Reflection- An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

For this reflection, I read the story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce.  I actually thought it was very interesting as I kept reading, because at first I thought it was a little bit confusing.  The story starts out on a bridge (obviously Owl Creek Bridge).  There seems to be many soldiers, both in the middle of the bridge and at the very end of the bridge, and a man who is tied up with ropes.  He is standing on boards with a noose around his neck because they soldiers plan on hanging him.  I felt really bad when Ambrose Bierce was describing the man.  He seemed like an average person, and he was even described as a "gentleman" (Bierce).  As the reading went on, I did not like him so much because he was a slave owner, but I guess it is not very fair for me to judge.  It was just his way of life that he was born and raised into, so he most likely did not even understand the harm he was doing.  I got a little confused at the flashback, when he asked the Federal Scout about what would happen if someone were to be hanged on Owl Creek Bridge.  I do not think the story even mentioned what he did to get the hanging sentence.  Oh well.  Then the man must have gone through some sort of dream or something, because he goes on the fleeing journey only to be hung and killed in the end.  It was very hard for me to find a comparison between "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and the philosophies of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.  The man in the story was a slave owner and literally died for what he believed in, which was the opposite of what Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson believed.  They completely opposed slavery and would have been on the side of the soldiers who killed him.
"An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge, by Ambrose Bierce." Page By Page Books. Read Classic Books Online, Free. Web. 17 Feb. 2012.