An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

Ambrose Bierce has an interesting way of writing his story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. He separates the story into three different sections, each with a different point of view and knowledge. The first section is very vague, and in the third person point of view. But as it goes on, towards the end of the section, the narrator gets into the head of the man being hanged. He knows what he sees, hears and thinks. The transition between the two point of views is very drastic and confusing, only separated by a space between two paragraphs, there is no warning. This change is somewhat disorienting to the reader but very intriguing because you wonder how he all of a sudden accumulated this knowledge!

The second section of the story gives you some background on the man being hanged. You see a bit into the man’s life, and how he got into the situation of being hanged. To me as a reader, this is very helpful; the whole time I was reading the first section of the man being hanged, I was wondering what he did to get there. You don’t get any incite into the minds of any of the characters, but you do hear their conversation. This part of the story occurs before the hanging, and in my mind should be put in the first section. A possibility for why Bierce put the sections in this order is to draw the reader in more and get their attention, which definitely worked.

In the third section, you know exactly what is going on with the main character. You know his thoughts and everything that is happening with him. This is very helpful to readers because you get very into his actions, and can’t wait to read on and find out the outcome. This point of view is also difficult for some readers because you have no clue what is going outside of the character’s experience. You aren’t sure where the people are that are chasing him and when he is going to get caught. Things from this section are mixed up chronologically. Some things happen before the first section and the last paragraph is the very end of the story, along with the man’s life.