An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," while it was most definitely a piece of the American Realism era, surprisingly had an unexpected touch of suspended belief for a brief amount of time. I found Fahrquhar's daydream escape rather hard to believe, that he might have his rope break, free his hands, untie his noose, swim to the surface, and avoid a volley of gunfire, then survive the long trip back to his home. Truthfully, the ending did not seem that much of a surprise if you were reading and watching close enough. Even this literary criticism by Abby Werlock agrees with me in saying, "Although some readers protest that Bierce uses this ending to trick them, most agree that, to the contrary, the author includes ample cues for the attentive reader to see that the condemned protagonist, Peyton Fahrquhar, escapes the reality of death only in his imagination." However, this slightly unbelievable tale of escape is one thing that Realism did do, and that is attempt to say, "Is this actually possible?" In all reality, yes, that scenario would be possible, albeit highly improbable. However, it is the possibility of it being real that makes this short story a member of the Realism family tree.

Another aspect that provides the familial link between Realism and "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is the manner in which the story itself was written, that is, the speech. While it has style and does not leave want for entertainment, the speech with which "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is plainer than its Romantic counterparts, which tend to have flair and emotion to top the words. This aspect is rather obvious throughout the story. Instead of embellishment, excepting some portions of the daydream where the exaggeration is meant to indicate something less than real, Bierce makes sure it is clear what is going on and leaves no room for doubt, something Realism writers are notorious for. This practice of not leaving room makes sense, however, since Realism is a counter movement against Romanticism, which often leaves the meaning and details of a literary piece up to the imagination of the reader, leaving the stories sometimes ambiguous. Since Realism is about clarity and reality, it is the opposite of this ambiguity.

Another thing that Realism features that was novel at the beginning of the movement was the idea of tying fictional literature specifically to current events, which is another thing that Ambrose Bierce does. Although the story was written two decades after the Civil War, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" does feature its events in the wartime setting of the South. This setting is important to Realism because the author could have easily come up with a different situation in which to place the main character which could have yielded the same result, but Bierce specifically chose something more recent to his own time period, which is one of the key factors which makes "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" a piece of Realism literature.