An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge

The plot and structure of "An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge" really draws the

reader in. As the story starts out it puts you right there in the middle of

everything.The begining of the story starts out with Peyton Farquhar standing on a

platform that is hanging off the railroad bridge. Due to an incident he was involved in

he has a noose around his neck and is about to be hung by northern soldiers. There is

some symbolism in this. The bridge is actually a symbol for a crossing between life and

death.
As the soldiers are preparing to kick the stand which is holding him up,

Farquhar starts to think about his family. Then he starts to have a flashback about the

incident that got him here. A couple nights before a southern soldier (so he thought)

stopped at his house to get water. He also told Farquhar about the northern troops

trying to rebuild the railroad for another attack. Then Farquhar started asking him what

would happen if he went and sabotaged the railroad. The soldier tells him that he would

be hanged by the northern army. After the soldier leaves, we find out that he is a

northern spy.
Then the story cuts back to Farquhar in his final moments. The northern troops

kick out the platform from beneath Farquhar. But then he breaks the rope from the bridge

and falls into the water below. He starts to swim away and escape. The troops shoot at

him but they miss. Farquhar dives underwater and swims for his life. All the while

Peyton is talking to himself and telling himself what he should do to avoid getting

shot. Then Farquhar finally reaches land. He goes up on shore and walks to his family’s

house. He goes home and sees his beautiful wife and his kids.
In the end, the last lines of the story are a big plot twist. It turns out this

whole “I escaped” thing never even happened. It was all his imagination while he was

hanging from the noose. Using his last moments of life he imagines his escape. Farquhar

dies at the end, by hanging off the Owl Creek Bridge. By writing the story in this order, Bierce blows Freytag's pyramid out of the water.