Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge Conflict

During the same time as the invention of the bike, plastic, and dynamite, the United States was in a heated civil war. Around this same time is when Ambrose Bierce's short story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” was published. This is a story that explains the time period and some of the problems that were faced. Bierce's short story also shows many moral issues as well, that were considered ok at the time. In his short story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, Ambrose Bierce Demonstrates the brutality of the Civil War and how loyalty played a major role. The American Civil War was a war between the Union and Confederacy in the mid 1800’s. During this time many people were split over some highly controversial issues like slavery. A quote by George William Curtis, a leading anti-federalist, that support this claim is “We are not one people. We are two peoples. We are a people for freedom and a people for slavery. Between the two, conflict is inevitable. “. During this time of conflict Ambrose wrote his short story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”. This story is about a man named Peyton who is being hanged to death for going against the confederacy. …show more content…
At this time people were willing to do anything to win, Even if they knew the consequences, with that said the punishments for some crimes were very harsh. An Example of this is “The commandant has issued an order, which is posted everywhere, declaring that any civilian caught interfering with the railroad, its bridges, tunnels, or trains will be summarily hanged.”. This is a very harsh punishment, and the crazy thing is that Peyton was willing to take that risk, even after he was warned he would die trying to do so. He was also warned that the area would be monitored too. This is not very surprising at the time, because the confederate soldiers still chose to fight even though they were outnumbered