An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Quiz

A short period of rest or relief from something difficult or unpleasant.

Aware or having knowledge of something.

Impossible to subdue or defeat.

Having a very eager approach to an activity, often relating to eating or reading.

Having a harmful effect, especially in a gradual or subtle way.

In a state of low spirits, feeling hopeless or dejected.

A structure used for executing prisoners by hanging.

Aware or having knowledge of something.

Having a harmful effect, especially in a gradual or subtle way.

A short period of rest or relief from something difficult or unpleasant.

Having a very eager approach to an activity, often relating to eating or reading.

A structure used for executing prisoners by hanging.

In a state of low spirits, feeling hopeless or dejected.

Impossible to subdue or defeat.

Having a very eager approach to an activity, often relating to eating or reading.

Aware or having knowledge of something.

A short period of rest or relief from something difficult or unpleasant.

Having a harmful effect, especially in a gradual or subtle way.

In a state of low spirits, feeling hopeless or dejected.

Impossible to subdue or defeat.

A structure used for executing prisoners by hanging.

Impossible to subdue or defeat.

Having a harmful effect, especially in a gradual or subtle way.

A structure used for executing prisoners by hanging.

Having a very eager approach to an activity, often relating to eating or reading.

A short period of rest or relief from something difficult or unpleasant.

In a state of low spirits, feeling hopeless or dejected.

Aware or having knowledge of something.

Having a very eager approach to an activity, often relating to eating or reading.

In a state of low spirits, feeling hopeless or dejected.

Aware or having knowledge of something.

Having a harmful effect, especially in a gradual or subtle way.

A short period of rest or relief from something difficult or unpleasant.

Impossible to subdue or defeat.

A structure used for executing prisoners by hanging.

Having a harmful effect, especially in a gradual or subtle way.

A structure used for executing prisoners by hanging.

In a state of low spirits, feeling hopeless or dejected.

A short period of rest or relief from something difficult or unpleasant.

Aware or having knowledge of something.

Impossible to subdue or defeat.

Having a very eager approach to an activity, often relating to eating or reading.

A short period of rest or relief from something difficult or unpleasant.

Having a harmful effect, especially in a gradual or subtle way.

Having a very eager approach to an activity, often relating to eating or reading.

Impossible to subdue or defeat.

A structure used for executing prisoners by hanging.

Aware or having knowledge of something.

In a state of low spirits, feeling hopeless or dejected.

Peyton Farquhar was a well to do planter, of an old and highly respected Alabama family."

"A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, looking down into the water twenty feet below."

"The man who was engaged in being hanged was apparently about thirty-five years of age."

"As Peyton Farquhar fell straight downward through the bridge he lost consciousness and was as one already dead."

He believes that if he imagines the situation in detail, he can achieve his goal of escaping; he makes a plan.

Farquhar experiences a series of death-related symptoms after being hung, one symptom including hallucinations where he imagines an alternate version of his situation.

He has an underlying mental disease that previously prevented him from joining the Confederate Army.

Farquhar does not imagine his escape. He does escape and end the end, he is shot by the soldiers from the bridge.

Bierce causes the timeline to jump around, allowing readers to purposely be confused as it messes with readers' feelings about the situation Farquhar experiences.

Bierce expresses the way Farquhar experiences his hanging, including each feeling and thought with detail and precision. This includes the way he recalls memories that lead to his hanging, even though circumstances may not always be logical or be in chronological order.

Bierce writes the story in chronological order which shows how each moment of the story connects to one another.

Bierce writes the story in chronological order which does not allow the reader to lose the "stream" or "flow" of the story's progression.

At the end of the story whenever the narrator states, "Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge."

When Farquhar falls into the water, a marksman, who is supposedly extremely skilled in his abilities to shoot precisely, misses Farquhar. Farquhar exclaims, "The officer...will not make that martinet's error a second time." This causes readers to consider how Farquhar could be shot and killed the second time the marksman shoots.

Bierce cuts to a flashback of what Peyton did to be hanged right after the sergeant stepped off the platform to let Farquhar fall to his death. At this time, Bierce does not say whether Farquhar gets hung or manages to escape.

At the end of the flashback, Bierce explains how the supposed "Confederate" soldier was a Federal scout. Readers are concerned about what this Union spy will tell his officers and what the consequences will be for someone who commits the crime of tampering with the Owl Creek Bridge.

"...[H]is body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge."

"As these thoughts, which have here to be set down into words, were flashed into the doomed man's brain..."

"He was now in full possession of his physical senses. They were, indeed, preternaturally keen and alert."

"As Peyton Farquhar fell straight downward through the bridge he lost consciousness and was as one already dead. From this state, he was awakened--."