The Harsh Satire Of Stephen Crane's War Is Kind

In everyday society cruelty is faced, weather yet another person is arrested for the killing of and innocent animal, or even the seemingly never ending brutality of the police forces going viral on YouTube yet again. Of course we have the do not touch subjects, such as war. The constant debate over is killing innocent people okay, just because it’s war. Jack London really brings this point alive in his short story “War”. In this thought-provoking piece of literature the odd uses of characterization, symbolism, morals, and irony lead a reader to an overall statement of theme that simply war is cruel.

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.

Since the beginning of time, humans have sought after power and control. It is human instinct to desire to be the undisputed champion, but when does it become a problem? Warfare has been practiced throughout civilization as a way to justify power. Though the orders come directly from one man, thousands of men and women pay the ultimate sacrifice. In Randall Jerrell’s “The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner”, Jarrell is commenting on the brutality of warfare. Not only does Jarrell address the tragedies of war, he also blames politics, war leaders, and the soldier’s acknowledgement of his duties. (Hill 6) With only five lines of text, his poems allows the reader to understand what a soldier can go through. With the use of Jerrell’s poem, The Vietnam War, and Brian Turner’s “Ameriki Jundee”, the truth of combat will be revealed.

Both Stephen Crane's "Do Not Weep, Maiden, For War Is Kind" and Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est" use vivid images, diction rich with connotation, similes, and metaphors to portray the irony between the idealized glory of war and the lurid reality of war. However, by looking at the different ways these elements are used in each poem, it is clear that the speakers in the two poems are soldiers who come from opposite ends of the spectrum of military ranks. One speaker is an officer and the other is a foot soldier. Each of the speakers/soldiers is dealing with the repercussions from his own realities of the horror of war based on his duty

They sing the soldier’s and those who are signing up a lot of praise, and consider them as proper brave men, and make the cowards sound weak, lazy and bad. The poem uses descriptions of bravery to in its questions, as it asks: “Who’ll grip and tackle the job unafraid?” The word “unafraid” means that it’s asking who is brave and dauntless enough to take on the task. The word “job” also suggests that it’s something that has to be done, so you either pluck up the courage to do it or you’re a coward. The poem also divides the men into two parts: the brave and the cowardly as it goes onto say, “And who wants a seat in the stand” The poem turns the prospect of war into a game, so by taking a seat in the stand you’re not actually participating in the game but watching it from the sidelines.

Stephen Crane can easily be noticed as one of America’s best writers. He wrote of a time that he had not lived in, but he easily created the setting of the American Civil War for most of his well-recognized work. “The Red Badge of Courage” and “An Episode of War” are two pieces of Crane’s writing that are set in the action of the Civil War. To make these pieces of writing as realistic as he could, the characters were greatly recognized by their psychological state of being a part of the war. In Stephen Crane’s “An Episode of War” and “The Red Badge of Courage,” he uses the psychological elements of emotion, action, and diction to emphasize his characters’ state of mind while being a part of the American Civil War.

My interpretation of Crane’s poem, the deeds people tell of war only tell that of the battles, the hardship, no one hears about the “angels on the battlefield” or the interactions that happen outside of battle. He sees the romantic view, and yet the naturalistic view at the same time.

In “Charge of the Light Brigade,” the description of the battle, ranging from Stanzas 3 through 6, makes use of imagery to envelop the reader into the center of the battle, experiencing the terrors that the soldiers were faced with. The multiple uses of “flash’d” creates an image of gleaming swords and frenzied fighting (27). To make the audience visualize the cornered Light Brigade, “cannon to” is repeated often (18). “Valley of Death” not only sets the scene for the poem, but creates an image of a cavernous, treacherous valley for the audience, while producing a feeling of foreboding (7). Owen, in “Dulce et Decorum Est,” utilized intense, distressing imagery to convey the atmosphere of war as accurately as possible.

When someone thinks of war they do not think of sunsets and rainbows, they think of death and destruction. The propaganda surrounding war however, tries to make civilians think war is an amazing place. In Stephen Crane’s poem, “War Is Kind,” Crane tells the horrors of war, but then says it is okay because war is kind. Crane makes the reading think about how all this horrible things happen, but yet the media still tries to say war is safe and the military is a great place to make money and travel the world. The media does not tell you the consequences of war, just tries to sell you on the positives.

War is kind. In the poem, “Do Not Weep, Maiden, for War Is Kind” by Stephen Crane an elaborate depiction of war, emphasizing the negative impacts of warfare through the use of several devices including irony, to parallel ______. Throughout the death and destruction the speaker remains comforted within the chaos, because of an overwhelming desire to reach the divine paradise. Although the speaker witnesses slaughter within the war torn city, he finds peace in attainment of the true divine paradise through death.

Stephen Crane was born shortly after the civil war ended, causing him to experience and write about the devastation of the war. He was a realist which showed heavily in his writing due to the straight-forward approach and emphasis on irony in his works. Poet, Stephen Crane, in his poem “War is Kind” conveys a brutal battle in which a man does not get to return to his family. Crane’s purpose is to enunciate on how war is a destructive force. Crane also uses a soothing, but also blunt, tone which further appeals to the reader’s sense of receiving the news of losing a loved one.

The speaker talks about how the soldiers look “like old beggars under sacks” and how they are “coughing like hags” (1, 2). The imagery in this poem gives a closer look at how the soldiers are feeling about the war. The soldiers are “drunk with fatigue” so tired they did not pay any heed to the dropping gas bombs (7). When the bomb drops on the group there is “an ecstasy of fumbling” to put gas masks on; these descriptions show how quickly the soldiers need to react (9). One soldier, still shouting the warning, began “flound’ring like a man in fire” (12).

He also expresses how drastic and deadly the (American Civil) war was. To begin with, even though Crane says several times throughout the poem “War is kind”, he does not actually mean that. The words “war is kind” is a use of irony, in the poem he lists reasons why war is not kind. Crane shows the emotions of grief and sadness all throughout the poem. For example he says “a field where a thousand corpses lie”(Line 11), which conveys the many deaths in the war.

History has taught us that throughout time, despite the advancement of technology, the main reasons and the atmosphere of war have always been identical. William Owen’s Dulce Et Decorum Est and The Man He Killed by Tom Hardy portray the disheartening, tragic, yet ironic characteristics that encompasses the atmosphere that a warzone embodies. The poems differ the way that the overall message is delivered to the reader, yet they both are the similar in how they want to show the realistic, traumatic image of war to the American people.

This essay discusses the poems “The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke and “Returning, We Hear the Larks” by Isaac Rosenberg. What I wish to argue is that the speaker tries to evoke feelings of patriotism in the first poem, and simultaneous but contrasting feelings of horror and hope in the latter one. Both poems have war and death as their main themes, yet differ significantly from each other.