In Bierce's short story "Chickamauga," a young boy has frightening experiences as he walks through the woods. In particular, he encounters a group of soldiers who are bloody and injured as they come back from fighting. Surprisingly, the boy is not scared of these men. In fact, he climbs on the back of one of them as if they are playing. As the story progresses, he leads them forward like it is a game.
The things that do scare the boy are interesting. He startles at the sight of a rabbit and at one of the men when he raises his fist at the boy. The reader does not yet know that the boy is a deaf mute, so it is difficult to understand why he is afraid of a rabbit or a gesture, but not of bloodied soldiers. The irony of the boy's fear is that the thing that should scare him--the violence of war--does not.
It is not until the last scene, where the boy sees his mother murdered, that he shows appropriate, real fear. He finally realizes the dangers of war only when they strike something or someone he knows, namely his mother.
No comments:
Post a Comment