Chronology of Events in "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Shruti Bhave

In Bierce's "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", it is interesting to see how the chain of events are organized. The beginning of the story actually starts in the part II of the narrative where the reader finds out exactly why Farquhar was hanged. A soldier comes to Farquhar's house and asks for a drink of water, which his wife fetches for him. He tells Farquhar, a civilian that he could help the Confederate side of the army by burning down a bridge. Part II, the actual start of the story, is an interesting switch from Part I since it gives the reader answers on what exactly is happening and why its happening. Part II kind of puts a halt to what is happening in part I since it rewinds back to the beginning and tells us the actual chain of events.

Part I of the narrative actually happens after part II chronologically, even though part I is what the reader reads first. Part I describes the scene on the bridge where he is about to be hanged. Part I generates a sense of mystery since the reader does not know why he is being hanged. Part I begins at such a climactic part of the narrative, that the reader is immediately pulled in the story. Farquhar thinks of his family and decides to try and escape. By the end of the first part, the reader is told that he is released into the river. The same air of mystery is carried forward as the reader doesn't know if Farquhar's escape plan was a success by the end of the first part.

The reader does not know that Farquhar actually died within minutes of being released into the river until the very last sentence of the narrative in part III. The whole third part of the story is reveled to be only Farquhar's imagination before he died. He was never able to carry out his escape plan. This last part of the narrative is quite devious in the way that it confuses the readers and forces them to rethink reality versus imagination. This is the biggest switch in the story since before the last sentence, the reader is optimistic and keeps on believing that he escaped. The last sentence catches the reader off guard and is a kind of sad way to end a story.
Overall, the correct chain of events occur in part II, part I, then part III.