Analysis of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce is about a middle-aged man named Peyton Farquhar who is punished for his attempt to destroy the Owl Creek Bridge. The short story gives readers a glimpse into the thoughts running through Peyton's delusional head directly before his death and dramatizes a flashback of scenes leading up to the tragic event. Bierce does an outstanding job with his descriptions of scenery and builds up of suspense …

…is not much dialogue involved in the story, but the little there is does not contain a dialect different than the narrator's. The vocabulary was fairly easy to follow along with aside from some of the military terms. Some readers may have been confused on the setting if they do not know historical facts and years of war times. Other than that, the story is clear and concise. It is not by any means incomprehensible.