Chickamauga: a Boy's Innocence

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Aurélie Roy 111010112q October 7, 2012 A Boy’s Innocence The first three chapters of Ambrose Bierce’s Chickamauga brought together make the exposition of the story. These chapters prepare the reader by giving information about the character, the setting, the mood, etc. Chickamauga is about a young six-year-old boy who goes out into a deserted forest, bravely looking for adventures and ready to play the role of a courageous explorer. The boy’s innocence as he first enters the woods is one of the main ideas of the first few chapters. The constant use of the word “child” to describe the protagonist is a good example. The following quotation demonstrates how little the boy actually knows about war: “The man loved military books and pictures and the boy had understood enough to make himself a wooden sword […]” (Bierce 189). Although the child leaves in the hopes of becoming a victor, as his ancestors would have it, and wishing to win imaginary fights with his little wooden sword, it is made clear that his vision of war is one of a naïve youngster who has yet to learn about the cruelty of combat. When the little boy wakes up in the forest, he has no idea of what had just been going on around him. When he finally sees what he determines to be wounded men, his childish innocence prevents him from seeing the gravity, the morbidity of the situation: “To him it was a merry spectacle” (Bierce 192). The boy does not recognize the agony of the soldiers: he instead sees them as mere participants in his war game. This is when he places himself in the lead, sword in hand, happily guiding the herd of suffering men. Bierce makes a small reference to the prominence of slavery during the Civil War: “He had seen his father’s Negroes creep upon their hands and knees for his amusement […]” (192). Being used to this slave-holding society, he tries to ride on the back of one
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