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Chickamauga (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)

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Like “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” “Chickamauga” possesses classic Biercean features, including the violence of war and a bizarre version of reality. The chief difference in this story, however, is that the bizarre reality, for all its appearance as such, is no dream; it is all too real.

The story tells of a small boy, who, with toy wooden sword in hand, wanders off into the woods to fight invisible foes, just as his ancestors have battled real ones. The boy strays too far and becomes lost. Finally, he lies down to rest and sleeps for several hours. Soon after he...

[The entire page is 875 words long]

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