Ambrose Bierce's Chickamaug The Reality Of War

The reality of war and the fantasy of war are two very different things. Adults often glorify war and see it as an emasculator, even as a necessary part of progress, but the cruel reality of war only brings death and ruin. The narrator is not named in the story but is a boy who is merely six years of age. This young boy becomes an unfortunate victim to the disaster that is war. In Ambrose Bierce’s short story, Chickamauga, the young boy’s childlike innocence in the beginning is proof that war changes people and forces them to grow up, often to become something and someone that they would not have otherwise.
Imagination is an illusion and can bring comfort in times of destruction. Symbolizing the fine line between reality and fantasy is the young boy’s wooden sword. The boy treads through the forest, sword in hand, and …show more content…
It was disheartening that the young boy could play pretend with the obviously dying soldiers, “with his childlike imagination, imitates the heroic behavior of a male adult” (Bettina Hofmann). His imagination causes him to see the men as his own army and himself as a brave leader.

The point of view, however, is interesting; Bierce, an actual Civil War veteran, tells the story from a child’s perspective. Growing up around war, the boy shows insensitivity to the dying men that he plays with. The young boy is a representation of humanity and sensitivity as he experiences these odious times. War is destruction and the Bierce peeled back the layer of fantasy to shed light on the reality of that destruction.
The final scene of the short story reveals that the young boy is a deaf mute. This is often overlooked as unimportant but Charles May states that “the disengaged and almost autistic response” is critical in understanding the boy’s behavior. The boy plays with dying soldiers, but does not fathom what he is