Essay On An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge
Gray Areas
It remains a prevalent idea in the modern world that all human beings are split into two groups: good and bad, pure and evil. Most works of fiction in literature have a clear-cut “hero” and “villain” that go head-to-head in big ways. A rare few works, however, break that norm. The short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” happens to be one of those works. Its author suggests that the world cannot be split into “good guys” or “bad guys;” Bierce demonstrates this by causing the reader to sympathize with slave-owning Peyton Farquhar, and through his depiction of the Union army’s manipulation of and utter detachment toward Farquhar’s death. Set in Alabama during the American Civil War, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” details the events leading up to a saboteur’s hanging. The disinterested narrator describes how Peyton Farquhar, a prominent Southern slaveholder and die-hard secessionist, could not join in the actual wartime fighting due to a cause unknown to the reader. Still yet, he holds Confederate soldiers in the highest regard, so it could only be expected that when a young man in a gray …show more content…
They dislike unfairness and cringe in the face of inflicting death. History dubs the Union army as the “good guys” of the Civil War, but in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” they retain none of the typical traits of those equitable in nature. As a matter of fact, whilst hanging Farquhar, the soldiers are delineated as “staring stonily” (70) upon the scene. The author also notes that they “might have been statues to adorn the bridge” because none of them move, despite watching a gruesome scene unfold. One would suppose that the “good guys” would show remorse when killing, but the Union soldiers are depicted as emotionless. Was this to do with them being outside the archetype of good people, or simply a result of wartime horrors numbing them to human
It remains a prevalent idea in the modern world that all human beings are split into two groups: good and bad, pure and evil. Most works of fiction in literature have a clear-cut “hero” and “villain” that go head-to-head in big ways. A rare few works, however, break that norm. The short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” happens to be one of those works. Its author suggests that the world cannot be split into “good guys” or “bad guys;” Bierce demonstrates this by causing the reader to sympathize with slave-owning Peyton Farquhar, and through his depiction of the Union army’s manipulation of and utter detachment toward Farquhar’s death. Set in Alabama during the American Civil War, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” details the events leading up to a saboteur’s hanging. The disinterested narrator describes how Peyton Farquhar, a prominent Southern slaveholder and die-hard secessionist, could not join in the actual wartime fighting due to a cause unknown to the reader. Still yet, he holds Confederate soldiers in the highest regard, so it could only be expected that when a young man in a gray …show more content…
They dislike unfairness and cringe in the face of inflicting death. History dubs the Union army as the “good guys” of the Civil War, but in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” they retain none of the typical traits of those equitable in nature. As a matter of fact, whilst hanging Farquhar, the soldiers are delineated as “staring stonily” (70) upon the scene. The author also notes that they “might have been statues to adorn the bridge” because none of them move, despite watching a gruesome scene unfold. One would suppose that the “good guys” would show remorse when killing, but the Union soldiers are depicted as emotionless. Was this to do with them being outside the archetype of good people, or simply a result of wartime horrors numbing them to human