An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

This story by Ambrose Bierce is really unique. It takes place in the present, past, and future. This man is about to be hung and he pictures himself as a free man. This whole story takes place with the rope around the mans neck and his thoughts about life. This man, Farquhar, died alone with nobody there to tell him goodbye. His wife probably had no idea that he was never coming home. He was thinking about going back to her and seeing her. He really seemed to be in love which made this story so much more upsetting. Always if you add a little bit of a love story into the writing it suddenly becomes ten times better. But, anyways, in my opinoin Farquhar should not have even died. He was bribed into doing this crime by the soldiers who ended up being the men who killed him. This was completely unfair because they soldiers knew what they were getting him into and they did not care the least that he was going to die in the process. This story reminds me a lot of Thoreau. Thoreau also got punished because he went against the government and in return he had to undergo whatever punishment that got thrown at him. He believed what he did was fine because it is what he believed him so it was worth the punishment for him. But, Farquhar should not have had the punishment that he had. It was completely unfair and I know he did not agree with the outcome of his life. He could have lived longer instead of dying all alone with nobody to say goodbye to. Thoreau discussing how cruel the government and unfair it is and I think that his opinion is really shown in, "An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge." The government was unfair to both of them and put them through unfair punishments. It just happened to cost Farquhar his life.

Bierce, Ambrose. "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." Eserver. 1994-2012. Web. 16 Feb. 2012

Maunder, Andrew. "realism." Facts On File Companion to the British Short Story. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.