FREE ESSAY ON CHICKAMAUGA

CHICKAMAUGA

Thesis Statement
Ambrose Bierce's "Chickamauga" is representative of his typical subject matter, theme,
and style.
Outline
I. Introduction
II. Biographical Sketch
A. Military experiences
B. Effect of the loss of his wife and eldest son
III. Bierce's subject matter
IV. Bierce's themes
A. Supernatural themes
B. Military themes
V. Bierce's style of writing
VI. Bierce's subject matter in "Chickamauga"
A. Civil War
B. Supernatural
VII. Bierce's theme in "Chickamauga"
VIII. Bierce's style in "Chickamauga"
A. Shifting points of view
B. Adult and child perspectives
IX. Conclusion 
Ambrose Bierce's "Chickamauga" is representative of his typical subject matter, theme,
and style. His subject matter often deals with the Civil War and its horrors. Having
served in several battles during the Civil War, Bierce strives to display, through his
writings, the true devastation which comes as a result of wars. His theme, although
sometimes macabre, emphasizes the reality of warfare. Again, Bierce is relying on his own
war experiences in order to have his audience empathize with his characters. Ambrose
Bierce's style of writing includes shifting of views from one character to another. With
his own unique subject matter, theme, and style, Bierce develops stories which interest
readers from generation to generation.
Ambrose Bierce was born in 1842 (May 368). At the age of 19, Ambrose Bierce joined the
9th Indiana Volunteers, in 1861, for the United States of America (Appelbaum iii). He was
in several of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War (Appelbaum iii). Bierce was at
Chickamauga, where 34,000 men lost their lives (Appelbaum iii). During battles, he risked
his own life several times to rescue his fallen comrades (Appelbaum iii). Once, at
Kennesaw Mountain in northern Georgia, he himself was seriously wounded (Appelbaum iii).
Bierce recovered, though, and he went on to write many stories dealing with the Civil
War. The battles he participated in and the things he saw in those battles gave him
inspiration for his stories (Hall 87). 
Ambrose Bierce used his experiences in the Civil War to understand and to convey to other
people through his writing that war is not glorious--it is horrible. Even though Bierce
wrote more supernatural stories, he is better known for his Civil War short stories (Hall
87). Of a total of ninety-three short stories, fifty-three were supernatural (Gullette).
Bierce was able to write convincing stories with less than one thousand words (Gullette).
Many of his writings are less than three thousand words (Gullette). Some of his short
stories had a Civil War and a supernatural aspect to them. "Chickamauga" is an example of
one of these stories. Sharan K. Hall described Ambrose Bierce's stories as having "an
attraction for death in its more bizarre forms, featuring depictions of mental
deterioration, uncanny manifestations, and expressing the horror of existence in a
meaningless universe" (87). Many of Bierce's stories shock the reader, and the stories
tell about a nightmarish reality (May 370). James K. Folsom described Ambrose Bierce's
writing like this: 
Many people think Ambrose Bierce is obsessed with death; incapable of compassion. A less
moralistic and biographical reevaluation of Bierce's work, however, reveals his
intellectual fascination with the effect of the supernatural on the human imagination.
(222)
Alan Gullette suggested that maybe the reason Bierce is so dark and talks about such
morbid things is because the separation from his wife and the suicide of his eldest son
made him bitter. Gullette suggested that maybe this bitterness strengthened the effect of
his pen and darkened his satire and morbid fiction to an extent perhaps no other author
has achieved. In fact, Bierce earned the nickname of "Bitter Bierce" (Probst 466). 
Even though Bierce wrote short stories that dealt with supernatural themes, he is better
known for his military themes (Folsom 225). The reason is that Bierce was once in the
United States Army during the Civil War, and he was familiar with the armed forces
(Folsom 225). In Bierce's military stories, the theme is an antiwar one (May 369). His
writings center on warfare and the cruel joke it plays on humanity (Probst 466). Ambrose
Bierce wants to destroy the view of many people that war is a place to gain glory. Bierce
wants to replace this viewpoint with the images of people dying and what war is really
like. War is horrible, and it is a place where people die.
Ambrose Bierce uses point of view well (May 370). He shifts views from one person to
another. Gertrude Franklin Atherton said, "Bierce's art of construction is so subtle and
his power so dominant that the minds of his readers are his until they lay down the work"
(88). 
