The Infinite Power of the Human Mind.

Melissa McMahon

Post Journal on Bierce

January 7 2009

"As he is about to clasp her he feels a stunning blow upon the back of the neck; a blinding white light blazes all about him with a sound like the shock of a cannon-then all is darkness and silence! Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of Owl Creek bridge." (366)

The ending lines from Ambrose Bierce's 'An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge" leave us with the realization that Peyton Farquhar did not escape his hanging with the aid of a broken rope- it seems as if the entire escape sequence painted out by Bierce was in our deceased narrator's mind- a total fantasy/imagination/hallucination/wild hope. Farquhar dies that day on Owl Creek bridge- and the story leaves you wondering if his 'spirit' was the only one to escape.

Ambrose Bierce did not always seem to be a happy man, and was certainly not afraid to write of the things that most would never dare. A wikipedia article quotes Bierce as having a " sardonic view of human nature that informed his work – along with his vehemence as a critic– earned him the nickname, "Bitter Bierce." The nickname seems appropriate, but if you really delved into the world of Ambrose Bierce, you would see that most of his darkly written stories are born directly from the horrific things he witnessed during his time fighting in the Civil War. With his short story, "And Occurrence At Owl Creek," we witness the questionable hanging of Peyton Farquhar, a planter whose thoughts furiously imagine his escape from doom as the rope tightens around his neck. Does Peyton actually escape? It seems so, at least for awhile. The way Bierce paints his miraculous rope breaking free-fall into the waters below gives the reader hope that Peyton will escape and return home to his family. The story takes us right up until he climbs out of the river, walks all day and night, and sees his wife standing outside of their home. It is only then Bierce snaps us back to reality and leaves us with the grisly image of Peyton's body swinging lazily side to side, his neck broken.

It's amazing, really, the way Bierce fills his readers with blind hope and a swelling passion for this man, Peyton Farquhar. I found myself thrilled beyond words when he escaped his captors to return home to his family- it certainly appealed to the romantic side of me. However, the brisk two sentenced way Bierce leaves my beloved character felt-jarring. I couldn't believe it was real- Farquhar's dream of escape was so vivid and encompassing that it flooded into my own imagination and lead me to believe in the one thing he was wishing for above all else. Isn't it amazing what our minds can do? A simple smell or floating memory can transport us through time and make our senses so aware we relive that memory again. When you want something so badly you can actually feel it, it immediately becomes real to you, whether it is or not. Was this the case for Farquhar? That the longing for his family and for his life transported him to their door? Did he imagine the entire journey it took to get there? From the snapping of the rope to the bruises upon his skin? I believe so. I believe that the mind is a powerful thing- able to slow a clock's ticking into a sound like a booming cannon. Farquhar, like any man, longed for his life. The stress of his impending death gave his mind a reason to take over.

And it did.