Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge

       "Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce is an excellent story, one I had read many times. In the story, Peyton Farquhar is sentenced to death by hanging for committing treason by trying to destroy one of the bridges the Yankees were trying to rebuild. The story leads us to believe that Peyton was captured before he could do any damage to the bridge because the beginning of the story opens up with him about to be hung in front of the town. And the rest of the story tells us how he planned to escape from the noose and go back to his family. And it leads us to believe that he does escape because it goes into elaborate detail of how he escaped and how the soldiers were firing guns and cannons at him and how he had dodged them all. Besides the blow to his shoulder from a gun shot Peyton Farquhar seems to have no other damage afflicted to him. Then, it tells how once he escapes from the soldiers he walks down a path he is unfamiliar with only to find his way home to his family. But, the next thing you know it comes back to reality to him being killed by having his neck snapped.
      If I had not already read the story a few times in the past, this would have shocked me because the whole time a little piece of you wants to see him escape and return to his family because he did not seem like a bad person, he was just trying to help his fellow brothers fighting for the cause. I always enjoy reading this story because it gives you an outlook on how life used to be back then. There were no lethal injections or the electric chair there were death by hangings and to me, I think that would be the worst way to go because you didnt always die right away. And if I were in Peytons shoes I would also try to imagine escaping because who wants to think about themselves dying at any point why not make the best out of a bad situation.
     The only thing about this story that I didnt like was the fact that they did not go into any detail about why he was being hung, I wish they had a section about what he had done at the bridge to be hung because that would have made the story even more suspenseful then it already was.

The Other Two

   "The Other Two" by Edith Wharton was a very interesting story to say the least. The story starts out with Mr. Waythorn's wifes daughter Lily being very ill. Lily was Mrs. Waythorn's wife from a previous marriage. Then the couple get into an argument about Lilys father Mr. Haskett coming to visit. Then, the story continues to say that Mr. Waythorn's business associate Mr. Varick was also his wifes ex-husband. So, in total Alice had been married a total of three times. In the story there were a few quotes to justify to me that Alice was the equivalance of what we call today a "Gold digger" and a mentally or physically abusive person.
         First, it said of the reason Alice divorced Mr. Varick, " He had heard it rumored that a lack of funds had been one of the determining causes of the Varick seperation, but it did not occur to him that Varick's words were intentional" (1703).
         Secondly, it said about Alices divorce of Mr. Haskett, " A man would rather think that his wife has been brutalized by her first husband than that the process has been reversed" (1705). Also, "The little man, in order to be near his daughter, had sold out his share in a profitable business in Utica, and accepted a modest clerkship in a New York manufacturing house" (1706).
         These quotes make me believe that Alice only cared about the men for their money and as soon as she had a hint of them losing it she tried to secure herself with another rich man. Today you see this a lot and it is sad, because people think that their spouse loves them for their soul, but rather they love for their riches. And the last paragraph kind of stuck out to me as well because you can tell that all three of the men when they were in the same room were still in love with Alice because when she walked in it said "the two men were drawn by her smile" (1710)