The Power of the Mind in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”

Ambrose Bierce’s short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is a unique tale due to the fact that large portions of it occur inside the mind of the protagonist, Peyton Farquhar. The story thus conveys the power of the mind to distort or completely alter reality. Farquhar is hanged and his mind protects itself against the harsh reality that he is about to die. This detachment from reality is a phenomenon Bierce explores in-depth in this short story.

Bierce is relating the ability of the mind to alter reality to fit within acceptable terms. Farquhar is facing certain death and yet his mind imagines his escape in extraordinary detail. In order to fully establish this idea however, the reader needs to be sympathetic towards Farquhar. Bierce establishes Farquhar through his inclusion of subtle details. First, there are the details of the scene just before Farquhar is hanged. Bierce includes how Farquhar is tied, how the platform is situated, the rank of his executioners and how the guards are positioned. Bierce describes the bridge, the railroad the forest and the stream in fantastic detail (173). The drawn out, stagnant description of this moment in time creates a solemn, somber feeling and establishes its severity.

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Once he establishes Farquhar as a character who does not deserve his fate he is able to show the lengths the mind will go to in order to deny that fate. In this way, the occurrence becomes the hanging of Farquhar, but his escape from the clutches of death. Not only does his mind imagine an elaborate chain of events, but it does so in great detail. The literal length of each of the three segments is inversely proportional to the amount of time elapsed in each. From the moment the story begins it is being distorted for this cause.

Once the reader becomes sympathetic with Farquhar, he is subject to the distortions and exaggerations of Farquhar’s mind. In this way the reader begins to sympathize with Farquhar’s perilous predicament. Bierce includes details about his age, his dress and his appearance. He detaches the mind from its reality and allows it to create its own preferred reality in vivid detail. Bierce refers to Farquhar as not being a “vulgar assassin” but a gentleman (174). The length of each of the three segments is a function not of time but of Farquhar’s internal thoughts. Although only the amount of time it takes for the sergeant to step aside has elapsed (Bierce 174), the segment is double the length of the second, hour long segment.

Bierce’s use of detail, exaggeration, and distortion clearly illustrates how powerful the mind can be in intense situations. Next, there is the description of Farquhar himself. This is a result of Bierce including portions of Farquhar’s thoughts; these thoughts are not subject to the trappings of time.

Approximate Word count = 1115
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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