The Importance of the Narrator in An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge Essay

While many would argue that it is the characters who create the story, it can be easily argued that when the narrator is considered into the ultimate development of a tale, it is he who truly propels the story forward. Yes, characters do mark the movement of the story, and are often the idea that audiences can relate to best with, but in reality, characters are simply the puppets; the narrator is the puppet master that is pulling the strings. Thus brings us to the importance of the narrator, and his (or her) point of view. While the characters are certainly able to tell their own tales, it is the narrator that tells the story of those characters that are unable (or simply do not wish) to tell their own. The narrators point of view is what gives a story its power to captivate its audience until the very end.

Though the narrator of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge can certainly be described as being entirely omniscient, I believe it would be far more precise to say that the narrator rotates between an objective, an omniscient, and a third-person limited point of view. When reading the story, the changes in the narrators perspective are quite clearly indicated; not only in print, but in the content of the story as well. The narrator starts out with a very plain, objective point of view; he describes the scene as any of the union soldiers standing nearby would have witnessed it. When the story reaches its pivotal point, however, the narrator shifts into a omniscient point of view, revealing some of the central characters past and explaining how the main character has arrived at his present situation. After making clear the preceding events, the narrator returns to the present time, once again shifting his point of view; this time, a third-person limited view, and focuses in on the central characters thoughts and feelings.

What makes this story so powerful is not only the narrators changing of views, but the timing in which it is done. The narrator of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge uses his change of view to highlight events, and create a specific feeling of importance depending upon which view he chooses. In the beginning, the author remains objective in his description of the execution about to take place; it almost seems as though the execution is downplayed because of this- mundane, even. Then, just before the main character is about to die, we fall into a flashback concerning him. Obviously, since the narrator chose to change views at this exact moment, the flashback is of some, if not great, importance to the story. Our return to present time is significantly timed as well, occurring just after the strangers true identity as a Federal scout is revealed; however, as we later discover, our return to present time is not the same as the one we had left. The present time to which we return is in fact a dream world, an alternate universe so to speak, in which actions nearly opposite of those that actually happen occur, created by the prisoners overactive mind.

The idea of a narrator changing his or her point of view mid-story can be a very confusing one for some to grasp; some readers may get lost and feel as though they missed reading a few pages. However, those that do understand it feel that it makes for a wonder twist in the plot of a story; books and movies utilizing such a technique often become popular amongst intellectuals and older teens. One such example being the cult-classic Donnie Darko; which, like An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, rotates through different viewpoints and realities. While changing a narrators point of view does not instantly change the plot of the story, it does allow for an author to highlight details that would otherwise go unnoticed by his audience; and by doing so to even the slightest detail, the author can change the entire way his audience interprets his book.