The Influences In Ambrose Bierce's Life

The author of “Chickamauga,” Ambrose Bierce, created this short story as a naturalist visualization of the devastating effects that wars and battles had on the soldiers which fought in them. The short story “Chickamauga” is defined as naturalist literature because of the author’s employment of specific literary techniques which define naturalism, such as the way the author gradually darkens the mood of the storyline as it progresses, the amount of description and attention paid to grisly and macabre details that shed wars in a whole new light, as well as the unfolding nature of the main character as the story

Ambrose Bierce's’ view on the military is much similar than the view of some of ours and he expresses his view throughout “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” Bierce looks at the military, or even war, with an opinion of pure violence. Bierce describes the war as violent and full of suffrage. Never once does Bierce describe war as a pleasing idea.

During the Civil War, many civilians were killed for the cause that they believed in. The protagonist in Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Bridge” is experiencing the same unfortunate fate. This short story is the tale of Peyton Farquhar, a civilian under execution for helping the Confederate army. Bierce uses various literary elements, including imagery and symbolism, to portray suspense. To begin, Bierce utilizes imagery to create tension.

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842– after December 26, 1913) was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist and satirist. Today, he is best known for his short story, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and his satirical lexicon, The Devil's Dictionary. The sardonic view of human nature that informed his work – along with his vehemence as a critic, with his motto "nothing matters" – earned him the nickname "Bitter Bierce." Despite his reputation as a searing critic, however, Bierce was known to encourage younger writers, including poet George Sterling and fiction writer W. C. Morrow. Bierce employed a distinctive style of writing, especially in his stories. This style often

His replica of the small details in his life, assist to highlight the tremendous changes he undergoes to become a child soldier. Here the detailed descriptions of loading the guns, attacking others, and the unending cycle of killing and death are interspersed with bland scenarios about his internal musings. Instead of being able to consider his ambitions of performing in a local talent quest, he is traumatized by the nightmares or flashbacks of being a ‘green snake’, the most effective killing machine he once was.

Bierce conveys the theme of loss of humanity thanks to war through brilliant characterization. The main character, Peyton Fahrquhar, especially demonstrates this concept. In Part I of the story, Bierce characterizes Fahrquhar as a normal and humane person. Bierce writes, “He was a civilian, if one might judge from his habit, which

The story “Chickamauga” is like a weird version of reality and the violence of war. Realism is something that makes situations what they are really like. It makes the characters and their surroundings so convincing. Naturalism analyzes reality from a natural point of view. In Bierce’s short story, “Chickamauga” he delivers a description of war with a child mindset.

The comparisons in the plot service in molding the books and helping the reader to have a better understanding of a soldier’s thoughts, and their mental state of mind. Close friendships form between the boys and other soldiers in their lines, in both cases the friend dies, forcing reality to set in and the boys are stricken with fear, and an urge for blood. At the beginning of the book, like Charley in “Soldier’s Heart,” Henry has certain morals he wants to keep, but loose in the heat of battle, becoming a savage in order to protect himself and his country. Surviving to see the end of the war, both boys have a wound left over from the war, whether it be a mental or physical scar, it is still present. These stories are alike in a numerous amount of ways that gives the reader a better sense of knowledge of what the soldiers go through during battle.

Even though the soldiers join the war as naive youths, the war rapidly changes them and they develop into young men. Surrounded by death, the boys are bound to foresee the fragility of their own lives and are stripped of the carelessness and brazenness of youth. The dreadful horrors around the boys bound them to consider a world that does not accommodate to their childish and simplistic view. They want to only see a separation between what is right and what is wrong, they instead find moral doubt. Where they had wanted to see order and meaning, they only found senselessness and disorder. Where they wanted to find heroism, they only found the selfish instinct of self-preservation. These realizations destroyed the innocence of the boys, maturing and thrusting them into their manhood.

“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” by Ambrose Bierce, is the story of the hanging of a Civil War era Southern gentleman by the name of Peyton Farquhar. The story begins with an unidentified man being prepared to be hanged by a company of Union soldiers on a railroad bridge that runs over a river. He is then identified as Peyton Farquhar, a man who attempted to destroy the very bridge they are standing on based on information he was given by a Federal scout posing as a Confederate soldier. As he is dropped from the bridge to hang, the rope snaps and he falls into the river. After freeing himself and returning to the surface of the river, he realizes that his senses are all much

His replica of the small details in his life, assist to highlight the tremendous changes he undergoes to become a child soldier. Here the detailed descriptions of loading the guns, attacking others, and the unending cycle of killing and death are interspersed with bland scenarios about his internal musings. Instead of being able to consider his ambitions of performing in a local talent quest, he is traumatized by the nightmares or flashbacks of being a ‘green snake’, the most effective killing machine he once was.

The author writes of many different human beings, showing that each one thinks war is ultimately, the worst thing. While in the war, Billy is in the hospital during his imprisonment by the Germans. There is an old general there who was a teacher before joining in the war efforts. One day, in a conversation with Billy and another older man in the hospital, the general starts to talk about what he thinks of the war. He says, "You know-- we’ve had to imagine the war here, and we have imagined that it was being fought by aging men like ourselves. We had forgotten that wars were fought by babies. When I saw those freshly shaved faces, it was a shock. "‘My God, my God----’ I said to myself, ‘It’s the Children’s Crusade’" (p. 106). This general feels that war is nothing but babies being murdered by one another. He is disturbed by the thought of war and the fact that so many young people are dying for its cause.

Chickamauga by Ambrose Beirce is a story based on the theme of anti-war. The author also adds a sense of reality vs. fantasy in the story. The story is told from the point of view of a young “child” whose character is associated with a race of people “born to war and dominance as a heritage.” As a result, the child creates a wooden sword and pretends to fight off invisible enemies just like his ancestors did. Unfortunately, the child is too young to understand the realities of war and he only associates war with bravery. The perception of the young child throughout the novel isn’t very reliable. Often times the narrator would intervene and draw a contrast between the child’s perspectives vs. an adult’s perspective. For instance, when the child

The story “Chickamauga” portrays the reader as the little boy who was aged about six (Bierce, para. 2) so, we know he is a young boy just coming out of the toddler age. As he is blind to the world around him, we are blind to the true horrors of war in the world around us. This story by Ambrose

He is a frightened boy against the war because of the trauma he has seen at the battle with his dad being slain and the common being slayed to by the British