Chickamauga

The child is the protagonist and hero of this story. He is not quite a hero in the sense that he believes himself to be one, however. At the beginning of the story, his quest seems to be a simple one: he is fighting imaginary enemies, whom he vanquishes swiftly enough. By the story’s end, his quest has become more complicated, although no less abstract. We understand him to be fighting not one single adversary, but rather war itself.

The child is unnamed throughout the story, which serves to make him both indistinct and universal, like a figure in an allegory. He can be seen to represent not only restless and venturesome little boys in general, but also misguided grown men. His blind spots can be seen as exaggerated versions of the blind spots of army generals, who become so caught up in abstract notions of strategy and victory that they fail to notice the bloody devastation right in front of them. This desire to win at all costs ultimately renders such men helpless, as is seen by the boy’s speechlessness and helplessness at the story’s end.  

Although we understand the child to have inherited a violent and bloodthirsty legacy—one not only of war-mongering but of slaveholding—we do not see him in a completely unsympathetic light.