Final answer:
In Ambrose Bierce's “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” Peyton Farquhar is hanged by Union soldiers and experiences a flashback and hallucination before his death. The manipulation of time highlights the story’s theme of the blurred lines between reality and illusion.
Step-by-step explanation:
In “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce, major events revolve around the central character, Peyton Farquhar, who is subjected to execution by hanging from the Owl Creek bridge by Union soldiers for attempting to interfere with the railroad. As he awaits execution, the story takes a dramatic turn and employs a flashback as a plot device. During the flashback, we learn how Farquhar was tricked by a Union scout posing as a Confederate sympathizer into attempting to sabotage the Union army efforts, leading to his capture. The narrative then returns to the present, portraying Farquhar's dramatic escape as he falls into the water, which is later revealed to be an imagined sequence during the final moments of his life. The story concludes with the revelation that Farquhar never actually escaped; instead, he died from the hanging, his body swinging beneath the Owl Creek bridge.
The references to time in the story play a significant role in emphasizing the surreal and subjective nature of Farquhar's final moments. The distortion of time represents the character's desperate psychological state and heightens the story's suspense and surprise ending. The blending of reality and illusion showcases Bierce's mastery in manipulating narrative structure and challenges the reader's perception of time and reality.