Reading Strategy: Flashback and Flash Forward To make their stories interesting, writers sometimes begin with an especially dramatic event and then flash backward in time to supply the reader with information about how the event came to be. Bierce also flashes forward to show events in an imaginary future. As you read stories like this, it is a good strategy to keep the chronological order clear in your mind. (Connect to Essential Question #3: What makes American literature American?) DIRECTIONS: " An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" begins with the soldiers preparing to hang Farquhar on the bridge. This event is considered to be present time in the story. For each excerpt below, analyze whether the action in the excerpt is happening in a flashback or a flash forward from the story's present time. Evaluate whether the events are real or imaginary. Draw conclusions about what is happening to Farquhar at that time. 1. Meanwhile he did what he could. No service was too humble for him to perform in aid of the South, no adventure to perilous for him to undertake if consistent with the character of a civilian who was at heart a soldier .... Flashback or Flash Forward? Real or Imaginary? What "service" has Farquhar been performing, and why? Context YCEXX 2. At last he found a road which led him in what he knew to be the right direction. It was as straight as a city street, yet it seemed untraveled. No fields bordered it, no dwelling anywhere. Flashback or Flash Forward?_ Real or Imaginary? What is happening to Farquhar's mind? mungaonva .a Your SHO THOY SentendMinilol 3. 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! Flashback or Flash Forward? Real or Imaginary? What is happening to Farquhar on the bridge at this time