Analysis Of Stephen Crane 's ' A Mystery Of Heroism ' Essay

To be engaged in war is to be engaged in an armed conflict. Death is an all too ordinary product of war. It is an unsolicited reward for many soldiers that are fighting for their country’s own fictitious freedom. For some of these men, the battlefield is a glimpse into hell, and for others, it is a means to heaven. Many people worry about what happens during war and what will become of their loved ones while they’re fighting, but few realize what happens to those soldiers once they come home. The short stories "Soldier's Home” by Ernest Hemingway and "Speaking of Courage” by Tim O'Brien explore the thematic after effects of war and how it impacts a young person's life. Young people who

Stephen Crane is a Naturalist. Naturalists believe an individual’s life is determined by environment, chance, and heredity. They also believe that free will is an illusion and that people should endure their suffering with quiet dignity. Lastly, Naturalists believe survival of the fittest and natural selection govern people as well as nature, and people resort to the animal during a crisis. Crane uses literary elements to create Naturalist themes in “A Mystery of Heroism” and “An Episode of War.” Although both of the stories have Naturalist themes, Crane uses different elements to create them.

When someone first enlists in the war, they are fresh,new, and ready to fight for their country. As the years go by, war breaks the soldiers down and turns them into rugged, motionless men. The generals mold them into killers with no feelings and only designed to kill without content. This is true in The Sniper by Liam O'Flaherty. The theme of war brings out the worst in people turning them into monsters is developed through three types of conflict: man vs man, man vs himself, man vs circumstances.

Copious bullets, like that of torrential downpour, reign over the battlefield; a setting in which man created through dispute, engulfs each and every individual caught within it. Some are immediately spun into a downward spiral, while with others, it hits them in the midst -- even if they have built an immunity to war’s ways. Two fictional characters, both sharing a similar atmosphere, experience the true affects to war in their own ways. Although war never changes, the individuals do, no matter the situation. This is exemplified through the fictional tales, told by Liam O’Flaherty’s “The Sniper,” as well as Tim O’Brien’s “Where Have You Gone Charming Billy,” and as the main characters are to each their own story, they bear contradistinction to one another in the aspect of war, personality, and the emotional reactions to war.

Our world suffers with many issues such as racism, sexism, hate and prejudice, and society needs people that are strong enough to take a stand. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, courage is displayed in several different forms, especially through three courageous characters. Lee introduces the concept of honorable courage through Mrs. Dubose, a woman who demonstrates that real courage comes from within. Another brave character in the novel is Tom Robinson. He shows everyone how difficult it is for a black man to be both honest and kind no matter the situation. The most courageous person would be Atticus Finch. Atticus is an important character that fits into his own definition of what "real courage" is and demonstrates it in numerous ways throughout the novel, as he goes against most people’s beliefs in order to do what he believes is morally right. Through these three brave characters, Lee tries to reshape people's stereotypical view of courage.

The text, ‘The Things They Carried', is an excellent example which reveals how individuals are changed for the worse through their first hand experience of war. Following the lives of the men both during and after the war in a series of short stories, the impact of the war is accurately portrayed, and provides a rare insight into the guilt stricken minds of soldiers. ‘The Things They Carried' shows the impact of the war in its many forms: the suicide of an ex-soldier upon his return home; the lessening sanity of a medic as the constant death surrounds him; the trauma and guilt of all the soldiers after seeing their friends die, and feeling as if they could have saved them; and the deaths of the soldiers, the most negative impact a war

In the aftermath of a comparatively minor misfortune, all parties concerned seem to be eager to direct the blame to someone or something else. It seems so easy to pin down one specific mistake that caused everything else to go wrong in an everyday situation. However, war is a vastly different story. War is ambiguous, an enormous and intangible event, and it cannot simply be blamed for the resulting deaths for which it is indirectly responsible. Tim O’Brien’s story, “In the Field,” illustrates whom the soldiers turn to with the massive burden of responsibility for a tragedy. The horrible circumstances of war transform all involved and tinge them with an absurd feeling of

