Chickamauga Bierce Theme

1108 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Impact on civil war essay

Chickamauga Analysis
The Civil War forced citizens across the United States to face the realities and understand the consequences of war forcefully, due to the presence of the highest American casualties in any war, happening to be fought on the homefront.
Ambrose Bierce showcases his personal experience in battle through the events of “Chickamauga”, including gore, personal loss, and shock. This story tells of a young child that ends up in the aftermath of the second most costly battle of the Civil War, and the magnitude of the losses each person must bear due to violent conflict.
Ambrose Bierce’s use of: Tone, Imagery, and Point of View prove that experience and understanding must be applied to the evaluation of topics, and is illustrated …show more content…

As the boy has now speaking or hearing ability, visual perception is heavily relied upon throughout the short story, and shows how this unilateral analyzation could be misconstrued by observers with less experience. “But on and ever on they crept, these maimed and bleeding men, as heedless as he of the dramatic contrast between his laughter and their own ghastly gravity. To him it was a merry spectacle.” This quote shows the misinterpretation of the scene by the boy’s reaction, unknowingly cruel and torturous showing his lack of a grasp on injury and death. The description present in this quote truly shows the seriousness of the situation, however the boy is not able to realize this in contrast to the reader. Imagery in “Chickamauga” is not only of gore and violence, but of beauty and peace in the exposition. The imagery in “Chickamauga” definitively shows the differences between the information that the boy perceives and what is truly present. This imagery also highlights exactly what the boy is seeing and shows his inexperience in interpreting the situation he is in. “All their faces were singularly white and many were streaked and gouted with red. Something in this--something too, perhaps, in their grotesque attitudes and movements--reminded him of the painted clown whom he had seen last summer in the circus, and he laughed as he watched them. This quote shows the injuries many of the soldiers have attained over the course of the battle and describe their appearance in striking detail. Despite this gruesome appearance the child believes the injured soldiers to be clown-like or resembling something that they aren’t. These impressively realistic descriptions are only a product of first-hand experience, which Bierce possesses as a Civil War

Show More
Related

  • Civil War Diary Of Cyrus F. Boyd

    1155 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Civil War had a very large affect on all of the States. It changed men from gentlemen that went to church every Sunday and never cussed to people who rarely went to church and cussed all the time. Some of the people in the war were also very corrupt and did not do things as they should be done. The way that the enemy was looked at was even changed. All of these things were talked about in "The Civil War Diary of Cyrus F. Boyd".

    Read More

  • Shelby Foote's Shiloh

    1656 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the novel Shiloh, historian and Civil War expert Shelby Foote delivers a spare, unflinching account of the battle of Shiloh, which was fought over the course of two days in April 1862. By mirroring the troops' movements through the woods of Tennessee with the activity of each soldier's mind, Foote offers the reader a broad perspective of the battle and a detailed view of the issues behind it. The battle becomes tangible as Foote interweaves the observations of Union and Confederate officers, simple foot soldiers, brave men, and cowards and describes the roar of the muskets and the haze of the gun smoke. The author's vivid storytelling creates a rich chronicle of a pivotal battle in American history.

    Read More

  • Irony in Tim O’Brien’s How to Tell a True War Story

    2118 Words  | 5 Pages

    O’Brien, Tim. “How To Tell a True War Story.” The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford St. Martins, 2003. p. 420-429.

    Read More

  • Analysis of The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

    1347 Words  | 3 Pages

    “In many cases a true war story cannot be believed. If you believe it, be skeptical. Often the crazy stuff is true and the normal stuff isn’t, because the normal stuff is necessary to make you believe the truly incredible craziness.” Pg. 71 This is very true. It follows the saying “You can’t handle the truth” because if one hears it, they think it’s a lie, or the truth being stretched. The use of imagery allows the author to express the emotion he had when he was at war.

    Read More

  • The Black Flower: A Novel of the Civil War

    2584 Words  | 6 Pages

    This type of novel is recommended for anyone interested in the Civil War. Not too many books explore the southern battles, especially from a Confederates soldier’s point of view. Bahr does an excellent job at capturing the essence of the Civil War and its affects on the people involved. The novel was nominated for several awards, earning the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Gettysburg College, won the Book-of-the-Month Club, and was a New York Times Notable Book. The book showed some popularity and sold 10,000 copies, but was heavily overshadowed by another...

    Read More

  • Essay On The Causes Of The Civil War Dbq

    848 Words  | 2 Pages

    The American Civil War was caused because of the North and South differences in economies, disagreements about abolishing slavery and whether the state or federal government had more power. These three factors played a key role in America's deadliest war. Understanding the causes of the Civil War is important because the war was one of the most important events in our nation's history. After the Civil War all men were truly created equal, it reunited the country as one, and redefined what it meant to be an

    Read More

  • All Quiet On The Western Front

    611 Words  | 2 Pages

    War slowly begins to strip away the ideals these boy-men once cherished. Their respect for authority is torn away by their disillusionment with their schoolteacher, Kantorek who pushed them to join. This is followed by their brief encounter with Corporal Himmelstoss at boot camp. The contemptible tactics that their superior officer Himmelstoss perpetrates in the name of discipline finally shatters their respect for authority. As the boys, fresh from boot camp, march toward the front for the first time, each one looks over his shoulder at the departing transport truck. They realize that they have now cast aside their lives as schoolboys and they feel the numbing reality of their uncertain futures.

