Answer: I would contend that the right answer is the D) To develop the plot.
Explanation: Just to elaborate a little on the answer, it can also be added that in this short story, American writer, and Civil War veteran, Ambrose Bierce relied on a far from traditional narrative technique known as "stream of consciousness," which provides the reader with an original and engaging reading experience. Instead of using a sequential, chronological, and rational order, the events are primarily narrated as they were experienced by the character in his mind, and regardless of whether they really happened or not. After describing the setting of the execution, the narrator uses a flashback in order to tell the reader more about the character who is about to be executed, and he then returns to the present, making the reader believe that the character has escaped, and describing his return, only to conclude by saying that it was all product of his imagination.
