Blog 4

Blog 4 02-02-10

Differing Perspectives and Changes of Time in Stories

In Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” the point of view changes back and forth from an objective third person view to a more subjective third person view. From the first part of the story to next part of the story, it transitions from purely descriptive to someone narrating the story of another person. The first part is done to set the scene where the beginning of the syuzhet takes place. Assuming that the beginning of the syuzhet takes place in “current time,” it describes the scene at that moment in time. This objective point of view only offers a pure description of everything around the area, so the narrator does not give any insight to what is happening on the inside of a character. However, towards the end of the first part, from what was a completely vague description becomes an increasingly subjective description. It then goes on to describe a man in the midst of all the images.

The second part describes what is happening in that man’s head just before he gets hanged. These are flashbacks to what happened before the scene that was described previously, so this is taking place somewhere in the past. We find out his name is Peyton Farquhar, and that he has a family, and that a soldier told them that no civilians can mess with the railroad. This second part provides the reader with background information on why he is getting hanged, but it does not provide if he actually committed the crime. This subjective form of the third person perspective offers more insight into the character(s) and what they think, but it is limited to only that character (if he is the main character).

The last part of the plot changes back to the “current time,” but it is not purely descriptive anymore. It describes what Peyton is going through. It seems like he escaped the hanging to return home with only mere bruises and pains, but that is only what is still going on in his head. Peyton actually died instead of escaping. This was really surprising because one is led to think that he really escaped. The whole last part of the plot was just a big “story” happening in Peyton’s head just before he died!

I find these alternating changes in time to be interesting because they do happen in the story. The fabula’s rearrangement makes the syuzhet more intriguing because the pacing increases as you get to the end and creates anticipation, whereas if we put the first part in the middle (as it is the middle of the fabula), it’ll die out before we want to read what happens next.