The Monkey's Paw

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Comprehension Study Guide
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
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Who is the author?

• Ambrose Bierce

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What is Peyton Farquhar's occupation?

• Southern Plantation Owner
• Slave Owner

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Why is he being hanged?
He attempted to destroy the railroad bridge at
Owl Creek.
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3. At what point in the story do you learn this?
The 2nd section provides background information
on Farquhar, including how he came to commit the
act for which he is about to be executed.
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It is revealed that he was at home when a soldier
rode up and told him that the Union Army would
soon be crossing the vulnerable Owl Creek bridge.
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4.  What literary device is used in Part II?
FLASHBACK
Any scene or episode which takes the story back
in time to recount events that happened before.
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5. How does the author build suspense throughout
the story?
Tension-release technique - he gives us strange,
but peaceful and hopeful images and then hits us
with gunfire and pain.
Then, suddenly, Peyton is off swimming or running
again.
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Before increasing the sense of danger and
suspense through gunfire or pain, Bierce takes us
into a state of mysterious calm. Look at the
paragraph that begins, "By nightfall..." There
are mysterious and almost supernatural
descriptions of the forest. Identify and list
the strange or fantastic-sounding passages and
images.
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• the road that seemed untraveled
• no fields bordered it, no dwelling anywhere
• black bodies of the trees terminating on
  the horizon in a point,
  like a diagram in a lesson in perspective
• great golden stars looking unfamiliar grouped in
  strange constellations
• a secret and malign significance
• singular noises
• whispers in an unknown tongue

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Where do all of these mysterious images seem to
suggest Peyton is heading?

• To the next life?
• To the afterlife. It might be wrong to suggest
  "heaven," as the malign significance of the stars
  do not suggest that Peyton will have a happy
  afterlife.

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What horrible images of physical injury come
next?

• pain in his neck
• swollen neck
• black bruise
• congested eyes
• tongue swollen with thirst
• fever

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Bierce takes Peyton the reader back and forth
from the threat of death, to beautiful images of
life, to images of an afterlife, to the physical
reality of pain, and finally almost into the arms
of his wife.
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But in the end, Peyton Farquhar is dead his
body, with a broken neck, swinging gently from
side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek
bridge.
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Why does Bierce end the story with Peyton's
death? Why didn't he take the story in the other
direction and allow him to survive?
Bierce is most likely punishing Peyton as a
symbol of the hypocritical cowardly southern
aristocracy who refused to give up their
excessive wealth the slavery system it depended
upon. Southerners divided a country and ignited
a tragic war which resulted in the deaths of
thousands of innocent young men.
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Note remember that Ambrose Bierce himself fought
in the war on the side of the Union army and was
badly injured in battle. Perhaps in writing this
story "Bitter Bierce," as he came to be known,
sought some sort of retribution against those he
felt were responsible for the American Civil War.
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TAKE A 5 Minute BRAIN BREAK