Introduction

When I was looking for short stories to read, I was honestly looking for something dark and sinister. Those kinds of short stories interest me the most. I remember earlier in the year, The Masque of the Red Death was my favorite short story to dissect. I wanted to find two stories similar to that because I knew that I would be able to read them easier if they kept my attention. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierco caught my attention while I was skimming through.


In short, the story is about a man named Peyton Farquhar (which reminds me of Lord Farquaad from shrek) who is being hung at Owl Creek bridge by federal soldiers after the Civil War. The story is in three sections, the first section is present day right before he is about to be hung. He begins to think of his family and daydreams of nature and such. Then section two flashes back to before he was caught, and you learn that he in fact was a criminal, he owned slaves and sided with the Confederate army. In the flashback, a northern soldier in disguise comes to Farquhar's house and begins talking about a possible sabotage at Owl Creek bridge from the south. The soldier says anyone who is involved is to be hung, implying that this is how Farquhar was caught and tried. The last section is back to present day. In a long montage, Farquhar's rope breaks and he plunges into the water and escapes. He travels though the woods all night to get home. When he finally makes it home, he is about to embrace his wife when he feels a sharp blow on his neck and sees a blinding light. In reality, the entire escape montage was all in his head and he was daydreaming all of it. He never left the bridge and was hung and killed right before he imagined finding his wife.