Owl Creek Bridge
...rience as a Union officer in the Civil War, Ambrose Bierce illustrates how sometimes the desire for acknowledgment can become so strong that it overshadows the possible consequences, and often times the worst happens. Through setting, characterization, and conflict, Bierce emphasizes that we should always bear in our minds what the consequences of our actions might be. Peyton Farquhar's life was ordinary before he attempted this scandalous act. He was a well-to-do planter living on a plantation with a wife and children. While he was denied entry into the army, he still did what he could to help the South. "No adventure was too perilous for him to undertake." As he awaiting his death, his mind races with thoughts of escape. Miraculously, it seems, he does escape and amazingly makes it through perilous situations, which would have otherwise killed him. As he is about to reach his wife, the story reverts back to reality, and Farquhar is hung. His daydream shows that his unconscious mind also made a last attempt at heroism, which allowed him to escape from the horror being put to death. The setting intensifies the i...