Stephen Crane's War Is Kind

First, Stephen Crane develops emotional connections with the readers by using irony to comfort the families. He does so by repeating “war is kind” when in fact it is not. He is convincing

The poem War Is Kind by Stephen Crane is ironic. He is saying war is kind, but yet the reader can see that war has not been kind to anyone. A person would think that with the title War Is Kind that the poem would reflect about the good aspects of war not “a field where a thousand corpses lie.” (11) The theme of this poem is war is not kind displayed by irony because Crane writes about how war is devastating despite his title.

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.

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.

1. Crane appeared to be enthusiastic, as he used a fresh approach, to write about the war. There are two quotes, from the story, which, exactly, reveal this. From the first of the quotes, ("...As the landscape charged from brown to green, the the army awakened, and began to tremble with eagerness at the noise of rumors..."), we can tell, that something exciting, in a dramatic way was going on. We can, also, begin to see, that the army seemed to be fighting for something big, since it is mentioned, in the text, that they were awakened, suddenly. The army was fighting, for something they, probably, wanted, badly, as we can see, that the army "began to tremble with eagerness"). The second quote, from the story, which reveals Crane's fresh approach, was ("He was swelled with a tale he had heard from a reliable friend...").

The key aspect that made Crane’s approach to writing fresh was the way he chose to focus on the genuine thoughts and feelings that a soldier experiences in battle. Whereas most war books or stories focus on the heroics and fame of fighting in battle, Crane wrote in such a realistic way that it made war seem cold. Also, he didn’t put an emphasis on talking about the events that took place in battles. Rather than talking about bravery and courage, he talked about the fear and terror that was felt by a soldier being in battle. He presented a character struggling with the thought of being a coward and asking himself if it was possible for him to become a hero.

Scholars, soldiers, and the like have praised Stephen Crane for his accurate depiction of war in The Red Badge of Courage. Having never fought in a war himself, Crane displays a remarkable talent for reproducing precise images, through words, of the sights, smells, and the overall psychological duress of the battlefield. All of this turmoil is witnessed through the eyes of Henry, a young man who enlisted to fight as a Union solider during the American Civil War. Henry joins the army with a romanticized notion of war. “He had, of course, dreamed of battles all his life…” Crane describes, and “in visions he had seen himself in many struggles”

Stephen Crane was an American author during the 19th century who was known to be one of America's leading realistic writers. "Realism" is a style of writing where the author portrays life as it is. The writer doesn’t gloss over the difficult parts of life. One of Crane's most popular realistic books is "The Red Badge of Courage". In "The Red Badge of Courage" Crane tells the story of a fictional soldier named, Henry Fleming, or as Crane usually calls him, "the youth", as he fights during the Civil War.

The year is 1861 and the American Civil War has just begun. The men are on their way to fight courageously in the war. Stephen Crane was able to capture this war in a new way. In his novel The Red Badge of Courage he describes the mental experiences the protagonists of the story, Henry goes through rather than the experiences he indoors with his surrounding. This novel does a great job in capturing the psychological war that any soldier could have when questioning their bravery. Crane became a famous author after writing his first novel which he gained a great reputation from. Crane affected the literary world by being a realist author. He was someone who truly captured the essence of real life events. He captured

In the poem “War Is Kind,” Crane uses structure to protest war by having three regularly placed stanzas in his poem and two indented stanzas in his poem. The three regular stanzas shows how war on the loved ones of a soldier who has died while the two indented stanzas show many traits of war, along with the realities of war. This type structure is effective in protesting war because it emphasizes the effect of death in war using a soldier and his loved ones. The narrator of the poem having to describe the soldier's death to the loved ones also shows the brutality of war along. It also shows the reality of death.

The first recorded war was fought in 2700 BCE. Countless wars have been fought since. Like all issues, people have an attitude toward war. Stephen Crane, the author of “War is Kind” and “A Mystery of Heroism,” has a negative attitude toward war. “War is Kind” is a poem describing the results of war. “A Mystery of Heroism” is a short story centering on Fred Collins, in the midst of battle. Crane uses irony is “War is Kind” and “A Mystery of Heroism” to reveal his dislike of war and its outcomes, thus reflecting his negative attitude toward it.

Pain, violence, blood, and suffering, are all descriptions of war. Stephen Crane is known for his various works that use the use of sarcasm and symbolism. Many of his works were about wars his poem “War is Kind” and “ A Mystery of Heroism” are very similar yet very different at the same time. Stephen Crane uses irony in the poem “ War is Kind” and the short story “A Mystery of Heroism” to prove to the readers that he is opposed to the war by showing his negative view on the war by ironically stating war is a positive thing. He also tries to show the readers the effect the war has on the soldiers families.

In This beautiful poem written by Stephen crane, “War Is Kind”, the author describes how people say the War is good, but continuously lists the opposite. The author tells how the War kills the innocent, and how it is a struggle to survive. The author also mocks people in a way, trying to explain how the war is not kind. In each stanza of this poem, the author describes a way how the War is the complete opposite of what most people think.

Stephen Crane was one of America’s most influential nineteenth century writers of realism. He was credited for being a novelist, short-story-writer, poet, and journalist. He was born on November 1, 1871, in Newark, New Jersey, as Stephen Townley Crane. Stephen was the youngest sibling of fourteen children (“Stephen Crane Biography”). His writing inspiration came from his family. His mother dedicated her life to social concerns, while his father was a Methodist minister. Two of Crane’s brothers were journalists so it was destined for Stephen Crane to become a writer. His passion came from his parents and the insights from his family life. He attended preparatory school at Claverack College, where he developed a better concept of the Civil

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