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

1) Cranes approach in his novel “The Red Badge of Courage” is quite different from any other readings about war at the time. Whereas the general ideas from those novels was that war is a thing of courage, and beauty, the grim reality is that it’s a brutal, terrifying scene. And Crane approached it from the perspective of a lone individual, diving into his mind as the war unfolded in front of him. This led to a literature work that few of the times had ever experienced.

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.

Finally, Shirley Jackson’s “The Possibility of Evil,” includes dramatic irony and in this story, it is to notify readers that looks can be deceiving. A work of literature that contains irony is a very important way to help the reader know the meaning behind the story itself. In “The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty, the author uses situational irony to make readers stop and think about the negative effects of war. This type of irony is present to tell people that war is not only a horrifying adventure, but it can turn “brother against brother.”

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 poem, a soldier

The Universal Soldier is less of a man or human and more so the idea of every soldier combined as well as the perspective war personified. Throughout the song, the Universal Soldier is referred to as “him” and the songs depict what he is and what he does. The lines 1 and 4 are both representative of the height and age parameters for soldiers in 1961, which supports the idea that he represents all soldiers in war. The lines 22-24 depict him as the armies both Hitler and Caesar have; without both of their armies, they could not have accomplished what they did.

World War One poets Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen both use poetry to examine their differing perspectives surrounding the idea of heroism in war. Brooke’s The Soldier depicts an idealistic, patriotic view towards fighting for his country, whereas Owen’s Dulce et Decorum est demonstrates a realistic view of the senseless horrors of war. Both poets utilise similar poetic techniques of imagery and sound devices to express their contradictory views of the atrocious events of the greatest war that the world had ever seen at that time.

This specific document titled “Heroes and Heroines of the War” was created by Thomas Nast in 1864. Thomas Nast was born on September 27, 1840 in Germany, but six years later his family moved to New York to start a fresh life. Even from a young age, Nast was an avid drawer who later in life would make his greatest ambition into an occupation. He began his career as a political cartoon artist for the Leslie’s Illustrated in 1855 and then in 1859 continued his passion of illustrating at Harper’s Weekly. His work as an artist made a profound effect on many individuals and impacted how America pondered certain subjects. Nast was a dedicated northerner who believed the southern people were enemies who did not care for anything else,

In the story, “The Sniper” by Liam O’ Flaherty, the author uses irony to prove the theme, war reduces human beings to being nothing but objects. When the author describes the main character, he writes, “a man who is used to looking at death” (Flaherty 1). A normal person would be scarred for life if they saw as much as a soldier did; soldiers witness death so much that they are used to it. After the sniper shot the man, the author writes, “he felt a sudden curiosity as to the identity of the enemy sniper whom he had killed… he was a good shot, whoever he was” (4). The sniper was proud of his kill; in war, people are just targets and nothing more, to be shot at from a distance. Humans are treated like objects when in war, this displays irony

“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.

War is Kind is a poem written by 19th century journalist and author, Stephen Crane. In this poem, Crane shows the grief experienced by families who lost members in war and puts an ironic twist on war by calling it “kind”, when clearly, it is not. The poem reflects many universal themes of Civil War literature, such as the effects of warfare, the grief experienced by soldiers loved ones, and how patriotism is closely related to death and there is no sense in fighting for it. To begin, the first, third, and fifth stanzas of the poem demonstrate the grief felt by members of a family, when a soldier dies. In the first stanza, a wife is grieving after the loss of her husband.

Stephen Crane was a 19th century writer who has many well known works. Crane’s “War is kind” is one of his most well-known poems. In this poem he explains that war is, in fact, not kind. It is about how war is the most devastating experience in history. It describes a maiden losing her husband, babies losing their fathers, and mothers losing their sons.

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.

One of the most ironic poems is “War is Kind”. The title is ironic since war is not kind. “Point for them the virtue of slaughter,/Make plain to them the excellence of killing/And a field where a thousand corpses lie” (War is kind 20-22) Virtue is suppose to be this pure, innocent thing. It’s not supposed to be slaughtering something. How is a “a field where a thousand corpses lie” kind nobody would ever want that.