Preview

Owl Creek Bridge Failure

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
130 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Owl Creek Bridge Failure
The story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” written by Ambrose Bierce is about a wealthy Alabama plantation spy named Peyton Farquhar. Peyton was hanged at Owl Creek Bridge because he was misled by the Union soldiers into burning a bridge that would have inhibited the northerner’s troops to get through. As much as he was willing to protect his wealth, I guess he didn’t anticipate about the consequences. Therefore, he was caught by northerner’s soldiers for being immature about military discipline, and rules of engagement. I believe, if a person was acting a vigilant, whether they were civilian or soldier, the ultimate price was death. Not knowing anything about military discipline, or about rules of engagement, Farquhar chooses to act as
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Allan Pinkerton's Black Dispatches
    • 924 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Allan Pinkerton's Black Dispatches

    After being arrested for spying on the enemy, the spy would be placed in a secure area or jail until the trial has taken place. Because espionage was not a civilian crime for both the Union and the Confederacy, all cases involving espionage would require a military tribunal. Since the US Army’s Court-Martials were given the power to sentence a spy to death, the enemy did the same. However, some spies were executed without trial due to the international military customs stating that Spies can be executed without trial. Once at the trail, the spy would be proven guilty or innocent. If the spy was found Guilty, he would be charged with Conspiracy to commit treason and sentenced to death by hanging. However, If you were proven innocent, you were charged as a prisoner of war and help in custody for exchange or release once the war was over. When exchanging prisoners, each side wanted one man for another causing many prisoners to be exchanged. One famous spies who got captured and punished was Timothy Webster. After John Scully revealed information about Webster, he was arrested and sentenced to death by a Virginia Court-Martial. Four days later, he was hanged in Camp Lee and was known as the first spy executed during the civil war. Many spies in the civil war tried several tactics to not get charged for espionage. One such tactic was to wear an outfit of a soldier. If you were arrested,…

    • 924 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    My Brother Sam Is Dead Character Analysis Essay
    • 371 Words
    • 2 Pages

    My Brother Sam Is Dead Character Analysis Essay

    During the American Revolution Soldiers weren’t the only ones who were at high risk of death. For example in the small town of Redding, Connecticut there was a variety of different opinions on war. Unlike like most happy stories and fairytales there was no good side, there might have been a good cause but no side was considered innocent. The Patriots were killing someone for a crime they did or looked like they were committing even if they were fighting for their side. The British were exaggerating situations to get a chance to execute a fellow loyalist or Patriot. In the book My Brother Sam is Dead by, James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier,…

    • 371 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge, an Analysis
    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages

    An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge, an Analysis

    Do you like surprise endings? “An Occurrence at Owl Creek”, by Ambrose Bierce supplies a startling one. Set in Alabama during the Civil War, Peyton Farquar, a well-to-do, slave owning plantation owner “who was at heart a soldier,” was kept out of the military service for reasons left vague. A Union scout,dressed as a Rebel, stops at his house and suggests burning a near by bridge now in Union hands. Set up, Farquar is caught and ordered to be hanged, during which the rope breaks and he makes good his escape. Upon reaching his home, thirty miles away, his reunion with his wife is cut short by the revelation that the escape was in his mind, he is actually hung! By using the literary elements point of view, setting, and symbolism, the author makes good his surprise.…

    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Farquhar In An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge
    • 165 Words
    • 1 Page

    Farquhar In An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge

    Abrose Bierce created a work of literature “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” a short story that takes place during the Civil War. Farquhar the protagonist in this short story is being hanged. ““The commandant has issued an order, which is posted everywhere, declaring that any civilian caught interfering with the railroads, its bridges, tunnels, or trains, will be summarily hanged”(Bierce 770). Farquhar arrogance contributed to his death. He saw the signs that told him to not tamper with any traveling path or die. His disregard for the rule caused his untimely death and the flashbacks in his life before the incident.…

    • 165 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Danny Chen Research Paper
    • 1751 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Danny Chen Research Paper

    When you 're a soldier in a distant land. you expect the enemies to be outside your base. in my…

    • 1751 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge
    • 271 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge

    "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is about this southern planter Peyton Farquhar being hanged by the Union Army during the Civil War for trying to burn down Owl Creek Bridge. Ambrose Bierce depicted the entire story as if the rope around Farquhar's neck breaks and that leads to Farquhar falling into the river below, and then escaping back to his farm; where he reunited with his wife. Then at the end of the story, Bierce revealed to the readers that all the events were simply Farquhar's imagination at work in the few seconds between the drop of his rope and his death. In summary, he died and the rope did not break which allowed him to swim down the river.…

    • 271 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Andersonville Prison Camp Essay
    • 392 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Andersonville Prison Camp Essay

    Through the hostile, dirty, and inhumane living conditions, a prisoner’s life at Andersonville Prison Camp was hard. It’s disgusting how humans can watch other humans, despite their beliefs, die in front of their eyes. Especially when they have the ability to save that person from death. What would you do if you were a confederate soldier watching tens of thousands of people die in front of…

    • 392 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Authority In A Few Good Men
    • 887 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Authority In A Few Good Men

    To what degree should people follow orders of superiors due to their authority? A Few Good Men is a movie where the moral difference between right and wrong is very unclear in the name of following authority. Professors of sociology, Kelman and Hamilton worked together on “The My Lai Massacre: A Military Crime of Obedience” where they tried to apply reason to the soldiers who committed a massacre of unarmed women and children during the Vietnam War. Theodore Dalrymple is a physician who wrote “Just Do What the Pilot Tells You” by analyzing Milgram’s electric shock torture experiment to shine light on when is right to obey to authority, while he emphasizes not to follow authority blindly. These pieces can be used to understand how Marines were able to kill a fellow Marine in Rob Reiner’s A Few Good Men.…

