"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is a short story by Ambrose Bierce. It talks about a confederate sympathizer called Peyton Fahrquhar who was condemned to death by hanging upon the owl creek bridge. However, in his dream he jumped from the broken board into the river, escaped from the several soldiers, and finally met his family and plantation. But all of that sudden, he died. He had never escaped, and he just imaged this occurrence. When I saw the movie in the class, although I knew it was his dream, it was so vivid that I could not believe this. Also, the ending was really horrifying. As we enjoyed the happiness of the new life and the reunion of him and his family, he just died at the moment when his wife held his neck in his beautiful dream.

Though the book, I was surprised at the impressive language on the description of the view. I think we could perceive the mood of a person though the view. In the book, the author described a wonderful scene after Fahrquhar got away from the soldiers with guns or even cannon. I believe in Fahrquhar’s dream, he was quite pleased. However, at the beginning of the story, when Fahrquhar was imposed to get on the bridge, the whole frame was dark, and the mood of Fahrquhar was depressive.

Last thing I want to mention is that no matter how bad people are, they still have something worth pursuing. In the book, even though Fahrquhar was a supporter of the south confederate, the planter and slave owner who should be eliminated, he still had a wife or children that he loved. Though the dream, we could notice that he had a strong desire of freedom.