An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is written in a flash forward which is when the character floats away from reality and plays out how they want the event to happen and then it switches quickly back to reality. Peyton Farquhar tells his story in flash-forward of his death. Farquhar wanted to become a part of the war effort and was given the chance by some soldiers who prompted him with the idea of blowing up the bridge. This seemed like a good idea because he was a Southern plantation owner and wanted to prevent the Northern's to enter the South and cause chaos. This taking control of his own ideas and doing something about want he believes in is something that Thoreau and Emerson believed in. Peyton also lived in the wilderness but was a big politician, who was something that Thoreau and Emerson was not exactly a fan of. "Peyton Farquhar was a well-to -do planter, of a highly respected Alabama family. Being a slave owner and like other slave owners a politician he was naturally an original secessionist and ardently devoted to the Southern cause"(Bierce 391). The man was involved in the political world at wanted to keep his rights in place of owning slaves and to remain a part of the South and that was the culture of the South. Having slaves was a symbol of power and wealth in the South the more slaves you had the more money and political sway you had. Thoreau and Emerson were opposed to slavery and the idea that the government should have a say in the lives of the people. “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is split between Thoreau and Emerson who are antislavery which this Southern is against and pro government staying in their own business and not worry about everything and what everyone is doing just like the man in the story. The beliefs of this story and Thoreau and Emerson are some what divide on a line similar to that of the North and South during the Civil War.

Bierce, Ambrose."An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009.389-396. Print.