An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce exhibits many characteristics of Realism. It is very descriptive, focuses on events that could actually happen in real life, the language is in the vernacular, and the story contains no interjections by the author/narrator. It becomes apparent right from the beginning that this is a realist work because the author describes the scene in enormous detail. Everything from the rank of the officers present to the beams of the bridge are described in the first few paragraphs of the story. The main character is described rather thoroughly as a man with "a straight nose, firm mouth, broad forehead, from which his long, dark hair was combed straight back, falling behind his ears to the collar of his well-fitting frock coat." (Bierce) Many details included in "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" could be considered unnecessary, such as when the author explains the parade rest position of the soldiers. Such a detail only accentuates the formality of the hanging, which could have easily been stated in another way. Through the descriptions, the reader also learns more than they probably ever wanted to learn about the sensation of being hanged. Though not very pleasant to read, it makes the reader empathetic to Peyton Farquhar. It is all the details such as this one that really paint the picture of the story and that make it a Realist work.
The events that are described in "The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" could have actually happened in real life. Sure, In today's world we don't make a habit of hanging people off bridges, but, back in the day,hanging was a common way to execute people. The time is described as during the Civil War. Such an occurrence as was at Owl Creek Bridge would have been very commonplace, especially since the officers were from the Union army and Peyton Farquhar was a true Southern gentlemen in support of the Confederate Army.
According to the article "Realism in American Literature 1860-1890", Realism pieces were written in the "natural vernacular". This means that they were unlike the other literary works of previous times. Realism did not try to sound impressive with fancy words or flowery language. It was just written in the way people of the time would write a letter to their family members. Well, the ones that could write, anyway.
Also according to the article mentioned above, a characteristic of Realism is that there were very few, if any, interruptions of the story by the author or a narrator of some sort. Since there are no such interruptions in "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", this is another reason why this short story is an example of the Realism literary period.
It is overwhelmingly obvious that "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is an example of Realism. It contains an extraordinary amount of detail in its description of an event that could plausibly have happened at one point in time, it uses unpretentious language, and remains uninterrupted by thoughts from the author's point of view, which are all characteristics of Realism.


Bierce, Ambrose. "Fiction: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." Fiction: Welcome to The EServer's Fiction Collection. Web. 17 Jan. 2011. .

Campbell, Donna M. "Realism in American Literature." Washington State University - Pullman, Washington. 21 Mar. 2010. Web. 17 Jan. 2011. .