Occurence At Owl Creek Bridge Essay

Christopher Hagan
English 1302
English 1302 Summary Essay Prompt
The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge happened during the Civil War era. During that time period there was a great deal of tension taking place between the Northerners and the Southerners. There was a man living in an area that was, at the time, a battleground for the war. The Northerners saw the man’s living arrangement, and came to the realization that he was a Southerner. They decided to use this to their advantage, and devised a plan to trick the man. They sent a soldier to the man’s house and had the soldier tell the man about the war situation taking place. The man had no idea that he was in fact a soldier, and was told that the bridge was something that was helping the Northerners to get an upper hand on the Southerners. The soldier then told the man that if someone was able to destroy the bridge, then the Northerners would no longer have the upper hand. The soldier knew that this would get ideas brewing in the head of the man, and it indeed worked as he had planned.
Living in the south during that time period, as a man, you usually dream of fighting in the war, and almost all were chosen at one point and time. There was no real cut-off point for those that weren’t allowed to fight for the southern cause. If you could take a bullet, then you would most likely be allowed to fight. But for some reason this wasn’t the case for the man on the other side of the Owl Creek Bridge. He wasn’t an intricate part of the war, in fact, he wasn’t a part of the war efforts at all. Suddenly, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally do his part, and to help the people he had so long supported and been a part of.
He then set out to do what he thought was right. He headed to the bridge with the intentions of setting the bridge on fire, but little did he know that he was walking directly into a trap. He would be immediately captured by the Northerners, and the instant penalty for his actions...