The author’s obsession with death is evident in An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. I really had thought that Peyton Farquhar had managed to get away from the solders. Though a Yankee myself I have always preferred the characters in stories that are on the Southern side of the Civil War. I feel like the North had somehow provoked Farquhar into whatever he did to be hanged for. The North had sent a scout out into Southern territory to ask about, and then the scout tells Farquhar about a great quantity of drift wood at the bridge that would go up in flames quickly. Telling Farquhar, a southern supporter, something that would hinder the North so much is just asking him to go out and set it on fire. That was a trap and I don’t think that is fair to Farquhar. Farquhar seemed to only do whatever he could for the cause he believed in whole heartedly.
When the story seems to continue with Farquhar getting away and returning home was told so vividly that it was believable that he really did get away. Until he is roaming through the woods without any sign of human habitation and with “black bodies of the great trees forming a straight wall” this started giving me the idea that he didn’t really make it but more was his death walk. This was really just his spirit going home to his wife and not his physical body returning to her. It was like he didn’t know that he had died so his spirit went home just like he wanted to.
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