Vincent Starrett explained "Chickamauga" as being unrivaled and representative of
Bierce's greatest accomplishment in the art of writing (89). He wrote:
"Chickamauga" is a grotesquely shocking account of a deaf mute child who, wandering from
home, encounters in the woods a host of wounded soldiers hideously crawling from the
battlefield, and thinks they are playing a game. Rebuffed by the jawless man, upon whose
back he tries to ride, the child ultimately returns to his home, to find it burned and
his mother slain and horribly mutilated by a shell. It probes the very depths of material
horror. (89)
"Chickamauga" follows Ambrose Bierce's typical subject matter. This short story is about
the Civil War because the setting centers around Chickamauga in northern Georgia, in
1864, during the Civil War. "Chickamauga" is also a supernatural story which focuses not
so much on external reality as it does on the strange, dreamlike world that lies
somewhere between fantasy and reality (May 369-370). Bierce holds the reader suspended
between reality and fantasy until the final grotesque realization, which, in hindsight,
explains a great deal (May 370-371). The final episode reveals why the boy never spoke
and why he did not wake up when the soldiers walked right near him and when the cannons
were being fired during the battle at Chickamauga. Twists at the end of Bierce's stories
are common (Gullette).
"Chickamauga" follows Ambrose Bierce's typical theme. In his military stories, Ambrose
Bierce usually has an antiwar theme. James K. Folsom described the theme of the story:
Upon the first reading of the tale leaves one with a slightly false impression of its
meaning. The story does not tell us, as it seems to, and as so many fairy tales do, that
it is better not to leave home and venture into the wild wood. In the world of
"Chickamauga," safety is to be found neither at home nor abroad. By wandering away into
the woods the boy perhaps escaped the fate of those who remained at home, and yet his
symbolic journey has only brought him back to a world where death is everywhere supreme.
(225)
The descriptions of the grotesque views that the boy sees show that Bierce is trying to
show the horrors of war. He wants to show what the soldiers go through during war. Of
Ambrose Bierce's theme in "Chickamauga" Charles E. May said: 
The antiwar theme of Bierce's story depends on the basic tensions between the child world
and the adult world and between fantasy and reality. The boy's fantasy world is his
reality. When he meets the real reality, he is intrigued. He thinks the men who are dying
are in his fantasy world and they become part of his reality. He doesn't know that the
men are dying. Bierce develops the story on the ironic realization that the adult view of
war often springs from childlike views in which men glorify battle in a heroic and
fantasy image, only to find out too late that the reality of war is horror and death.
(369)
"Chickamauga" follows Ambrose Bierce's typical style. He shifts points of view frequently
in his stories. In "Chickamauga," Ambrose Bierce uses the perspective of a deaf mute
child (May 370). Charles E. May wrote that the story depends on Bierce's development of
the perspective of the child, in which the reader is made to see the maimed and bleeding
soldiers as circus clowns and childlike playmates for the boy (370). The child does not
understand what is going on, and he pretends the soldiers are there for his amusement and
that they are friends with which to play. May wrote that this point of view is balanced
by that of an adult narrator, who counterparts the boy's childish view, sometimes in a
developed background exposition, sometimes in a straight declarative statement (370). For
example, when the boy seems to see some strange animals that he does not recognize
crawling through the forest, the narrator simply says, "They were men" (May 370). Another
example is when the boy sees men lying in the water as if without heads, the narrator
simply says, "They were drowned" (May 370). The adult narrator is not named in the story,
but is presented as a disembodied presence who not only sees what the boy sees but also
sees the boy and draws conclusions about the boy's responses (May 370). This technique
allows the reader to see the boy's and the adult narrator's point of view (May 370). The
narrator in the story is the voice of truth. He really sees what is going on, and he
helps the reader understand what the boy is seeing. Without the adult narrator, the
reader would get confused about what the boy is really seeing. The boy is innocent in his
playful point of view, but at the same time the playful point of view is what is
responsible for the death of the individuals who surround the child (May 370).
"Chickamauga" deals with Ambrose Bierce's typical subject matter. It also contains
Ambrose Bierce's usual theme and style. "Chickamauga" represents all of these
characteristics. "Chickamauga" is about the Civil War, and it also has a supernatural
side to it. The story takes place at a Civil War battle, and there is a deaf boy who is
wandering around seeing grotesque figures of humans. The theme of "Chickamauga" is an
antiwar theme. Ambrose Bierce also uses shifting of views. He changes from the adult to
the boy and back and forth. In his use of these different story elements of subject
matter, theme, and style, Ambrose Bierce has developed his own unique way of writing.
Bibliography
Works Cited
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