CHINA, NATIONAL, ARTS, BOOK REVIEW: Author and Readers; Going Beyond the Story
By Ding Xiaoyue (Moonlet)
During the American Civil War, a wealthy plantation owner in Northern Alabama, Peyton Farquhar, was going to be hanged by the Federal army at Owl Creek Bridge because he revealed his sympathies towards the Confederacy in front of a disguised Federal scout. The execution being carried out, Peyton Farquhar did not die immediately. He fell into the water beneath the bridge where he was hanged. Hallucinations occurred in his mind when he was swimming. He visioned that he managed to escape from the Federal soldiers. He swam to the bank and fled to the forest. Having made his way in the forest for a whole day, he finally arrived home, seeing his wife beautifully dressed to meet him at the parlor. Peyton Farquhar was about to clasp his wife, when suddenly all illusions were shattered: he was dead.
This is Ambrose Bierce's short story, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. The narrative of it is not as plain as the story is described. Readers don't realize that they are also deceived by the hallucination until the disclosure at the end.
When I read the story, I found my thought was interestingly changing all the time. From the beginning, I decided that it was going to be a story of escape. Then a weak suspicion crept into my mind because the whole course seemed much too easy and lucky for the prisoner, Peyton Farquhar. Is it possible that a man who is almost half dead and without any aid manages to escape from several sergeants with weapons? After all it does not seem to be a cat-and-mouse thriller written to meet the curiosity of readers. However, gradually I believed the author as he presented me too many details to allow one to believe it is not absolutely true. Finally, as I expected Peyton Farquhar to be arrested in his own house, all illusions broke with his neck. Until then, I realized that I had been deceived.
You can see that during my reading my communication with the story was more important than the plot itself. I was trying to form my own judgment in spite of the author's interference. At first there was a chance that I would win; I lost this separate thinking in the eddies of the stream and the forest, though. Thus, when I read the sentence "Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek Bridge", my first response was, "I got cheated," rather than "Oh, he is dead."
Of course, reading is not a competition between the author and the reader, but there is no doubt that a good story has to make one or more suspensions which holds readers' attention till the end, and for a good story like An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, even that is far from enough. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge catches one's heart. It leaves space for the readers to consider and doubt. As I mentioned above, the reading turns out to be a communication or, for a better word, a conflict between the author and the reader.
If a writer intends to make his story a communication or a conflict, which allows the reader to decide whether he is going to participate or not, a good number of details and plots are always necessary. The readers of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge are able to receive an entire sensory impression: they can see, hear, smell, taste, and feel all that Peyton Farquhar does. In this way, the author succeeds in tricking his readers into believing the whole illusion.
In conclusion, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge has successfully shown us how a psychological game is played between the author and the readers. As the shock goes beyond the pages, I believe it is the very time that the depth of a story actually reaches its peak.
During the American Civil War, a wealthy plantation owner in Northern Alabama, Peyton Farquhar, was going to be hanged by the Federal army at Owl Creek Bridge because he revealed his sympathies towards the Confederacy in front of a disguised Federal scout. The execution being carried out, Peyton Farquhar did not die immediately. He fell into the water beneath the bridge where he was hanged. Hallucinations occurred in his mind when he was swimming. He visioned that he managed to escape from the Federal soldiers. He swam to the bank and fled to the forest. Having made his way in the forest for a whole day, he finally arrived home, seeing his wife beautifully dressed to meet him at the parlor. Peyton Farquhar was about to clasp his wife, when suddenly all illusions were shattered: he was dead.
This is Ambrose Bierce's short story, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. The narrative of it is not as plain as the story is described. Readers don't realize that they are also deceived by the hallucination until the disclosure at the end.
When I read the story, I found my thought was interestingly changing all the time. From the beginning, I decided that it was going to be a story of escape. Then a weak suspicion crept into my mind because the whole course seemed much too easy and lucky for the prisoner, Peyton Farquhar. Is it possible that a man who is almost half dead and without any aid manages to escape from several sergeants with weapons? After all it does not seem to be a cat-and-mouse thriller written to meet the curiosity of readers. However, gradually I believed the author as he presented me too many details to allow one to believe it is not absolutely true. Finally, as I expected Peyton Farquhar to be arrested in his own house, all illusions broke with his neck. Until then, I realized that I had been deceived.
You can see that during my reading my communication with the story was more important than the plot itself. I was trying to form my own judgment in spite of the author's interference. At first there was a chance that I would win; I lost this separate thinking in the eddies of the stream and the forest, though. Thus, when I read the sentence "Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek Bridge", my first response was, "I got cheated," rather than "Oh, he is dead."
Of course, reading is not a competition between the author and the reader, but there is no doubt that a good story has to make one or more suspensions which holds readers' attention till the end, and for a good story like An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, even that is far from enough. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge catches one's heart. It leaves space for the readers to consider and doubt. As I mentioned above, the reading turns out to be a communication or, for a better word, a conflict between the author and the reader.
If a writer intends to make his story a communication or a conflict, which allows the reader to decide whether he is going to participate or not, a good number of details and plots are always necessary. The readers of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge are able to receive an entire sensory impression: they can see, hear, smell, taste, and feel all that Peyton Farquhar does. In this way, the author succeeds in tricking his readers into believing the whole illusion.
In conclusion, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge has successfully shown us how a psychological game is played between the author and the readers. As the shock goes beyond the pages, I believe it is the very time that the depth of a story actually reaches its peak.
2 Comments:
At 8:35 AM , Tower of Babel said...
Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is a great story in many respects. There are no true heroes and the real villain of the story is the war itself, which turned brother against brother.
I'm glad to see Chinese students reading American literature. When people around the world think of American culture, they imagine Coca Cola, McDonald's, Mickey Mouse, or Britney Spears. Our nation is only 400 years old, but we have a rich collection of literature, music, and cuisines that are uniquely American.
I don't know if this book is available in China, but I'd recommend Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. It was an early 20th Century expose of the US meat processing industry and a condemnation of the treatment of immigrant workers. When I read this book again recently, I reflected that not much has changed in the last 100 years. Meat processing plants are still dirty and dangerous places that exploit illegal immigrant labor. China also has issues with food safety and fair treatment of migrant labor, so this American story may resonate with Chinese readers. The author, Upton Sinclair, was a Socialist.
At 8:50 AM , Tower of Babel said...
I think you misunderstood the ending. Peyton Faquar was not shot to death. He died of a broken neck after being hanged from the Owl Creek Bridge. The rope breaking, his falling into the water, swimming, running through the forest - he imagined it all while he was dying. The very last sentence of the story reads something like "Peyton Faquar was dead. His body swung from a rope under the Owl Creek Bridge.
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