An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is not so much about lies as it is about desperation and the depersonalized state of death.
The desperate mind of a dying man creates an elaborate fantasy escape to preoccupy itself for the final seconds of his life. At the beginning of the story, the narrator talks about how impersonal death is, that all kinds of men can die, even gentlemen. This idea is amplified by how much time is spent discussing the soldiers’ positions and postures, even the methodical way they fire into the water after Peyton thinks he’s fallen into the river. He’s standing there, bound and waiting to die, and he’s watching his executioners acting like they’ve done this a million times before, and they have, but it’s never been him before. You hear about people being executed, about spies and traitors, but it’s different when it’s you. It was easy for him to plot against the Union sentinels in the privacy of his own home, under the porch shade enjoying a glass of water with his wife and a young soldier, but when he actually has to take the punishment for his crime, he doesn’t know how to handle it. So his mind provides a different death, one motivated and controlled that ends how he would want it to. It’s tragic, and it makes being hanged easier and harder on him.
I agree with how the death seems so irrelevant to the narrator. The way the soldiers just kind of chill and act completely casual is a little shocking, it makes life seem so irrelevant. especially since they obviously planned on killing him, it makes it really weird to think that life is so easily disposable. The narrator however makes you so intimate with the thoughts of the planter, and makes you become attached to him, so when he finally does die, it is personal. Kind of a contradiction, no?
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