Chickamauga

The boy has a complex reaction to the fire in this story. He is initially drawn towards it, the story suggests, simply because it is a change from the darkness surrounding him; he does not consider that this change might not be for the better. In his confusion and fearfulness, he has returned to a primitive state, and there is something atavistic about his attraction towards the fire, as a source of light and warmth. It is possible that even the wounded soldiers— none of whom object to the march towards the fire— feel some of this attraction as well.

At the same time that the fire symbolizes warmth and light to the boy, however, it also symbolizes the very destructiveness that he has been trying to escape. We never learn how the fire was started, but it seems clear that it is a weapon of war. The boy is attracted to this destructive aspect of the fire as well; there is something exhilarating to him about its complete wildness: “[T]he spectacle pleased, and he danced with glee in imitation of the wavering flames” (Paragraph 10). Ultimately, the fire absorbs and entraps the boy in much the same way that war and the culture of fighting does; he looks to it for both danger and consolation, as with a spiraling addiction.