feelings and emotions, combining flashbacks that describe how he managed to arrive in this situation with his own delusory flight of fancy before he dies.

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Comment on the point of view shifts in "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge."

For every section of this story, the point of view is third person limited omniscient. In Part One, we know this because the narrator knows Peyton Fahrquhar's thoughts and feelings but no other character's. In the last few paragraphs of the section, he thinks about his wife and children and he considers what would happen if he found himself suddenly able to escape. We get a sense of the man himself, but this section also gives us some clues about what's going on in his head so that we can understand the final section, once we get there.

In Part Two, still, the narrator knows only Peyton Fahrquhar's thoughts. The narrator tells us that

he chafed under the inglorious restraint [of not being able to serve as a soldier], longing for the release of his energies, the larger life of the soldier, the opportunity for distinction [....].  No service was too humble for him to perform in the aid of the South, no adventure too perilous for him to undertake if consistent with the character of a civilian who was at heart a soldier, and who in good faith and without too much qualification assented to at least a part of the frankly villainous dictum that all is fair in love and war.

Thus, we learn Fahrquhar's motivation in attempting to burn down the Owl Creek Bridge. We need to be able to know his thoughts in order to understand why he did what he did and what it meant to him. Otherwise, it might be very easy for modern readers to dismiss him as some unscrupulous, unrelatable villain. Understanding his wounded pride helps us to see why he would have wanted to make a difference in the war effort (even if we disagree with him).

Part Three is also written from a third person limited omniscient perspective because, literally, almost every single thing that occurs in this section happens in Fahrquhar's mind. Part of the shock at the end of the text is that we actually don't realize that everything is happening in his head until his neck snaps and Fahrquhar hangs dead in the last few sentences.

Thus, all sections are written in third person limited omniscient but for different reasons: to introduce the character, to help us relate to the character, and then to shock us utterly when that character dies suddenly and unexpectedly (even though we probably should have expected it!). 

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What point of view is used in "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"?

In Part One of the short story, Ambrose Bierce uses third-person limited narration to describe the formal setting of the execution, as well as Peyton's thoughts. In third-person limited, the narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of one person. In Part One, Peyton's feelings are described as he panics after hearing the ominous ticking of his watch and contemplates his escape.

In Part Two, the narration switches to third-person omniscient. The background information leading up to Peyton's execution is presented as a soldier informs Peyton about the Union's proclamation concerning the Owl Creek Bridge. However, the reader is told that the soldier speaking to Peyton is actually a Federal scout. This information creates dramatic irony, which is one advantage of using third-person omniscient narration.

The narration switches again to third-person limited in Part Three of the short story. Peyton's thoughts, feelings, and emotions are described in detail as he dreams of his escape. No other character's perspective is provided in the last section, which makes this third-person limited narration.

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What point of view is used in "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"?

The story opens with the 3rd person omniscient point of view.  Its effect is a colder and more emotionless tone to the story.  The narrator knows everything that is happening and is simply presenting the facts to the reader.  There is a guy on a bridge.  There are some soldiers there.  The guy is about to be hanged. 

In part two of the story the narrative point of view shifts from third person omniscient to third person limited.  The story focuses on Peyton Farquhar. Not only Peyton, but also Peyton's thoughts and emotions. The reader doesn't know what the Union soldier is thinking. The reader doesn't know what Peyton's wife is thinking either. What the reader knows is what Peyton does, says, and thinks. This narrative shift causes the reader to be much more sympathetic to Peyton. The reader cares about him and wants to see him succeed. The reader feels that it was a rotten trick to get him on that bridge. The reader shares Peyton's joy as the rope breaks, and his fears as he tries to complete his escape. The reader feels close to Peyton, because he is the only character that we really know anything about. It's a fantastic point of view shift, and the amazing thing is that the reader hardly notices that it has occurred.  

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What point of view is used in "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"?

You have two kinds of narration, first person and third person. In first person, a character in the story is telling it, giving the reader only his/her thoughts and feeling about the other characters and the events. Third person is when you have a narrator who is not a character in the story telling us the story. Third person can be limited or omniscient. Limited third person allows the reader to know the thoughts and feelings of one of the characters. Third person omniscient gives us the thoughts and feelings of more than one character, but not necessarily all of them. It can be as many characters as the author feels is necessary in order for the story to be told.

This celebrated short story is divided into 3 sections, with each one having its own narrative technique. In the first section, it is told from the third person point of view where the narrator is an objective outsider telling the story. It describes the setting of the execution. The second section is third person limited because it gives us some of Farquhar's thoughts and feelings. It provides us with the background information on the events leading up to Farquhar's hanging. The third section starts where the first one ended, back on the bridge when Farquhar falls into the water. Now the viewpoint becomes first person because the reader is told how Farquhar feels as he tries to escape and get back to his home thirty miles away. At the end of the third section, narration switches back to third person, telling us Farquhar is dead.

By switching the narrative technique of each section, Bierce creates confusion in the reader to reflect what the main character is feeling, allowing us to take part in his hallucinations.

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What are the objective viewpoints in "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"?

Bierce begins Part 1 of the story in what is normally referred to as third person objective point of view.  In the first four paragraphs of "Occurrence," the narrator describes Peyton Farquhar (known only as the man on the bridge at this point) with a rather detached, observant tone.  The narrator notes that

"the man who was engaged in being hanged was apparently about thirty-five years of age."

The word "apparently" in the sentence above demonstrates that narrator is not familiar with Farquhar and is simply relating to the reader what he sees.  However, at the end of the fourth paragraph, the story abrubtly changes from a third person objective point of view to a third person limited narrator.  This narrator begins to tell the reader exactly what Peyton is looking at, hearing, focusing on, and eventually what he is thinking.

Later, especially in Part 3, the story again changes to a stream-of-consciousness narration where readers are inside Peyton's mind during his fantasy escape.  And then, finally, the story ends once again in third person objective point of view with its brief last paragraph.

Bierce most likely uses this shifting point of view technique not only to create a the sense of one's life flashing before his eyes, but also to show that if one is willing to look at a situation from several different perspectives, he might have a more realistic idea or objective view of real-life "occurrences."

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How does the point of view change at the end of paragraph 7 in "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"?

Ambrose Bierce uses a variety of points of view within the story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." The story begins with a third person limited point of view. The narration focuses on what is outwardly observable without entering into the minds or thoughts of any of the characters that are described. Thus the motions, positions, and appearance of the captain, the sentinels, the civilian, and the sergeant are described in an objective fashion. Toward the end of the fourth paragraph, the perspective changes, and the narration becomes third person limited omniscient and begins to describe what the civilian, who is about to be hanged, is seeing and even thinking. This perspective holds throughout paragraphs five and six, with paragraph five detailing the man's physical sensations and paragraph six disclosing his thoughts. The last sentence of paragraph seven returns to the detached, objective third person limited narration by reporting matter-of-factly, "The sergeant stepped aside." 

The vacillating points of view that Bierce uses allow him to set up the fantastical action of the story without giving away the twist ending, namely, that the action occurs only in Peyton Farquhar's head. Because he uses a third person limited perspective at times at the beginning of the story, the reader is drawn into the realism of the story and assumes that Farquhar's surprising escape is also real. Tracking the shifts in point of view are helpful in understanding how Bierce is able to pull off his trickery so effectively. 

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