Read the two excerpts from section 3 of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge."Then all at once, with terrible suddenness, the light about him shot upward with the noise of a loud splash; a frightful roaring was in his ears, and all was cold and dark. The power of thought was restored; he knew that the rope had broken and he had fallen into the stream. ***As he is about to clasp her 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!What does the motif of a loud sound represent in the story?
Answer
A
the passage between the North and the South
B
the passage between dreams and reality
C
the contrast between right and wrong
D
the contrast between one’s family and one’s enemies
Explanation
The loud sounds occur when Peyton seems to move between different states of experience: the splash accompanies his apparent escape into the stream, and the cannon-like sound marks the end of his imagined reunion and return to reality. The sound motif therefore represents the passage between dreams and reality, not a contrast between enemies and family or between right and wrong.
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