Preview

Ambrose Bierce's Chickamauga

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
199 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Ambrose Bierce's Chickamauga
I believe Bierce wanted people to see the fire and brimstone, to hear the ear-piercing cannons, and the odor reek residue from shrapnel mixed with decomposing skin. In Bierce tales, the happiest prairies swiftly turned into a grim nightfall domain inhabited by shadowlike phantoms moving amongst distended carcasses. In that adorned idealism, ethical evolution, and virtuous origins linked with the war, he was able to write that war was nothing more than squandered lives, disfigurement, sickness, deterioration, and ultimately lead to death.

The approach the author has toward the child is echoed in the story. Ambrose Bierce's attitude concerning war, in "Chickamauga" is disgust. In this tale, Bierce defines his hatred to war, through the eyes
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    How Does Tennyson Present War in the Charge of the Light Brigade
    • 258 Words
    • 2 Pages

    How Does Tennyson Present War in the Charge of the Light Brigade

    The poet uses personification to illustrate his feelings about war ‘the mouth of hell’ this implies that he thinks war is destructive and bad that in his opinion it can be associated with hell and that the six hundred charging at those cannons was entering hell and taking the leap from the living world to the afterlife.…

    • 258 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Harrowing Short Story Chickamauga By Amber Bierce
    • 171 Words
    • 1 Page

    Harrowing Short Story Chickamauga By Amber Bierce

    In Amber Bierce’s harrowing short story “Chickamauga,” the author portrays that war is not all honor and glory, but momentous and deathly through imagery. In a make-believe game of battle, a little boy ventured further than his normal grounds and “went forward toward the dark inclosing wood.” The writer uses the words “dark” and “inclosing” to make the reader feel more on edge, and assemble an ominous atmosphere. It hints that this boy is no longer playing a recreation for children. Later on, the child runs into damaged soldiers who’s “creeping figures” had been lit up by a “strange red light,” giving them “monstrous” shadows.…

    • 171 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Plot Summary Of A Separate Peace
    • 994 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Plot Summary Of A Separate Peace

    The backdrop of World War II in A Separate Peace emphasizes the microcosmic war that is occurring in Devon. Military language that is used emphasizes the parallelism of the actual war and Gene’s war throughout the novel. Man’s destructive actions portray man’s inhumanity to man; eradication and killings of the war depict how cruel man can be. Finny’s inability to cope with the cruelty of this world causes him to become oblivious to what’s actually happening. Gene’s constant hatred and envy leads him to loose himself in Finny. He characterizes Finny to have no flaws and believes, “There was no harm in envying your best friend a little” (25). This little envy grew to the extent where Gene had no control of his action and destroyed his best friend’s future.…

    • 994 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    A Separate Peace By John Knowles: Character Analysis
    • 844 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A Separate Peace By John Knowles: Character Analysis

    In the book, A Separate Peace, the author, John Knowles, writes to us a novel about war, but happens to focus more on the war within the human heart. This novel tells a story of two boys’ co-dependency during World War Two, and explores the difficulties with understanding the self during adolescence. Identity is complicated enough as the narrator, Gene Forrester, enters adulthood in a time of war, but a difficult friendship with a fellow student and rival leads to a further confusion of identity. Early in the book, the boys’ relationship is charged by Gene’s jealousy and hate of Phineas’ leadership. However, after Phineas falls from the tree, Gene ejects his darker feelings from himself and turns their relationship in a new direction where co-dependency, instead of envy, drives it. The central relationship between…

    • 844 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Chickamauga Bierce Analysis
    • 329 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Chickamauga Bierce Analysis

    In the story “Chickamauga” by Ambrose Bierce a young child enamored with the ways of war and battle has his innocence shattered by an adventure in the woods gone wrong. At the beginning of the story a young boy adventures into the woods pretending to fight an imaginary foe with his wooden sword. In the course of fighting his foe he comes across a real foe, a rabbit, and runs away frightened. This causes him to become lost and he eventually falls asleep. When he awakens it is night and he stumbles across strange figures shambling along which turn out to be wounded men. Not understanding the significance of these men, the boy pretends they are his force and leads them towards a light he sees. When he gets to the light he finds that a house…

