Crane- War Dehumanizing
In the early years of the Civil War, writer Stephen Crane wrote two pieces of literature about war. He describes in the short story, Mystery of Heroism, why a young man would risk his life to get two buckets of water. In the beginning ofthe story the character, Collins, is cheered on by his comrades to get the water in the middle of a skirmish and he risks his life which is so precious to many to go fetch a pail of water. In the poem, War is Kind, Crane describes what war is like and what is taught about war. In the poem Crane shows emphasizes the rumor people who want to join the army are people who look at it from the outside and see how well coordinated it is, they also see how much fun it may be. In the short story Crane describes the battlefield in which thousands of wounded and dying soldiers show what war is really like, death and destruction. In the two pieces of literature Stephan Crane uses many ways to show that war is feudal and destructive. The similarities between the story and the poem show that war is dehumanizing. In Crane's short story, he writes of a character who risks his life for a pail of water, because someone joked him about his thirst, "Well, if yeh want a
drink so bad, why don't yeh go git it?"(Crane459) The character, Collins, shows that war is so dehumanizing that he will die to fetch a pail of water. Crane is using Collins to express the way war can tear someone apart, by risking a life that is held to most so dear, over a pail of water. Collins has nothing else to live for. If Collins died he would be in a place where he was no longer hungry, tired, cold, or thirsty. In the poem, War is Kind shows another view on why war is dehumanizing. Crane shows that in his poem that war has killed a father, a husband, and a son, but he ends every other stanza with "Do not weep. War is Kind.(Crane463)" He describes that people who join the army are raised to drill then die, suggesting that anyone who may join the army will drill to accept death. Here Crane is showing the dehumanization process by saying to accept death when it comes. To be human you have the right to live no one should accept death not even war should take that away from anyone. In both the poem and in the story Stephen Crane shows how war is dehumanizing. Both pieces of Literature bond to show that the only result of war is death and destruction. The fact that war is dehumanizing is one of Crane's strong points in both the poem and the story. The setting shows how war is so destructive and can take you away from something that we strive to keep close to us. Crane's unique style of the usage of irony shows the reader how war is destructive and deadly. Finally, Crane shows us that army is pretty on the outside but horrific and terrifying on the inside. In the two pieces of literature "Mystery of Heroism" and the poem "War is Kind" Stephen Crane expresses his feelings toward war and how it is destructive. In the vivid description of battle scen
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Approximate Word count = 1204
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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