An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
By Ambrose Bierce
Plot Line
Rising Action: Farquhar is about to be hung. At this point during the story, he is experiencing both internal and external conflict. He is trying to face the reality inside that he is going to dye. On the outside, he has to face the fact that he is about to be killed by his enemy. "He opened his eyes in the darkness and saw above him a gleam of light. 'To be hanged and drowned,' he though, 'That isn't so bad; But I do not wish to be shot. No, I will not be shot; This is not fair." (16)
Climax: The plank from underneath him is pulled and Farquhar begins to fall into the river. He thinks he is dead but he is not. The rope had broken around his neck. "He was conscious of motion. Encompassed in a luminous cloud, of which he was now merely the fiery heart, without material substance, he swung through unthinkable arcs of oscillation, like a vast pendulum." (16) He was alive in the water, suffocated by the bruise left from the rope. But he wasn't dead.
Falling action: He swam as fast as he could, dodging bullets as he swam to shore. He reached the woods and started running home. "Farquhar dived-dives as deeply as he could. The water roared in his ears like the voice of Niagara, yet he heard the dulled thunder of the volley and rising again toward the surface, met shining bits of metal, singularly flattened, oscillating slowly downward." (18)
Resolution: "Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge." (19) His escape was all an illusion and he died right before reaching out to hug his wife.