    • 329 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    All Quiet On The Western Front Epigraph Analysis
    • 1401 Words
    • 6 Pages

    All Quiet On The Western Front Epigraph Analysis

    War is often viewed as one of the most dangerous and brutal events ever created. It utterly destroys the humanity and mental state of soldiers fighting in the war. In All Quiet on the Western Front, a world renowned war novel by Erich Maria Remarque, the epigraph states that this novel “will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war.” Staying true to this quote, Remarque tells of the horrors of World War I and fittingly describes the effects that war has on humans through the eyes of the protagonist, Paul Bäumer. In his epigraph Remarque says, “this book is to be neither an accusation, nor a confession, and least of all an adventure.” Except for a few notable exceptions,…

    • 1401 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Heroes by Robert Cormier: An Analysis
    • 1347 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Heroes by Robert Cormier: An Analysis

    Taking Francis as the first example, Cormier’s chosen main character and narrator gains the reader’s preference, but this is done through pity and sympathy for him as he has “no face”, after his return to Frenchtown in Monument, since the “war is over”. These are generally unusual feelings to express towards a hero, different to admiration and gratitude. In the descriptions of the young, pre-war Francis, he is portrayed as timid, weak and lacking in confidence, forever living in the “agony of embarrassment” as he believes he is incapable of anything! Although the passiveness suggests innocence, it is not usually a trait of heroes, implying that heroes are not often a case of innocence. The war destroys Francis’ innocence through his dangerous storage of anger and the inevitable loss of his youthful naivety and inexperience. Psychologically the war infects Francis as it did with so many others, “impatient” to join “that great crusade for freedom” by “fighting the Japs and the Germans”. Suddenly, Francis becomes a…

    • 1347 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    The Wars, Fire Imagery
    • 1223 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Wars, Fire Imagery

    It is evident that the images of fire clearly represent and symbolize Robert’s own emotional distress, and the ways in which the war had affected him. “Robert looked to one side from under the peak of his cap, hoping that no one had seen him flinch from the steam or stepping back from the fire. He was wishing that they would leave. His shoulders hurt. His arm was sore. There were bruises on his back. He ached. He wanted all the others who had got off the train to depart the station before him." (Findley, 73). This simply conveys the physical and mental pain which Robert experiences. Furthermore, one can see that Robert is affected by the physical destructions caused by the war, to illustrate: “…and he stood and he stared as he passed the fires of his father's factories, every furnace blasting red in the night...What were all these fires - and where did his father and his mother sleep beneath the pall of smoke reflecting orange and yellow flames?" (Findley, 126). It is clear that Robert had felt immense distress as he witnessed the ruthlessness of the enemy to destroy any of its opposition. In particular, “The barns were a heap of burning rubble. So was the…

    • 1223 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How To Tell A True War Story Analysis
    • 731 Words
    • 3 Pages

    How To Tell A True War Story Analysis

    The author of How to Tell a True War Story uses this device to emphasize the depth of war. “War is hell,” O’Brien illustrates, “but that’s not the half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love.” If the author had only written “war is hell,” that sentence’s depth could be lost. Yes, we have all heard war is hell, but because the author elaborated and expressed detail about that statement, the reader could better understand war. When trying to express the overwhelming reality of war, people often embellish the truth in an attempt to convey the feelings, emotions, and heartaches involved in such a rare…

    • 731 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Where Have You Gone Charming Billy Analysis
    • 454 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Where Have You Gone Charming Billy Analysis

    What Tim O’Brien is trying to tell the readers is that true stories, such as war stories, can make the reader feel emotion when reading, or listening about a soldier’s experience. In one of his stories “Where have you gone, Charming Billy”, he tells about a scared young man during his time in the war. He tells the readers that fear can make someone act faster before they can even think about knowing what they are doing. He also tells the readers that a war is filled with fear from soldiers with very little bravery.…

