Elsah's Exuberant, Enthusiastic Short Story Blog

The idea or theme of death in An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge reminds me of A Tale of Two Cities. The event of Fahrquhar awaiting his death on the bridge is similar to Sydney Carton anticipating his death on the guillotine in France. Peyton Fahrquhar reminds me of Sydney Carton for three reasons. First these two scenes portray each man’s thought of death before it physically happens. In Fahrquhar’s case, he dreams about his wife and children and believes that he is with them at that moment. In Sydney Carton’s situation, he recites a Bible verse aloud and declares that he has finally done something meaningful in his life. In both cases each man sifts through his lifetime of memories before dying. That act leaves each man in a tranquil state of mind even though death is quickly approaching. The second reason I see a similarity between these two characters has to do with their innocent conduct. The men do not appear to be guilty of a serious crime, yet they are murdered by official...

What do you think were some reasons for Bierce deciding to write  An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge ? Do you believe that the author did a good job of highlighting the human perception of death? If so please give examples. 

  "Death is a dignitary who when he comes announced is to be received with formal manifestations of respect, even by those most familiar with him. In the code of military etiquette silence and fixity are forms of deference" (chapter 1).  I chose this passage because it seems like one of the more deep and mysterious ideas from the book that is worth further investigation. Some of the vocabulary was challenging for me in this quote, so I thought it would be beneficial to dissect this excerpt to better understand the author’s intention of describing death in this way. In this passage, the author's tone changes from the physical descriptions of the bridge scene to the psychological side of it by discussing the topic of death. At this time in the book, soldiers and other powerful military leaders are standing on the bridge with the man who will be hanged. This quote is significant because the author compares death to a high-ranking person (a dignitary) that is well respect...