... above the eddies of the steam , the beating of the dragon flies" wings the strokes of water spiders legs, like oars which had lifted their boat--- all these made audible music. A fish slid a long beneath his eyes and he heard the rush of its body parting the water." The next part of the story is a masterpiece. Bierce does a miraculous job keeping the reader ... about him with a sound like the shock of a cannon ----then all is darkness and silence! Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge." The caus...

• Word Count: 1248
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... exceptions to the liberal military code. While Farquhar is thinking of how he might be able to escape this dangerous predicament, he suddenly falls into the water below and loses consciousness. He is dead. However, his thoughts of escaping continue in his mind: He is shot at from the bridge above him but ... about to hug her, he feels a sudden pain on the back of his neck. He has been shot. Reality resumes as his dead body swings gently beneath the Owl Creek Bridge. Peyton's thoughts while hanging from the Owl Creek Bridge seem quite convincing. He thinks first of his wife and children, ...

• Word Count: 765
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... really swelling from the pressure applied by the rope. He began to walk on the untraveled avenue, which symbolizes the avenue of death, and could no longer feel the ground beneath his feet. It felt as if he were walking on air, which proved to be an indication of hanging. Peyton also notices a very loud, striking sound as he tries to ... that could allow the reader to realize his escape was merely a hallucination was the speed of the water. While on top of the bridge, Farquhar notices how slow the water is moving by the speed of the driftwood. But when he is in the water, he is surprise...

• Word Count: 726
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... a task they wouldn't be able to do in their everyday life. "What splendid effort!-what magnificent, what superhuman strength! Ah, that was a fine endeavor! Bravo!" (1482) Peyton is now under water after falling from the bridge, and struggling to get the ropes off his wrist. He suddenly attains this "superhuman strength" to help free himself. Bierce purposely uses these words to ... eventually killed. Then Bierce throws in a twist with the final two lines of the story. "Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl C...

• Word Count: 750
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... ," time is changed, changed to where the reader does not know if he is alive or dead, hallucinating or truly there. Sitting on his front porch, serving a charitable glass of water to a traveling scout, Peyton asks the question which, inevitably, determines his fate. "Suppose a man- a civilian and student of hanging- should elude the picket post and perhaps get the better of ... of the trees formed a straight wall on both sides," Peyton is rejoined with his present situation. He is dead, "his body with a broken neck, swung gently form side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek Brid...

• Word Count: 476
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School