Sophie Fouts

1/22/16
English III 1302
Response 1: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
When I first began reading An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, it was almost
immediately evident that something horribly wrong was going to take place. The descriptions
Bierce offered for the scene set a grim tone and made one wonder why this gentleman was to
be hanged. I had trouble deciphering the nature of this story at first, although I soon discovered
it. The Civil War, thats what this story was about.
Having grownup in the South, I like to believe that I can see both sides of the situations
when it comes to this conflict. True, the pinnacle of this devastating time period was the big S
word, slavery, in order to create nationalism in the North for the war effort, but that was only part
of the reason for secession in the South. Keeping state sovereignty was actually the major factor
for non-rich, working class Southerners.
In this story, you have to sides grating against one another. Both think their right and
serve their side as they will. Bierce humanized the cause of Southerners through the character
Peyton Farquhar by showing a brave, patriotic man who just wanted to return home to his family.
It was then revealed that his escape was nothing more than the hallucination of a dying man, and
there is no happy ending.
The conclusion I draw from this is that both sides have different stories. Evil can be
interpreted as good and good interpreted as evil because of how our minds have been
individually molded or skewed. There are no real heroes, only those who seek to do what is right.