It is human nature for a person to occasionally daydream or get lost in thought. This can be especially true when you find yourself in an unfavorable situation. Ambrose Bierce plays the protagonist, Peyton Farquhar, as he deals with this relatable experience but on a more serious matter, death. In "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", Ambrose Bierce uses euphemisms, mirroring real life and a dream state, and unrealistic and suspenseful details to demonstrate that people use hallucinations to escape the reality of their lives because hallucinations a sometimes they are better than reality. .Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayBierce obfuscates the plot with subtle hints and euphemisms. The title, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” suggests that a hanging is just one “event,” but that is not the case. Hanging is a serious situation because they took a man's life, which is irreversible. The title symbolizes that, regardless of the era, death is mostly ignored as if it were a normal “event”. Peyton Farquhar's reality isn't important to those around him, so he begins to daydream and move out of his reality faster. Furthermore, when Bierce writes “death is a dignitary,” he obfuscates the meaning of death itself. To compare death to a dignitary is to say that death is of great importance and respect, and this is how the sentries, the deputy sheriff, and the captain treat the situation. Bierce takes issue with the fact that many people don't see death for what it really is and can be seen in the story because officials see Peyton Farquhar's death as an event and not the killing of a soul. Bierce wants the reader to interpret that people are still being killed in both cases. The author also uses the hallucination itself to show how reality is slowly trying to reveal itself. When Bierce says, “one got stuck between the collar and the neck; it was uncomfortably hot and he ripped it off” refers to the noose around Peyton Farquhar's neck that is just as uncomfortable in real life as it is in the dream. Farquhar is in such a deep state of subconsciousness that he can't get out of it, but why would he want to actually face his reality? His dream state is currently much more inviting than his reality, so he remains in his illusion until he dies. Any rational person would agree to remain in an adventurous dream, such as the one Farquhar experienced, rather than consciously suffer and suffocate. Literary critic F.J. Logan stated that “we readers are faced with a series of uncertainties that communicate the limitations of the narrator.” Logan states that Bierce's extraordinary diction through the narrator overshadows the final explosion at the end. Bierce's concise execution of euphemisms protects the reader and Farquhar from the "happening" of death, the meaning of death, the limitations of the narrator, and the efficacy of hallucination. Ambrose Bierce also uses literary devices to show the mirroring between Farquhar's reality and his disappointment. First, Bierce uses subtle imagery such as “swinging through unthinkable arcs of swing, like a vast pendulum.” Through great diction and narration, Bierce uses imagery to describe Farquhar having a feeling of suspension in his dream, while in reality he has just been hanged and is literally swinging back and forth like a pendulum. Peyton Farquhar's brain is protecting her body from the trauma of hanging. In most of human nature, the brain of aindividual is unable to handle the trauma that comes with reality, sending most people into comas, hallucinations, or unconsciousness. Furthermore, Bierce portrays Farquhar as a character who cannot find a balance between his reality and hallucinations when he sees "a dancing piece of wood" that he was aware of and which "caught his attention and his eyes followed it ".Farquhar's internal struggle to find balance is counterbalanced by his dreams because he has a wild imagination and you can see this even when he decides that he will tamper with the bridge so that he can go down in history as a "war hero". All of Farquhar's imaginations seem to go well, but Farquhar clearly doesn't think them all out perfectly because he never escapes the noose and never becomes a war hero. Dreams can also cause people to do things they don't usually do and can be distracting, which has an unexplored concept that dreams have some negative connotations. To emphasize that Farquhar's reality mirrors his fantasy, Bierce uses Peyton Farquhar's final thoughts to literally mirror or imitate his dream state. While Farquhar is still alive, he thinks, "if I could free my hands... I could free myself from the noose and leap into the steam." He also fixates his last thought about his wife which is related to the dream as he almost enters the "light" and sees his wife before dying. Ambrose Bierce uses this technique to provide clues foreshadowing the final outcome of the story. Bierce also used this technique as a euphemism so as not to confuse but distract the reader from the actual development of the story. In comparison, literary expert Roy Morris Jr. stated: "He certainly used other personal experiences in writing the story: the real Owl Creek, which borders the Shiloh battlefield... corresponds exactly to the time of the story" . Bierce uses his own knowledge of the battle to provide a detailed plot and mimic his personal experience in the tale. The fact that the moment of battle is related to the moment of the story compares and mirrors the reality of Bierce and the fiction of the story through a real life and dream state conception. Bierce could most likely be referring to writing this tale as a way to escape his harsh reality in some sense. Ambrose Bierce uses unrealistic or suspenseful details to convey the overlying theme of how Farquhar perceives and reacts to his reality and hallucinations. For example, Farquhar can see his surroundings in great detail while hallucinating in the quote: “He felt the ripples on his face…he looked at the forest on the bank of the stream, saw the individual trees, the leaves and the veins of each leaf.” This detail is so unrealistic and unachievable that it practically screams that Peyton Farquhar is clearly not in reality. Bierce's narration once again proves to draw the reader's attention away from the appearance hallucinatory. Having unrealistic senses tends to occur in most dreams that may relate to the motif of the story. Furthermore, Bierce uses a subtle and partly unrecognizable tone to suggest that because Peyton Farquhar is a southern secessionist, this would justify at first glance. his death to the reader. Bierce uses an overly sarcastic tone when he states that “Peyton Farquhar was a well-to-do planter, from an old and highly respected Alabama family.” Bierce, Farquhar's death was a tragedy, especially for what he did that cost him his life, but his ideas of becoming a Southern hero fueled his decision which he knew would result in death. Despite having the ideals and dreams of being a Civil War hero, Farquhar's disappointments were too much.