Owl Creek Bridge War

In An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, Ambrose Bierce narrates the hanging and the moments prior to the hanging of Peyton Farquhar. Peyton Farquhar, a rich, southern plantation owner, is tricked into sabotaging the Union Army. After failing to burn driftwood located near the bridge, Farquhar awaits his hanging on the bridge. Bierce’s background adds to the depth and realism of the short story, as he himself served with the Ninth Indiana Infantry Regiment, an experience that unmistakably carried into his short stories. Having fought in the Civil War, Bierce often incorporates violence in his stories, and as Korb states, “He was one of the first American writers to hold up the act of war and show it, not humorously or as picturesque, but for what it was; murder” (Korb). This realistic and frank viewpoint contradicts Farquhar, the protagonist, notion of war, who believes that, “all is fair in love and war” (Bierce 35). Ultimately, Ambrose Bierce uses symbols to critique the Romantic idealization of war.
The first, and most effective use of symbolism, is the criticism of America through the use of Peyton Farquhar. Previous to, and at the time of entering the Civil War, America began adopting a Romantic mindset; a major transition from the “Age of
By using a Romantic character, and showcasing their foolishness and ignorance, Bierce, says Cheatham, “Subtly and ironically delineates Farquhar’s naively unrealistic view of war, contrasting it with warfare's harsh truths” (45). Bierce, a muckraker himself, uses his short stories to criticise America's shifting ideologies from rationalism to romanticism. He argues, via An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, that war is caustic and must not be idealized, or the bridge, symbolizing America, will fall