An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

The first paragraph to me seems chronologically correct, it opens the reader up to a situation; a man is on a bridge soon to be hanged for military crimes. There is a lot of description of the bridge and the people taking part in this setting, also the thoughts of this unknown character, as they may be the last thoughts he ever has. He has a final thought about how he can be freed and be brought to his wife and kids, but we are not sure yet if he accomplishes this.

The second paragraph gives the reader background on a southern man who we can only assume is the man on the bridge that will be hanged in the near future. This paragraph is the first thing that happens in time, as there is foresight to the first paragraph. As Farquhar asks whom he seems to think a southern soldier, but is really a federal scout, about a stockade made by the north, built on the Owl Creek Bridge. The soldier warns that tampering with the stockade by any civilian will result in being hanged. Therefore, obviously Farquhar had tampered with the stockade because in paragraph 1, he is being hanged.

Finally in the last paragraph which takes place after the second, then the first. There are a lot of aspects of p.o.v. In this paragraph of the story because Farquhar’s thoughts run like mad throughout it, but it is still third person. Throughout the paragraph Farquhar is experiencing one final effort to escape from the rope’s grasp and swim in the river to his safety. Despite how elaborate and, “realistic” though, it was all planned out in his head as the last sentence tells us Farquhar never made it past that bridge. I thought the transition was pretty interesting in this paragraph, it went from the opening of this scene, to background as to why the person was about to be hanged, and transitions back to the man actually dying, but having the thoughts of an elaborate and heroic escape. All in all the methods used in telling this story made it very entertaining and made more sense other than putting the story in chronological order of the events taking place in their respected times (paragraph 2 first, then 1, then 3).