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Summary Of War Is Kind By Stephen Crane

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In “War is Kind”, Stephen Crane used an experienced military officer tasked with giving death notifications as well as commanding soldiers on the battlefield to reveal his disillusion and contempt with war by conveying sympathy for the people left behind, the shock of perception versus reality, the overall futility of war itself, dehumanization of soldiers, and the power of war to take and destroy. Crane manipulates his readers to feel sympathy for his characters through diction, alliteration, and onomatopoeia which create tone. In stanzas one, three, and five, the speaker is tasked with giving a death notification to women who lost important men in their life. He uses the terms “maiden”, “babe”, and “mother” to describe the women and give them some humanity as well as a connection to the fallen men (Crane 1, 12, 23). These descriptors imply that these women were important to the men they lost and the men were important to them. “Mother”, specifically implies this woman lost a son and provider for not just herself but her family (Crane 23). Readers are also supposed to feel sympathy for the “maiden” who was left to live out the rest of her days with unfulfilled love (Crane 1). Compared to other synonyms, “maiden” is the most innocent sounding invoking the readers to feel more sympathy for the girl. If Crane would have used the word spinster or single, connotations loneliness and old maid are implied instead of connotations of youth and innocence implied with the word

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