Blog #7

Ambrose Bierce wrote An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge in three different parts. In the first part of this story, we are introduced to the main character who we soon learn is awaiting to be hung at Owl Creek Bridge. I think that this first part was kind of confusing because we did not know anything about the main character or what happened to get him into this situation. It was all thrown at us at once and without much explanation of how it all happened so it was kind of hard to read, but after reading the second part of this story it all makes more sense. In the second part of this story, we learn that the main character is Peyton Farquhar, who is a successful planter and a supporter of the Southern cause (Bierce). We learn that Farquhar is not able to join the Confederate army, but he is eager to help them out in some way (Bierce). He gets his chance to help out when one day his wife and himself were approached by a solider, who they assumed was part of the Confederate army (Bierce). The solider informed him of the plans of the Northern army and told him how one could easily destroy the North's chance of advanicing (Beirce). At the very end of this section, we learn that this solider that was assumed to be a part of the Southern army was actually a Northern solider in disguise (Bierce). After reading the second part of this story, the first part makes much more sense because we actually know who the main character is and now we know why he is being hung. I thought the third part to this story was very interesting because the ending to the whole story was unexpected. The first part of this story was in the present, then the second was the past, and then in the third part we are back to the present again. In this part of the story, the noose hanging Farquhar breaks and sends him into the stream below (Bierce). He frees himself of the noose, avoids all of the shots being fired at him, and eventually ends up on the bank of the stream, out of sight and range of the soliders (Bierce). He walks through the woods all night long, fighting through the pain all because he wants to see his wife and kids (Bierce). At the very end of this part, Farquhar is walking up to meet his wife when he feels a sharp pain in his neck, and that is when we find out that he is dead. I thought that this part was pretty shocking because it means that the whole third part of this story was not real, and that he had died because he was hung at Owl Creek Bridge.



Bierce, Ambrose. "Fiction." : An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. Web. 20 Feb. 2012.