An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

Sing Ruby Siu
English 48B
January 8, 2009
Journal #1 Ambrose Bierce



QUOTE:
"The sudden arrest of his motion, the abrasion of one of his hands on the gravel, restored him, and he wept with delight. He dug his fingers into the sand, threw it over himself in handfuls and audibly blessed it. It looked like diamonds, rubies, emeralds; he could think of nothing beautiful which it did not resemble" (Bierce 365).


SUMMARY:
The man in the quote was Peyton Farquhar. He was originally sentenced to death by hanging on the Owl Creek Bridge. He successfully escaped in the stream and was swirled into a vortex that brought him onto a river bank. After his vigorous struggles, he consciously touched and examined a tangible object with no threats or enemies around the first time. Therefore, he felt wholeheartedly the joy of survival and he was so eager to overwhelm himself in his living senses. At that moment, he cherished everything around him so dearly that he even took sand as gems.

RESPONSE:
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge was divided into three parts. The first two parts mainly describe the theatrical settings, characters’ features and actions, the on-going process of execution and the background of the man to be hung. Part three continues the narration of the hanging and depicts the thrilling escape experience of Farquhar. My quote is extracted from part three when Farquhar successfully freed himself from his enemies and expressed his joy of survival. However, according to Wikipedia, “Farquhar never escaped at all.” In other words, the rope that was hanging Farquhar did not break while the sergeant dropped him down the bridge. There was no chance at all for him to get into the water and to loosen the noose on his neck. All the struggles and journeys in part three were his last thoughts and imaginations before his neck broke.

No matter Farquhar was killed by hanging or, as he imagined, by cannon, his last thoughts demonstrated ardent eagerness to survive. Also, he imaginatively crawled back to his home and met his wife at the front door. This shows that his mind was occupied by some intense concerns and sorrows towards his family during his last breath. I was so moved by the beautiful visions he saw in his own illusion that his positive and sympathetic character reinforces my own value of life.

After reading Ambrose Bierce’s writing, I went online and noticed that the headline of Yahoo! Hong Kong was about a 15 year-old girl’s death. Heather Lam committed suicide by jumping off her apartment’s balcony because she was too stressful during school’s exam week. When I read the news details, I was shocked because this girl was from my high-school and I even remember this person. The whole afternoon I was in uneasy melancholy and could not stop myself from thinking about the incident.

In accordance with Bierce’s passage, Farquhar psychologically clung onto his last chance of survival even when he was doomed to die. However, in reality, people choose to lose their lives even when they have the chance to live and make a difference. My gloomy feeling and sympathy for Heather’s family were unsettling. I felt pity for this adolescent girl, whose unexplored future is just “like diamonds, rubies, emeralds; [I] could think of nothing beautiful which it did not resemble” (Bierce 365).