How a Story Unfolds

Answer the questions below using complete sentences. Be sure to support your answers with specific examples from the stories.
1. Both “Silky” Bob in “After Twenty Years” and Peyton Farquhar in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” face threatening situations. Compare and contrast the way each author depicts these situations by discussing the characters’ behavior and feelings about their respective predicaments. Answer:

Well a difference is that one died by being hung, and one got arrested for being a criminal. Some similarities between them is that they both faced life threatening situations. They both committed crimes, but they were handled different ways. They both knew that something was coming, right before it did. Silky Bob knew he was going to be arrested, once he read the letter. Peyton knew he was going to die, right when they cut the rope. They also didn’t really do anything to prevent any of it. Silky Bob faced his consequences, and Peyton died being hung. Silky Bob from “After Twenty Years” and Peyton Farquhar from “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” both are in very dangerous situations, and while they are in these predicaments, they show who they really are. They are both in situations that aren’t pleasant for them, and can cost them their lives. Both of them are considered criminals, “Silky” Bob is a known criminal, and is wanted for crimes that he executed. His friend childhood friend, Jimmy Wells, promised to meet him at ‘Big Joe’ Brady’s Restaurant after twenty years of not seeing each other. In those twenty years, “Silky” Bob headed out to the West, while Bob was off in the West, Jimmy stayed in New York, and became a police officer. Bob doesn’t know about Jimmy’s new job, though.

So, Bob waits by the building, in the darkness of night, to hide his face. A police officer walked up to him, and “the man spoke up quickly.” Bob continued to tell his story about when Jimmy and him made a deal. Once he was finished, the police officer nodded, and went on his way. Soon, along comes Jimmy, to meet Bob. They started to walk and talk about everything that was happening to them. The man reveals that he is a police officer, and arrests Bob, and gives him a note from Jimmy. The author included these details to imply why he was being hanged in the first place when “he feels a stunning blow upon the back of the neck, a blinding white light blazes all about him with a sound like the shock of a cannon, then all is darkness and silence! Farquhar is dead from a broken neck, still hanging over Owl Creek Bridge.

The author includes both of these parts to show Farquhar’s active imagination, or possible hallucinations from lack of oxygen. Silky” Bob from “After Twenty Years” and Peyton Farquhar from “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” are both facing life-threatening predicaments, and while they are being forced in these situations, the readers get to see who they really are. Both of the characters are in a tight spot that could cost them their lives. Each of them have their differences and their similarities. Bob is a known criminal, while Farquhar is a not so known criminal. Even though they are criminals, one is more known than the other. The authors make them in life-changing situations, to show who they really are.