A Spooky Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

It was fifth-period English III and I opened up the class textbook. The type of book that can double as a 20-pound weight and ruins all the great stories in it by finishing each one with questions that served as homework. I was desperate for something to read, as the substitute seemingly had fallen asleep. I started Oedipus, but didn’t learn to embrace that story until senior year. I then came across a story with a pretty boring but direct name, the title of this blog. Occurrence? What did Americans in the 1800s consider an occurrence? Did someone’s butter spoil?

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce is a short story set in the middle of the Civil War. It is about Peyton, a captured soldier who is condemned to death. It goes into elaborate detail, switching to an exciting escape from his planned demise. He is walking the plank and then something happens in an instant, or not.

The story is so incredibly deceiving, and I actually was woken out of it by the sound of the bell at the end of my class. I walked down the hallway reading it, finishing it before the next class (disclaimer: I wasn’t very cool in high school). The ending is shocking, and typically I dislike short stories because I feel I don’t have enough substance to build a relationship with the characters, but this story provided enough to fully see Peyton's story to the end.

Also, for a creepy evening, you might want to check out the award-winning short subject adaptation of the story. It is in black and white, and leaves you staring at the screen long after it is over, hoping to catch an unambiguous ending. Personally, I prefer my stories like that. This way they are never over.

By the way, the author of the story disappeared in 1913.