An Occurrence at Owl Creek - Essay Example

Hence, with the exemption of past time, time itself is a matter that is not real but is just perceived, with surprising and dramatic effects, to convey a conclusion. This essay will discuss the aspect of time in Ambrose Bierce’s writing, An Occurrence at Owl Creek. An Occurrence at Owl Creek refers to a short story written by Ambrose Bierce, an American author. The tale, set during the Civil war, is identified for its irregular time sequence, as well as a twisting ending (Bierce, 1948). The book is Bierce’s most anthologized writing.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek, according to critics, is a richly devised explanation on the fluid of time during the civil war. The book’s structure, which shifts from the current to the past to what is portrayed to be the anticipated present, mirrors this fluidity along with the tension that which exists between competing notions of time. The second section, in the writing, interrupts what, at first, seems to be the ongoing flow of the execution happening in the present moment. Farquhar, posed on the edge of the bridge, closes his eyes as an indication of slipping into his own edition of reality (Bierce, 1948).

Farquhar’s reality is one that is unburdened by numerous responsibilities to the law of time. As the minutes/ticking of Farquhar’s watch slows and more time elapses between the strokes, he moves into a timeless reality. When Farquhar pictures himself falling into the water, the author compares him to a "vast pendulum" immaterial, as well as spinning madly out of control. At this instance, Farquhar moves into a transitional space, which is neither death nor life, but a ghostly realization in a globe with its own regulations (Bierce, 1948).

In the brief window of time between Farquhar’s actual death time and the officer stepping of the plank, time slows and changes in order to accommodate a comforting view of the subject’s safe return to his family. In spite of Farquhar’s manipulation of time, he however, cannot escape realm. Whether Farquhar days are prolonged or just a few moments, death ultimately claims him (Bierce, 1948). Trying to blend time to his personal will is meaningless. One of the most remarkable elements in the book is Bierce’s sensible rendering of Farquhar’s alternating conception of time.

The author’s suggestion of time is that the nature of time is, to some level, subjective (Bierce, 1948). Time, according to the author, is even more disorienting since it turns out that all of the long accounts, as well as events, which should have taken a lot of time happen within the marvel of a thought, took a short moment in time. Also, some of the themes discussed in Ambrose Bierce’s writing are as discussed earlier the fluid nature of time and the blurred line between illusion and reality.

Some of the significant quotes are discussed below: 1. “As these thoughts, which have here to be set down in words, were flashed into the doomed man’s brain rather than evolved from it the captain nodded to the sergeant. The sergeant stepped aside.” This line appears at the end of the first part of the story, right before Farquhar falls into his death and shows a significant turning point in the story (Bierce, 1948). The execution itself resumes in the third part of the story where Bierce gives details concerning Farquhar’s past.

Following this flashback, in the second part, the writing comes back, not in truth, but in fantasy. 2. “