    • 454 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Racism in Battle Royal
    • 742 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Racism in Battle Royal

    The story begins with the narrator remembering about the day his grandfather died. His grandfather delivered a speech that would haunt his grandson for years to come. His speech said "Son, after I'm gone I want you to keep up the fight. I never told you, but our life is a war and I have been a traitor all my born days, a spy in the enemy's country ever since I give up my gun back in the reconstruction. Live with your head in the lion's mouth..."(pg 253). This quote is describing the hard life of the narrators grandfather. It is also saying what he needs to do in the future to survive all of the racism and abuse he will endure. Not just the physical pain but mental pain as well because the only way to get by all of that is by just looking past it to get to the better life for all blacks to come.…

    • 742 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Building with Its Face Blown Off/ Analysis
    • 532 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Building with Its Face Blown Off/ Analysis

    The interview that Michael Meyers has with Billy Collins about the writing of this poem gives a person insight to what the author was thinking about as he wrote this poem. Mr. Meyer asks Mr. Collins about the images in the poem, he feels that they are of a photojournalistic quality, and he asks Mr. Collins “isn’t a picture better than a thousand words?” The response that is given is that he wanted to” avoid moralistic antiwar rhetoric”, so he stuck with the visual aspects of a war zone. (Collins, 2005, p. 942)…

    • 532 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Deconstruction Essay
    • 2075 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Deconstruction Essay

    Most novels on war usually perceive only one side in the realm. An author like Timothy Findley can make a novel less about war but more about the physiological impact on ones mind because of war. The Wars is a very powerful and disturbing book with plenty of linguistic contexts. Timothy Findley’s Governor General's Award-winning novel of the First World War tells the story of Robert Ross, a young Canadian who enlists himself in the army after the death of his sister, Rowena. Robert has to cope with challenges of war, and make the transition into manhood and develop new beliefs in order to survive the war. Robert encounters numerous challenges along his journey that forces Robert to re-evaluate the truths that serve as the foundation of his life. This is what exemplifies deconstructive criticism; the moment one questions their truths, and realizes that there is no one central truth, instead, many linguistic oppositions of the same event that changes according to one’s perspective. With the title of Timothy Findley’s novel being The Wars, many false interpretations are suggested as it is just another book about World War I; however, The Wars, by Timothy Findley, digested through a lens of Deconstructive Criticism, one is able to surpass this barrier to find the ambiguities and contradictions of the internal battles illustrated in the novel: the psychological battle of sanity and insanity, the distinction of friend and enemy, and the illusion and reality of the war itself.…

    • 2075 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Inconvenience Of War Analysis
    • 790 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Inconvenience Of War Analysis

    I also chose this passage because of its complexity and underlying meaning to war in the future. This passage was Brittain’s way of showing how she does not enjoy war. She does not enjoy the destruction of war whether it be physical or emotional. This is Brittain’s sort of “cry for help” for the future generations. She is subtly imploring that the future generations take into account the destruction of war before going into it. I believe that the passage ties the book theme together as a whole. War is destructive and spares…

    • 790 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Analytical Essay: The Cruelty Of War
    • 839 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Analytical Essay: The Cruelty Of War

    War is cruel and war is kind. One one hand, lives are ended pointlessly and cruel regimes have no mercy; but on the other, there is an odd sort of kindness, contrary to the cruelty that war can bring, people putting themselves in danger selflessly and the war itself brings about these sudden and extreme acts of generosity. Albert’s struggle to find his horse Joey in the trenches of World War I and Liesel’s hardship as she understands and use literature to combat the issues in the world in World War II show that some people can still be kind in the cruelty of war. These are stories that are set in wars that show the relentless cruelty people, and at the same time, the heartfelt kindness of people.…

    • 839 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics