Response to Ambrose Bierce's "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"

Whoa--"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" had a most unexpected conclusion. In fact, to write about it now, after finishing it, I'll have to reexamine everything I thought I knew about it, and everything I thought that I thought about it. For one, I had originally thought that the story was solidly plot--a tale of a southern "well-to-do" planter's escape from a most heinous death, i.e. death by hanging.

However the case, it turned out that none of that, what I thought the story was about, actually happened. In other words, Peyton Farquhar's (the "well-to-do" planter) totally elaborate and heroic escape (untying his bonds, dodging bullets, swimming to freedom, and cross country hiking back to the safety of his own home) never really happened--when the military sent him off the bridge to hang, the rope didn't actually break, leading to the series of events just listed--instead the noose actually held fast, and Farquhar died right there, on the spot--no escapes, no heroics.

It turned out that the real story was not the heroic escape but actually just the harsh honest truth of a wealthy want-to-be hero, who got out of actually fighting in the civil war because of his social standing and money, and whose embarrassment for doing so along with his fragile concept of reality let the already shallow man get tricked into running straight into enemy territory (he thought he was setting off to do some dangerous secret Confederate opp--he was dead wrong) and getting hanged.

Looking back, I can't help notice the hints that Bierce left, however. For instance, Bierce kept mentioning how Farquhar was feeling pain, "His neck was in pain and lifting his hand to it he found it horribly swollen," and how his mind was getting more and more lost, "...despite his suffering, he had fallen asleep while walking..." (both page 306, 4th paragraph). Finishing the story, Twilight Zone twist and all, made me really dig the Realist style of literary writing--"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" was chalk full of information and detail, telling you everything you needed to know as a reader, and so letting you jump to your own conclusions and interpretations, making the last plot-altering piece of information that much sweeter, that much more surprising (or not, depending on if you picked up on the details like some had in class--myself not included) as well as making the total experience reading the story that much more outstanding.