Journal entry# 7 Ambrose Bierce

Siu Faat Jimmy Wong
English 48b
January 17, 2008
Professor Lankford

Quote:

“Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge”.

Summary:

It is found in the end of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge". The man was executed and his body was remained on the Owl Creek Bridge.

Response:

In the beginning of the story, I feel so sorry to Peyton Farquhar since he has to be hanged on the bridge. However, he escaped from the bridge and jumped into the river. I was so happy that he did not have to be killed. Moreover, I could also felt his courage and insistence to be alive until he could go back home. Before the last sentence appeared, I thought this story was very sweet and touching. Nevertheless, I thought I was fooled that the man was already killed and the story did not actually happen. He did not fall into the river and he did not save his life.
Frankly, I did not like the structure of the story since I did not like to be cheated to move my emotion by some fake words. After reading several times, I figured out that the author actually gave out some hints to the readers that the man was already killed. Throughout the paragraphs, Farquhar kept feeling painful on his neck. He even found that his neck was horribly swollen. However, readers including me still believed that the man was alright and alive. Though I did not like the structure of the story, I think it was quite successful. Under the author’s wonderful description and imagination, readers most probably came up with the image that the man was really swimming in the river and he was feeling so painful with his body.

Anyway, I do not know whether other readers like the structure of this story. One thing I am pretty sure is that they must feel very sorry about the man and feel sad to be fooled.