I found "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" quite compelling and suspenseful. The style and mechanics of the story were very well done by Bierce, himself, a former soldier in the Union Army during the Civil War. Creatively written, the author managed to weave history, espionage and psychological intrigue into this brief story. At the end, when the reader becomes aware and the final twist is revealed the first thoughts to my mind were that of "hope" and "denial" about the planter's mindset about his impending fate.
Something not specifically defined but rather left fairly vague were Mr. Farquhar's "circumstances of an imperious nature" which prevented him from fighting, at the spry age of 35, in the Confederate Army. It is possible to speculate, with a historical lens, that Mr. Farquhar had bought a "substitute" to fight in the Civil War in his place considering the fact that he was a "well-to-do planter"; this was a common practice among the upper class in the South and the inequities of the Confederate draft are well documented. Maybe this contributed to a feeling of guilt within Mr. Farquhar and, therefore, made him even more apt to be tricked into the plot to burn the bridge? Great story; I think it was a Hitchcock series episode on TV in 1959.
No comments:
Post a Comment