Ambrose Bierce.

In The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Vol. II: In the Midst of Life: Tales of Soldiers and Civilians, Ambrose Bierce communicates with his readers about how death, not knowing whether life is certain, and how specific views effects a soldier in war by explaining the horrible deaths and endings of the soldiers lives. Even though war is often portrayed as soldiers risking their lives as an act of bravery and that it should be glorious, Bierce really shows the dark side to how soldiers really die and what thoughts go through their heads while all this is happening. Bierce demonstrates the effects that war has on soldiers by showing death in many broad and vivid ways. One example of death being portrayed in a horrid was when a man couldn’t bare the to keep feeling his death and the pain that he became delusional while dying and started to dream of a way he could have gotten out of the dilemma he was in (An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge). Another example would be when the bravery of Lieutenant Herman Brayle also inspires his men to charge uncalled-for into definite death because they decide to that dying in a victorious death would be better than anything else (Incident of Resaca). These men are portrayed as heroes but really are just victims that are going through certain death. One example of death being portrayed as brave would be when a soldier is admired by many even though they all know he is about to die, but just the image of the soldier being so heroic causes the men’s admiration. The reader can truly see the many horrors that these soldiers have to pass through and the horrid deaths they have to go through from the vivid images that Ambrose Bierce writes. Ambrose Bierce demonstrates the effects that war has on soldiers by showing the uncertainty of life that they had. One example of the uncertainty of life would be when a boy returns to his home to find that his mother is dead and surely could have also had happened to him (Chickamauga). Bierce