SOURCE: Berkove, Lawrence I. “‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge’: Nothing Better Exists.” In A Prescription for Adversity: The Moral Art of Ambrose Bierce, pp. 113-35. Columbus: The Ohio State University, 2002.

In the following essay, Berkove ranks “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” as one of the most accomplished literary hoaxes ever written, contending that Bierce manipulates the readers of the story by allowing them to project their expectations into the story and “letting those expectations blind them into not reading carefully and thoughtfully enough.”

To Bierce, reason, although imperfect, remains humanity's best hope for preventing a needless death or at least for delaying death's inevitability. Conversely, the failure to use reason, or the misuse of it, will hasten death or bring it on needlessly. This is the theme of Bierce's most famous story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” (CW [The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce], II...