"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and Other Civil War Stories Literary Elements

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and Other Civil War Stories Literary Elements

Genre

Short story, historical fiction

Setting and Context

The events in the story take place in Alabama during the Civil War.

Narrator and Point of View

Third-person narration with interfering first-person narration.

Tone and Mood

In the story prevails an optimistic, heroic tone, sometimes sorrowful but still full of hope.

Protagonist and Antagonist

The protagonists of the story is Peyton Farquhar, a slave owner who was sentenced to death by hanging; the antagonists are soldiers of the Federal army, his executioners.

Major Conflict

The major conflict resides in the contradiction between anti-slavery movements on the North and slavery traditions on the South.

Climax

The climax happens when the protagonist falls into the river (at this moment he dies and everything that comes after this is just his illusion, which happened in a millisecond of his falling down).

Foreshadowing

N/A

Understatement

In the story, the role of money and power is understated.

Allusions

The story alludes to historical events during the period of the Civil War.

Imagery

N/A

Paradox

N/A

Parallelism

The story has parallels with social stereotypes, prejudices, and other social movements and ideas relevant to its historical time.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

The author uses metonymy and synecdoche to reinforce the importance of the utterance in its social context: “Contraband of war”, “the position known as “support””.

Personification

The author uses personification for nature descriptions: “The other bank of the stream was open ground—a gentle slope topped with a stockade of vertical tree trunks, loopholed for rifles”.

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