In "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" it's about a man named Peyton Farquhar awaiting to.
die, but the story makes it seems that he escapes. In reality it was all an allusion in his head, he.
really dies. Bierce is trying to prove that you may think things up when you know you"re about to.
face death, esoecially things you want to really happen.
The time is the middle of the Civil War, and Farquhar's plantation lies thirty miles to the.
south of Owl Creek Bridge. It is his hope to arrive at the bridge well before the Union Army does,.
and use the driftwood scattered about the area as kindling to burn the bridge down. The Union.
forces were infamous for burning down plantation homes as they progressed through the South,.
and Farquhar's act was a last-ditch effort to save his home and family.
Peyton Farquhar, standing on a bridge with a noose around his neck, awaits his death.
from hanging. The rope snaps when he is released and by dodging bullets and cannon balls he.
manages to escape. After running for a while, Peyton loses consciousness and wakes up walking.
into his yard. There waiting to greet him is his wife. The story ends with Peyton hanging from the.
rope, he never escaped. Ambrose Bierce in "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" develops the.
idea that people escape death anyway possible through the point of view in the story.
The one critical point on which his informer lied was the number of Union reinforcements.
which were guarding the bridge. The informer told Farquhar that there was only "a picket post.
half a mile out, on the railroad, and a single sentinel at this end of the bridge." There were.
obviously more than that, for at Farquhar's execution there are not only the executioners and.
officers on the bridge, but a "company of infantry in line, at 'parade rest,' the butts of the rifles on.
the ground, the barrels inclining slightly backward against the right shoulder, the hands crossed.
upon the stock.