The glorified act of war is often staged in historical literature by idolizing the soldiers who partake in the event. Soldiers are made to seem intrepid, ruthless and muscular, each with a ceaseless desire to fight valiantly for their countries. Timothy Findley and Kurt Vonnegut discard this typical hero archetype in their anti-war novels by portraying the soldiers who fight in the war as the men they are, not as the templates of heroes they are expected to fit, in furtherance of strengthening their anti-war stances. Findley and Vonnegut illustrate their protagonists as a tragic hero and an anti-hero, respectively, in order to juxtapose the atrocities of war with the flawed humanness of man and to challenge the stereotypical image of a

In ‘A Mystery of Heroism,” Stephen Crane opens his story with specific details of a war scene. He writes, “He could now be seen lying face downward with a stirruped foot stretched across the body of his dead horse” and “around this motionless pair the shells still howled.” This scene describes how there are dead soldiers and horses just lying around in the middle of the turmoil. That man is just another dead body to everyone else. This shows the reality of war, violent and deadly and definitely not the pretty picture some paint it to be. Later on in the story, Crane also writes “a lieutenant of the battery rode down and passed them, holding his right arm carefully in his left hand. And it was as if his arm was not at all part of him, but belonged

War is by no means simple. It is not just a battle between men or nations, as there are wars rooted within ourselves. War to many is unknown and painful, showing the dark side of humanity, and to others it is a sign of glory and conquest. Ernest Hemingway shows his view of the realities of war in “Soldier’s Home” by the experiences pinned onto Harold Krebs, a WWI veteran. Krebs' loss of interest and detachment to post-war society alludes that an unattainable reality to fit back into everyday life was placed on veterans by civilians who had romanticized views of war. This marks the need for elaborated war stories to end in order for veterans to be deservingly accepted back into society.

Written by Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage is a novel filled with irony. This story is written in the point of view of the main character, Henry Fleming, and tells about his maturation through the war. Including the title, from the beginning to the end of the book there is irony present. The use of irony by Crane helps create a lot of discussion for critics. Henry’s internal debate is a main source of irony in this novel. Also, his fantasy of how he thought war was going to be and how it turned out is ironic.

In this essay, I will discuss how Tim O’Brien’s works “The Things They Carried” and “If I Die in a Combat Zone” reveal the individual human stories that are lost in war. In “The Things They Carried” O’Brien reveals the war stories of Alpha Company and shows how human each soldier is. In “If I Die in a Combat Zone” O’Brien tells his story with clarity, little of the dreamlike quality of “Things They Carried” is in this earlier work, which uses more blunt language that doesn’t hold back. In “If I Die” O’Brien reveals his own personal journey through war and what he experienced. O’Brien’s works prove a point that men, humans fight wars, not ideas. Phil Klay’s novel “Redeployment” is another novel that attempts to humanize soldiers in war. “Redeployment” is an anthology series, each chapter attempts to let us in the head of a new character – set in Afghanistan or in the United States – that is struggling with the current troubles of war. With the help of Phil Klay’s novel I will show how O’Brien’s works illustrate and highlight each story that make a war.

War forces young soldiers to grow up quickly. In Stephen Crane’s Civil War novel, The Red Badge of Courage, Henry Fleming is no exception. He is faced with the hard reality of war and this forces him to readjust his romantic beliefs about war. Through the novel, the reader can trace the growth and development of Henry through these four stages: (1) romanticizing war and the heroic role each soldier plays, (2) facing the realities of war, (3) lying to himself to maintain his self-importance, and (4) realistic awareness of his abilities and place in life. Through Henry’s experiences in his path to self-discovery, he is strongly affected by events that help shape his ideology of war, death,

Crane, Stephen. “An Episode of War.” Great Short Works of Stephen Crane. New York: Harper

What is heroism? Things preformed Superman, Batman, or The Flash? This is what most people think about when they hear the word hero or heroism. Although these characters show heroism, the definition of heroism does not have to be narrowed to the stereotypical hero. Many people have different concepts on heroism. A hero can be a ordinary person like a firefighter or cop. Heroism is a attribute that a person can obtain but they have to choose actions that help others like a fearless firefighter or cop helping others. Heroism also does not call for a reward for being heroic. Heroism is a quality or an act in all of us that a person uses to benefit for the good of other people even if there is a risk.