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Chickamauga Ambrose Bierce's Chickamauga is a disillusioned child's awakening. Literally, a six year old deaf boy is thrown into a most horrifically traumatic series of events. His story is relayed in the third person omniscient perspective through the eyes of the child as well as an elder. It takes place during the Civil War in a southern town. Chickamauga begins with the boy's entrance into the forest where he goes to play solitarily. With him …

…inflicted upon someone we know or love it becomes so intensely real that it is impossible to grasp. This impossible conception is analogous to the small boy's incoherent cries and gestures at the end. The theft of this child's innocence was slow and unperceivable in the forest, but most definitely contributed to the final jolt the child felt at the end. The boy slowly progressed towards reality, and when it finally clicked it was appalling.