The opening of the story “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is related in third person objective. I believe this is to give a sort of overview of the situation without having any bias. It does something interesting in this because readers naturally look for the protagonist and want to be on someone’s “side” in a story. However for at least the first two paragraphs they are unable to do this. Around the third paragraph the narration starts shifting slightly to be more subjective. As it describes the man who is about to be hanged in more detail, giving the reader a feeling of familiarity with this character above all the others.
By part two of the story the narrator seems to have shifted to a more omniscient stance and stays this way through most of the story. This allows the narrator to describe each unique emotion and twinge of pain that Peyton Farquhar is feeling after being hung and falling into the water and trying to escape. The interesting thing is that the reader is being asked to sympathize with a man who clearly knew the consequences of his actions and is in favor of slavery, as is revealed in part two. Yet, it is hard to avoid being on his side and wanting him to escape.
The author is able to do a lot with this poem through its chronology. It is not told in proper order which increases the mystery and intrigue, such as in television shows when there are flash backs to reveal some important detail that wasn’t previously known. The author is also able to manipulate the reader into thinking that Peyton Farquhar has escaped, so it comes as a great surprise to the reader when the last line takes them back to the bridge where Peyton is dead and had imagined his whole escape.
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