    Read More

  • Themes In Vonnegut's 'Slaughterhouse-Five'?

    894 Words  | 2 Pages

    The critic Peter J. Reed has investigated this affinity between men at war and children in Slaughterhouse-Five in depth. He concludes that: “Young of face, gawky of stature and childishly perplexed, Billy Pilgrim, who like the crusader starts out on a holy mission as chaplain's assistant, makes the perfect representational figure for this conception of war" (183) .

    Read More

  • The American Civil War

    575 Words  | 2 Pages

    Following the American Civil War, the whole nation was forever changed and was the result of many good and bad things. Although it was a very costly war and was So, the Civil War did define us and made us the good and the bad things we are and led to an extremely significant change because slavery was abolished once and for all and African American rights followed many years later, the Federal Government imposed more power over the states, our country was divided for a while, and it left the nation in debt due to the fact that we fought each other.

    Read More

  • All Quiet on the Western Front

    1386 Words  | 3 Pages

    Imagine being in an ongoing battle where friends and others are dying.  All that is heard are bullets being shot, it smells like gas is near, and hearts race as the times go by.  This is similar to what war is like.  In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, the narrator, Paul Baumer, and his friends encounter the ideals of suffering, death, pain, and despair.  There is a huge change in these men; at the beginning of feel the same way about it.  During the war the men experience many feelings, especially the loss of loved ones.  These feelings are shown through their first experience at training camp, during the actual battles, and in the hospital.  Training camp was the first actuality of what war was going to be like for the men.  They thought that it would be fun, and they could take pride in defending their country.  Their teacher, Kantorek, told them that they should all enroll in the war.  Because of this, almost all of the men in the class enrolled.  It was in training camp that they met their cruel corporal, Himelstoss.&nbs most by him.  They have to lie down in the mud and practice shooting and jumping up.  Also, these three men must remake Himelstoss’ bed fourteen times, until it is perfect.  Himelstoss puts the young men through so much horror that they yearn for their revenge.  Himelstoss is humiliated when he goes to tell on Tjaden, and Tjaden only receives an easy punishment.  Training camp is as death and destruction.  Training camp is just a glimpse of what war really is.  The men do not gain full knowledge of war until they go to the front line.   The front line is the most brutal part of the war.  The front line is the place in which the battles are fought.  Battles can only be described in one word- chaos.  Men are running around trying to protect themselves while shooting is in the trench with an unknown man from the other side.  This battle begins with shells bursting as they hit the ground and machine guns that rattle as they are being fired.  In order to ensure his survival, Paul must kill the other man.  First, Paul stabs the man, but he struggles for his life.  He dies shortly after, and Paul discovers who he has killed.  The man is Gerald Duval, a printer.&n Having to deal with killing others is one of the horrors of war. The men who are killed and the people who kill them could have been friends, if only they were on the same side.    The other important battle leaves both Paul and Kropp with injuries.

    Read More

  • Impact Of The Civil War On American History

    1141 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Civil War was an important war over the freedom of slaves in the U.S.. The Civil War is well known for being caused by the issue of slavery, but it is really a combination of different events and actions that caused tensions to rise throughout the country. The economic and political issues in the U.S., along with certain actions caused the Civil war, which is one of the United States’s worst wars. All in all, the Civil War was one of the most devastating wars for our country as a whole, and the process of rebuilding would take years and is no easy job.

    Read More

  • A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

    1199 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...it may help us arrive at an understanding of the war situation through the eyes of what were those of an innocent child. It is almost unique in the sense that this was perhaps the first time that a child soldier has been able to directly give literary voice to one of the most distressing phenomena of the late 20th century: the rise of the child-killer. While the book does give a glimpse of the war situation, the story should be taken with a grain of salt.

    Read More

  • Disillusualism In Chickamauga

    783 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the short story “Chickamauga”, the author Ambrose Bierce uses a young boy to connect to his audience with what is the disillusions of war, then leads them into the actuality and brutalities of war. Bierce uses a six year old boy as his instrument to relate to his readers the spirits of men going into combat, then transferring them into the actual terrors of war.

    Read More

  • Ambrose Bierce’s Experience During the Civil War and Its Influence on His Writing

    921 Words  | 2 Pages

    The next four years were spent traveling the states fighting in some of the most well known battles of the Civil War . Ambrose Bierce’s experience during the Civil War where he faced the dangers of nature and man influenced his writing.

    Read More

  • All Quiet on the Western Front and the Horrors of War

    728 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of the worst things about war is the severity of carnage that it bestows upon mankind.  Men are killed by the millions in the worst ways imaginable.  Bodies are blown apart, limbs are cracked and torn and flesh is melted away from the bone.  Dying eyes watch as internal organs are spilled of empty cavities, naked torso are hung in trees and men are forced to run on stumps when their feet are blown off.  Along with the horrific deaths that accompany war, the injuries often outnumber dead men. As Paul Baumer witnessed in the hospital, the injuries were terrifying and often led to death.  His turmoil is expressed in the lines, “Day after day goes by with pain and fear, groans and death gurgles. Even the death room I no use anymore; it is too small.”  The men who make it through the war take with them mental and physical scarification from their experiences.

    Read More

More about Chickamauga Bierce Theme

Open Document