Linguistic and Narrative Cohesion in An Occurrence at Owl...

Linguistic and Narrative Cohesion in An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge The readers bewilderment at the end of Ambrose Bierces An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is less a result of Peyton Farquhars death than the timely coordination of this mans violent execution with the readers sudden realization that instead of a detached objective reading he has been cajoled into a subjective experience (Ames 53). The reader is able to cross over into the consciousness of the protagonist at the moment when experience ends because of the storys cohesion and coherence. A focused examination of specific passages and themes in each of the storys sections demonstrates how Bierce satisfies the expectations of the reader and provides a†¦show more content†¦Because the readers linguistic and thematic expectations are being met, the desire to make the dream a reality is strong and the reader becomes so immersed in the story that he forgets that content is a function of technique. As a consequence, the account in the third segment seems reasonable, even though it is p resented by an unreliable narrator. The reader is conditioned from the start as the narrator offers concrete, matter-of-fact details that are logically constructed yet do not record connected actions. These sentences contain known-new contracts that build the readers perception of the setting and interest in the antecedent action: A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, looking down into the swift water twenty feet below. The mans hands were behind his back, the wrists bound with a cord. A rope closely encircled his neck. It was attached to a stout cross-timber above his head and the slack fell to the level of his knees (Charters, Introduction 74). In the first sentence the reader is made acquainted to a man standing on a bridge looking down at the water below him. This subject is related to the subject of the second sentence, The mans hands, which is in a known-new contract with the predicate were behind his back. A parallel structure within the