In An Occurance at the Owl Creek Bridge, Bierce makes up, the reader, speculate, can one person be drowned in their deepest desires that it becomes reality and the actual reality is meaningless.
The story begins with the scene of capital punishment of a man. As the minutes of life slipped ever so quickly, every sound, movement, and physical being distracted him to the point where he could scream. Since the idea of death led to more torture, impatience, and anxiety, only the desires by his mind could soothe him. His last thought of his family ignites a deeper desire by his consciousness, to escape. He starts to think if he could unbind himself, dodge bullets, or the noose snapped he could return to his family. This leads to the final scene of his imaginative great escape and his adventurous escape to his family. This is his truth. His last conscious thoughts was the adventurous escape and to him that was reality . In this microcosm of his mind the grim reaper never caught him.
All of the factors that led up to the actual reality of this man seems meaningless to his consciousness. For example, the once rebellious confederate cavalryman who required assistance in the quenching of this thirst, was never perceived as a Federal Scout by the planter's family. The fact that the Federal Scout spied on him which led to his tragic demise seems meaningless to his reality. Participating in rebellious acts that led to treason does not seem to conflict with his consciousness. The acts of actual reality never existed in his reality which just made it all false. His imaginative mind draws a line between truth and lie. The truth exists in his deepest desires by his mind's microcosm. The lie exists in the macrocosm of actual reality.
Bierce does a vivid portrayal of the fact, that if a person immerses themselves into a fantasy to the point where it becomes reality and fantasy become the truth.
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