What theme does the motif of water support throughout "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"? The water represents deception, and s
upports the idea that Farquhar has tricked his captors. The water represents life, and supports the idea that Farquhar has survived the hanging and will continue on. The water represents a powerful force, and supports the idea that Farquhar cannot escape his fate. The water represents purity, and supports the idea that Farquhar is deeply sorry for his actions.
“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is an elaborately devised commentary on the fluid nature of time. The story’s structure, which moves from the present to the past to what is revealed to be the imagined present, reflects this fluidity as well as the tension that exists among competing notions of time. The second section interrupts what at first appears to be the continuous flow of the execution taking place in the present moment. Poised on the edge of the bridge, Farquhar closes his eyes, a signal of his slipping into his own version of reality, one that is unburdened by any responsibility to laws of time. As the ticking of his watch slows and more time elapses between the strokes, Farquhar drifts into a timeless realm. When Farquhar imagines himself slipping into the water, Bierce compares him to a “vast pendulum,” immaterial and spinning wildly out of control. Here Farquhar drifts into a transitional space that is neither life nor death but a disembodied consciousness in a world with its own rules.
