A Detailed Interpretation of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce - Essay Example

A detailed Interpretation of “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce “An occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is a story of the consequences that Peyton Farquhar faced when he cheaply exposed his conscience and thoughts to someone he was considering as a friend and trustworthy enough to keep his secret. This thought-to-be friend was a soldier who appeared to Farquhar and informed him of the rehabilitating of various railroads including that of Owl Creek Bridge. Farquhar but up a rather surprising attitude and made the abundance of his heart expose when he asked "Is there no force on this side the creek?

" Farquhar was actually inquiring if there was no way he could sabotage the whole repair works. Indeed Farquhar had been warned by the soldier stating that The commandant has issued an order, which is posted everywhere, declaring that any civilian caught interfering with the railroad, its bridges, tunnels or trains will be summarily hanged. I saw the order. The warning not withstanding, Farquhar was persistent with his desire to sabotage the repair of the railroads. Unknowingly to Farquhar, the soldier he had been speaking with but only a Union scout who had caught Farquhar in a trap.

Farquhar’s intensions had been made known with evidence and he had to suffer the consequences he had been warned about earlier – hanging. At the point where he had to die, Farquhar imagined himself through a snappy nap of escaping death but reality is reality and so Farquhar would not escape. There are a number of reflective issues that can be considered in this interpretation of this short story. First has to do with the place the author gives to the need to be circumspect about people we take decisions with.

There is therefore the concept of circumspection. Not bordering on the need to really research around the life of the person he was speaking with, Farquhar could easily sell his conscience for death. It may be thought of as a very simple everyday principle that no one should forget but Farquhar did not heed to this. Indeed, the author made Farquhar appear in the eyes of the reader as someone who had broken the commonly law of nature and was to suffer for that but we all make those mistakes once a while.

Without careful search into who we are dealing with, we might only be giving directions to wolves as to where meat is hidden because we might think of them as sheep. In fact even bigger corporate organization and businesses make this mistake of easily letting come out of their mouths their plans and strategies for innovations and growth, only for these to be tapped and used by competitors. One other deep interpretation that can be made has to do with the theme of realism used by the author. Bierce whiles writing “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” gives a well represented allegiance to a subject that is also very much as part of human.

This is the subject of broad day dreaming or day dreaming or hallucination or illusionism. The interpretation here is that we have the freedom to dream and make wishes but we must be in a position to be realistic with our dreams and wishes. In the story, Farquhar casts himself in a realm of wishes when he needed what he was dreaming of most. He was at the point of death and there could not be anything more meaningful to him than escape. But was that the right time to have that hallucination? Farquhar was badly in need of his life being spared when he remarked: "throw off the noose and spring into the stream.

By diving I could evade the bullets and, swimming vigorously, take to the woods and get away home." But the big question is whether Farquhar was making the wish at the right time. Hard I known we are told is always at last but before things get late, we have always had lots of time to plan out escape. One of the ways that Farquhar could plan an escape was not to get themselves into trouble all together. To conclude, this interpretation has exposed a lot of flaws that happen to us in our day by day dealings and activities.

Though a fiction, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” has been seen as a powerful tool for advising against certain acts that we normally put up with so much impunity. Life is good and must be protected. Certain actions we take in our daily lives may only end us making wild dreams of escape but it might be too late and so the earlier we thought twice before acting the better. CITED WORKS Bierce, Ambrose. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. 1890. Tales of Soldiers and Civilians. Print.