Comparing War Is Kind And A Mystery Of Heroism

Even though mankind has progressed immeasurably, war never goes out of fashion. Propaganda has always portrayed war as an honorable and chivalrous activity, but the soldiers who participated in those “honorable and chivalrous” activities often did not have the same opinion of war for obvious reasons. Anti-war Authors skillfully use imagery, irony, and structure to convey detailed and truthful messages to the propaganda influenced public. In the book All Quiet on The Western Front, author Erich Maria Remarque skillfully manipulates imagery, irony, and structure to create a thought provoking anti-war message. He uses imagery to describe scenes in vivid detail, using descriptive vocabulary to implant visual, audio, and sensory details in readers’ minds. Irony plays an essential role in amplifying the contrast between unrealistic portrayals of war, and the harsh realities of war. He includes statements that would mean the opposite of what it meant originally, and would use

Often times war is depicted in a victorious, triumphant manner when in reality war is chaotic; full of destruction and death. In Stephen Crane’s “A Mystery of Heroism” and Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge,” we witness the harsh reality of the war and the common human reaction to the havoc. Fred Collins simply wants water, but the well is on the other side of the battlefield. Peyton Farquhar, a loyal civilian to the South, just wanted to help in the war but instead was hanged for his good-intentioned attempt to destroy the bridge to help the Confederates. Ambrose Bierce and Stephen Crane wrote “An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge” and “A Mystery of Heroism” to show the natural human condition in adverse situations.

Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front has a central theme of the harsh realities of war and a general negative attitude toward the subject. This attitude is synonymous of other war poems such as Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen and War Is Kind by Stephen Crane; however, the attitudes are revealed differently in all three pieces through each respective author’s use of diction, imagery, and tone.

War is a horrible and devastating event that hurts many people in many ways. This something many people have to cope with. Authors are among those who have to cope with war as well. Many people cope different ways but authors cope by protesting war. To do this authors use imagery, irony, and structure.

One aspect writers use to protest war is by demonstrating the irony in fighting. In Stephen Crane’s, War is Kind, it is said to “not weep...war is kind” (1). During war a great amount of risk is placed upon the soldiers which is the complete opposite of kind. In Amy Lowell’s, Patterns, a man “in a month would [be a husband]” (81-90). Instead of coming home for a wedding, they would return home in a casket. In Kevin Powers, The Yellow Birds, it explains how you are also “taught your whole life there is no making up for [killing] but even your own mother is happy” (Powers D). It is ironic that killing people has been instilled in your head to be awful, but when you are killing people in a war you are known as a hero.

¨And in the end, of course, a true war story is never about war… It's about love and memory. It's about sorrow. It's about sisters who never write back and people who never listen.¨ (81). The point of writing a war story is never about war, it's about people that are caught up the war.

Born in 1871, Stephen Crane was raised in a Methodist family. While training to become a professional baseball player, he eventually chose to write as his career. Throughout most of his life, Stephen stuck to his commitment that all his work should be backed by personal experience on the subject matter. However, his most famous work, The Red Badge of Courage was completely based on his remarkable imagination. He had no war experience; however, his vivid descriptions and details of war surprised critics with their incredible accuracy. Stephen’s approach at writing the novel was to emphasize the passion, confusion, and growth of the soldiers, as most of the war tales at the time were merely factual. The Red Badge of Courage presents war in a new light, one of emotional struggles and mental milestones.

Thomas Mann once said “War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace.” This quote exemplifies how detrimental the war was in this time. Throughout history, different authors wrote about how they used their knowledge about war to protest against the horror that war brings. Author Stephen Crane writes about perception versus reality in his poem “War is Kind”. Author Wilfred Owen who served in the British army wrote “Dulce et Decorum Est” before getting killed in action in 1918. Also, author Tim O’Brien who is an american novelist wrote to protest the war in The Things They Carried. Lastly, author Kevin Powers, who is known for his book The Yellow Birds. These writers use imagery, irony, and structure to protest war.

Kurt Vonnegut is able to put a man’s face on war in his short story, “All the King’s Horse ”, and he exemplifies that in a time of war, the most forgotten effect on nations is the amount of innocent lives lost in meaningless battle due to unjust rulers fighting each other against a nation’s will. As Americans, we are oblivious to the fact that we have people fighting every day for our country. In addition, we ignore the fact that we do a lot of collateral damage and hurt innocent people unintentionally in order to get what we want. Vonnegut shows the reader in Pi Ying’s own sadistic way of demonstrating how he feels about war brings attention to the point that war, while unruly and cruel, is nothing

Stephen Crane is a naturalist writer who uses many narrative elements in his writing to create naturalist themes. Naturalists believe that a person’s life is determined by factors like environment and chance, that free will is an illusion, and that people should endure their suffering with quiet dignity. Naturalists also believe that natural selection and survival of the fittest govern all people. Crane uses setting, characters, plot, and conflict to develop his naturalist themes. By comparing and contrasting his two stories “A Mystery of Heroism” and “An Episode of War,” readers can see different ways he uses narrative elements to produce naturalist themes.

“The Tragedy of war is that it uses man’s best to do man’s worst” wise words from Henry Fosdick. When it comes down to the time where an individual hits rock bottom, a man either do its best or do its worst. Although, Man can do its best and do its worst at the same time. There are many reasons how man’s best can result to man’s worst. Henry Fosdick statement is both true and false.

As you have read war is a very different type of world everything is turned around and it confuses people. The author of the book The Things They Carried and the writer of the quote "It has been said of war that it is a world where the past has a strong grip on the present, where machines seemed sometimes to have more will power than me, where nice boys (girls) were attracted to them, where bodies ruptured and burned and stand, where the evil thing trying to kill you could look disconnecting human and where except in your imagination it was impossible to be heroic." relates to each of his stories. Wrote about war so people could have a better understanding of

Heroes have achieved many feats that support the belief of a greater good and expressing valor and selflessness through the ages. There are fictional or real life accounts that have recognized these men and women for their vigor and marked them as heroes due to their events of success and motives of committing the heroic deeds. Yet there are copious amounts of people who have sacrifice themselves for a greater good but they have been lost through time even if their actions were prosperous or doomed in the end with a valiant purpose. They are unsung heroes who committed the actions based on their inner fire of what is right or honorable or rather than the fame they hope to achieve from those acts. The world or a populous may not know of their actions, but the actions and beliefs of an individual or group can entitle them of being hero-like without the necessity of recognition and success. They have lost their lives or a part of themselves to a cause based on righteousness rather than self-gain. They presented selfless heroism rather than the the intention to receive praise from the victories. Sacrifice contributes more to Heroism because the individual invested his or her own determination, valor and accepting the opportunity to risk their self-health (physical or psychological) based on great intentions rather than reaping the accolades of committing good deeds.

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

Most poets use their unique gift of writing poetry to relieve stress or just to document their emotions towards a given subject. Others use it as a key to bring about social change and voice their opinion on modern events. This is the case in Stephen Crane’s War Is Kind. The speaker in the poem uses irony as a strategy to convince the reader of the harsh reality of war.