    • 887 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    An Occurrence at Owl creek bridge
    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages

    An Occurrence at Owl creek bridge

    The short story “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce is a narrative about a man from Alabama who is being hung for opposing the northern troops during the Civil war. Bierce effectively breaks the story into three sections each of which concentrates on a different aspect of the situation at hand. Bierce also uses detailed imagery to realistically set up the scene for the story. Most striking of all is the manipulation of time that deceives the reader and results in a surprise ending. Initially the story starts with the preparation of the hanging of Peyton Farquhar. In this section, soldiers are everywhere getting ready to hang Peyton and there is silence everywhere. Peyton is facing the stream and standing on the edge of a plank fixing his last thoughts. In the second section, after fixing his thoughts Peyton goes into a daydream. He daydreams that an officer comes to his house to tell him they are fixing the railroad under the bridge, and lures him on to burn the bridge. Furthermore, it is revealed that Peyton is a well-to-do planter, a civilian, and an old family man. The escape, the third section Peyton escapes, but only in his dreams. Peyton leads us on to think he gets out of the rope, dodges bullets, and makes it to shore alive. Bierce uses this to attract the readers and make the detailed imagery.…

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Owl Creek Bridge Suspense
    • 296 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Owl Creek Bridge Suspense

    The author uses few details to describe the narrator and does not explain the reason the narrator is being hung, to create a feeling of suspense in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” For example, Bierce states, “Evidently this was no vulgar assassin. The liberal military code makes provision for hanging many kinds of persons, and gentlemen are not excluded.” (Page 2) This quote demonstrates the lack of detail the author used to describe the narrator in the beginning of the story, which helps create and suspenseful mood throughout the text. By not including many descriptive details, the reader is clueless as to why Farquhar is being hung making him a sympathetic character, who is awaiting an undeserved fate. This helps to create suspense because…

    • 296 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Captain Vere's Trial And Execution In Billy Budd By Herman Melville
    • 330 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Captain Vere's Trial And Execution In Billy Budd By Herman Melville

    In Billy Budd’s day, when King George II reigned, death by hanging was an appropriate response, both from a legal and military standpoint for anyone who committed the murder of a superior officer aboard a ship at…

    • 330 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
    • 387 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

    In An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge the will of a person to want to live is strongest when it is the time of their death. When Peyton was asked to aid the confederates at Owl Creek Bridge, he had no fear of death and of the penalty. Until he was captured and prepared to be executed, then he realized how much he yearned to live. In his fantasy he escaped and ran for miles, barefoot, to return home to his wife. That his wife was everything to him, and he needed to see her one last time, before his death. He never truly noticed how much he wanted to live until he was about to die.…

    • 387 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Things They Carried Critical Analysis
    • 1001 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Things They Carried Critical Analysis

    In the case of Ted Lavender, once he was pronounced dead the men stripped him of his things while waiting for the chopper to pick up his body, and sat “smoking the dead man's dope (436).” Furthermore, when they drew numbers to determine who scouted out the tunnels, they “always felt the luck of the draw” when they escaped the duty (438). This is because they feared death, but were always embarrassed to admit it. For the soldiers, dishonor was worse than anything else they faced. “They crawled into tunnels and… advanced under fire,” and refused to give up and simply “fall to the ground” all to save their own pride (443). Their drive to live on during battle did not come from courage, but their fear to be known as cowards…

    • 1001 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Maccabiah Bridge Collapse
    • 3003 Words
    • 13 Pages

    Maccabiah Bridge Collapse

    The Maccabiah bridge collapse occurred on July 14, 1997. This tragedy happened in Israel. It took place in the town of Aviv. The bridge collapsed over a large river called the Yarkon River. The bridge was constructed primarily of wood material. Also, some of the bridge was assembled of rusty metal pipes that were tied together with wire. The bridge was designed for the Maccabiah Games. The Maccabiah Games was first started in 1932. It was an athletic event held to celebrate the Zionist Revolution. The games are open to all Israeli citizens and many people from all over the world. The fifteenth Maccabiah Games occurred in 1997 (“The Maccabiah Games History and Information”). During this sporting event there were many participating athletes. There were over five thousand athletes from fifty-six nations. The Maccabiah Bridge was built for the opening ceremony. The opening ceremony took place at Ramat Gan Stadium. This stadium fit around fifty thousand people. The bridge was constructed so that the athletes could march over it and into the stadium for the opening ceremony. During the opening ceremony, the athletes and their team members crossed the bridge. When the Australians started to cross the bridge, it collapsed into the Yarkon River (“Maccabiah Games History and Information”). Of the three hundred and thirty-seven members of the Australian team, roughly a hundred of the members plummeted into the Yarkon River below. Sixty-seven of the injured were taken to the hospital. Some of the injured died from Pseudallascheria boydii fungus days and weeks after falling into the river. This was caused from being in extreme contact with the infected water. One victim out of the sixty-seven injured, was killed before arriving at the hospital. In all, there were four killed from the collapsing of the Maccabiah…

    • 3003 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Bridge Failure
    • 20252 Words
    • 82 Pages

    Bridge Failure

    Physical causes are varied such as erosion, reversal of stress, impact, vibra-tions, wind, and extreme events. Usually, it is a combination of dead load stress…

    • 20252 Words
    • 82 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics