"All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions" - Leonardo da Vinci

According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, perceive means “to become aware of through the senses”.

Since all of what we know we have either heard or seen it, our knowledge is simply an aggregate of all our perceptions. While some truths exist, many are simply the reported perceptions of others. But the problem with our knowledge being based almost solely upon perceptions, is it’s difficult to discern which perceptions are ‘more accurate’ or more fitting to our view of reality. The truth, therefore, depends on the perception of each individual.

We have all been told numerous times in our lives a fascinating story where, as soon as it ends, we wonder how much of it was true, and how much was nothing more than an embellishment. Often times, we wish to speak with another involved person, hoping to attain a better understanding of the truth. The truth, however, is nearly unattainable because no matter who you hear the story from, he will relate it to you as he perceived it. The story of a partaker is bound to be drastically different than that of a bystander, if not simply because the partaker is more emotionally involved.

Furthermore, when I listen to a story in which the narrator uses details that seem impossible to notice in the heat of the moment, I immediately begin to question everything the person is telling me. In the beginning of “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce, the details are so accurate and concise that I find myself putting faith in the narrator. I don’t question whether he is misleading me, embellishing the story, or including his own perceptions. As Part I continues, however, I notice the narrator adding more personal details to the story than I am willing to accept. The description of the “stream racing madly” starkly contrasts the sterile description of the bridge with the soldiers on it. As soon as he adds these minute details to the story, I realize I am no longer reading it through an objective narrator, but rather through one man’s perspective.

The fact that Ambrose Bierce writes that the trees are “like a diagram in a lesson in perspective” cannot be coincidental, since that is exactly what “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” serves as. When the reader discovers that Peyton Farquhar is actually dead, he realizes that the whole story deceptively contrasts two different realities. At the beginning the reader is introduced to one reality, which he is unknowingly forced back into in the last sentence of the short story, without ever realizing he had been experiencing a different reality. The details of Peyton Farquhar’s escape were portrayed as a separate reality, which is ‘true’ to him. To decide which reality is more ‘truthful’, the reader must look at the perspective of each reality. While I believe Farquhar’s reality is more truthful to him, as it is the last reality he experienced before passing on, I also believe that the first reality is more truthful to the situation as it is conveyed to the reader.

Casey