Which excerpt from "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" best supports the theme that a person cannot escape reality through fantasy?

The water, the banks, the forests, the now distant bridge, fort and men-all were commingled and blurred.

A strange, roseate light shone through the spaces among their trunks and the wind made in their branches the music of Aeolian harps.

Doubtless, despite his suffering, he had fallen asleep while walking, for now he sees another scene-perhaps he has merely recovered from a delirium.

Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge.

Question

Charlee Thornton

English

19 July, 18:53

Which excerpt from "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" best supports the theme that a person cannot escape reality through fantasy?

The water, the banks, the forests, the now distant bridge, fort and men-all were commingled and blurred.

A strange, roseate light shone through the spaces among their trunks and the wind made in their branches the music of Aeolian harps.

Doubtless, despite his suffering, he had fallen asleep while walking, for now he sees another scene-perhaps he has merely recovered from a delirium.

Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge.

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Yael Medina · Answer 1

Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge.

The bulk of the story, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," is a hopeful fantasy where a soldier imagines he escapes from being hanged off a bridge. In his fantasy the rope snaps, and he is able to run down a creek evading bullets and is eventually able to make it back to his home to see his wife. Just before he is about to embrace his wife, however, reality catches up to him and he experiences his execution. The theme this illustrates is that one can never fully escape reality through a fantasy no matter how real the fantasy may seem because a fantasy is still a fantasy.