“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” 209we are, and we have to make it look better.” Like
Augie, Simon realizes that much of class distinction
lies in presentation, and he does his research in order
to move upward. For his part, Augie “had a fit of
hate for the fat person he [Simon] was becoming”
and develops a “dawning thought about rudeness as
the measure of achievement.” That dawning thought
pervades the novel’s presentation of class division,
as many of Augie’s encounters with the rich and
powerful result in revelations of their single-minded
self-importance.
While with the Renlings, Thea and Esther
Fenchel, whom Augie refers to as the Fenchel heir-
esses, mistakenly think that Augie is Mrs. Renling’s
gigolo, with Thea telling him matter-of-factly that
her sister believes “that you service the lady that
you’re with.” This assumption repeats itself when
Thea and Augie travel to Mexico, where Thea plans
to divorce her husband and train an eagle to hunt
lizards, a mission that Augie belatedly comes to
realize springs from her pampered lifestyle. As their
relationship sours, Augie soon realizes that others
see him as Thea’s kept man. Stella, an acquaintance
who’s also in Mexico at the expense of a compan-
ion, tells him, “[I]t’s her house, isn’t it, and all the
things are hers? What have you got of your own?”
While Augie has his reasons for being with Thea, he
understands the interpretive power of class expecta-
tions to those outside the relationship, suspecting
in turn the truth of their perception and prompting
him to declare, “All I want is something of my own,
and bethink myself.” Tired of living off others and
for others, Augie wants to escape the social connec-
tions that he feels constrict him.
Augie’s desire is the text’s desire to negate social
class and retreat into a republic of the spirit, a utopia
built on the classic texts of Western civilization, but
as his friend Clem Tambow concludes, “I wish you
luck... but I don’t think it can ever happen.
Richard Hancuff
BIERCE, AMBROSE “An Occurrence
at Owl Creek Bridge” (1891)
“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” the best-
known short story in Ambrose Bierce’s collection
Tales of Soldiers and Civilians (1891), is a brief narra-
tive set in north Alabama during the American Civil
War. Organized in three sections, the story drama-
tizes the military execution by federal troops of an
Alabama planter, Peyton Farquhar. Part 1 shows the
noncombatant Southerner being prepared for hang-
ing on the bridge after having been caught trying to
burn it down; part 2 flashes back to dramatize how
a disguised Union spy gave Farquhar the idea of tar-
geting this strategic railroad link; and part 3 follows
the stages of an elaborate, delusional escape that
Farquhar envisions during the instant he is dropping
to his death. Though details in Farquhar’s mental
flight seem implausible, Bierce’s closing sentence
still delivers shock and surprise to first-time readers
by reporting that Farquhar is dead, his neck broken
and his corpse dangling over the creek.
An example of naturalistic realism, Bierce’s
narrative blends sharp external description with
a vivid stream-of-consciousness monologue. The
omniscient point of view focuses on Farquhar as the
center of consciousness and protagonist while leav-
ing the other characters, including his antagonists,
flat and undeveloped. Though Bierce (1842–ca.
1914) himself was a Union veteran, his techniques
here create empathy for Farquhar, a Southerner,
thus enhancing the tragic effects of pity and fear as
readers witness the dying man’s internal agonies and
imaginative delusions. Concurrently, Bierce’s tone is
detached, tinged with irony, sarcasm, and implicit
cynicism. Contemporaries fittingly called the author
“Bitter Bierce.”
Roy Neil GravesdeatH in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek
Bridge”
Set in northern Alabama during the American Civil
War (1861–65), Ambrose Bierce’s short story “An
Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” dramatizes the
hanging of Peyton Farquhar, a Southern planter
whom Union troops have captured while he was
trying to burn down the militarily strategic bridge
named in the title. Part 1 of the story shows Farqu-
har on the bridge being readied for execution. Part
2, a flashback, tells how a Union spy visited Farquhar
at his plantation, 30 miles away, and lured him into
trying to sabotage the bridge. Part 3, a stream-of-
consciousness section except for the last sentence,