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War is kind essay stephen crane
"War is Kind" by Stephen Crane articles
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In Stephen Crane’s poem “War is Kind”, Crane reveals the horrifying realities of war with his use of imagery and repetition. Throughout his poem, Crane depicts images that linger in one’s mind that are hard not to be sickening. Crane describes a field as a place where a “thousand corpses lie” and portrays the shroud that a mother receives after her son died defending his country as “bright [and] splendid”. After envisioning these scenes, people can not help but become morose. These images force people to visualize aspects of war they did not realize existed. After becoming aware of these realities, many people develop a sense of hatred for war, because no one wants to see a thousand young men killed in a field and a mother receiving the shroud
Our history books continue to present our country's story in conventional patriotic terms. America being settled by courageous, white colonists who tamed a wilderness and the savages in it. With very few exceptions our society depicts these people who actually first discovered America and without whose help the colonists would not have survived, as immoral, despicable savages who needed to be removed by killing and shipping out of the country into slavery. In her book, The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity, Jill Lepore tells us there was another side to the story of King Philip’s War. She goes beyond the actual effects of the war to discuss how language, literacy, and privilege have had lasting effects on the legacy that followed it.
In Crane’s poem, “War is Kind” he writes about how war is “kind,” though in reality, war it isn’t. War is never kind. The speaker is telling a maiden not to cry for her dead lover. He tells child to not cry over his dead father, and for a mother not to cry over her her dead son. Crane uses lots of irony in this poem. Which leaves the reader thinking the speaker is cold hearted. The speaker in Crane’s poem is sarcastic about war and is sardonic in his perspectives considering war. Although underneath the sarcasm and coldness, the speaker could be feeling anguish, and sadness. That person might be feeling bitter because he may have experienced war first hand or may have lost a loved on in war.
What made Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage become an unforgettable original surpassing other war novels is its depiction of the cruelty of the battlefield through the young soldier’s eyes. During the story’s timeline, Henry undergoes a subtle change in his attitude towards war. Starting as being self-centered and delusional,the youth becomes doubtful of his own self as well as his perceptions of war, afterwards finally matures into a man. This change has contributed greatly to the message of war which the novel conveys.
In the story “On the Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien, imagery is created to support the author’s use of tone to show his perspectives on the idea and moral points of war. Tim used imagery in describing a pig factory, his experience on a shore, and time spent with a man named Elroy to create the overall tone of longing for clarity and despair in his story. All of these examples that create imagery are shown to the reader, which helps to express the author’s tone about his views and beliefs on war.
All throughout the poem Crane uses many forms of literary devices to help fortify his argument on war but one literary device particularly accentuates his perception of war. In Crane’s poem “War is Kind” Crane uses antithesis to present his opinion on warfare. A great number of men and women choose to go to war, but for what reason? Maybe it is for the patriotic sensation that goes through them as they designate this action as something for the greater good. However, few ever acknowledge the monstrosity that war unmistakably is.
Today, many of the romantic myths about war have been destroyed through television and movies such as Born on the Fourth of July, which shows war with all its suffering, pain, and death. Yet it was Stephen Crane who, a century ago, deglorified war through the experiences of Henry Fleming. With his frequent contrasts between romantic vision and cold reality, Crane clearly portrays the true horrors of war.
The three narratives “Home Soil” by Irene Zabytko, “Song of Napalm” by Bruce Weigl, and “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen all have the same feelings of war and memory, although not everyone experiences the same war. Zabytko, Weigl, and Owen used shifting beats, dramatic descriptions, and intense, painful images, to convince us that the horror of war far outweighs the devoted awareness of those who fantasize war and the memories that support it.
War isn’t kind. It isn’t okay to have war. Stephen Crane shows how to show emotion and irony in all different ways in both stories. War is very cruel and upsetting to most people, This type of setting has people thinking about family or friend's deaths &
Stephen Crane in his "Do Not Weep, Maiden, for War is Kind" uses several methods to convey his perception of war; most strikingly, stark imagery. As the poem begins, a woman cries over the death of her lover who, while left to die on the battlefield, "threw wild hands toward the sky" (2). His posture illustrates the physical pain he experienced as well as the longing he felt for his lover and his lost life (Cady 102). He threw his hands toward the sky in a vain effort to reach out to her and the life that had been taken from him. Crane's next stanza portrays an image of troops marching to their death, men "born to drill and die" (8). Crane endeavors to show the blind trust that soldiers are forced to place in their leaders. The soldiers knew li...
Given the fact that nature is known for sneering in man’s face, it is no surprise that it also very dispassionate towards people. War Is Kind use the line “A field where a thousand corpses lie.” to describe the battlefields of the war. When most people talk about the casualties of war they are addressed as soldiers, whereas the poem uses corpses. This takes away any honor or identity from these dead bodies, showing that nature has a way of making death very impersonal. Understanding this concept can help grasp a more intricate comprehension of the following scene in “The Open Boat.” The Oiler dies in a very tragic way, and when they finally bring his body to shore it is described as “A quiet and wet shape” (Crane, Pg.15) In a 5 word sentence any identity he had, vanished. This is a great example of how impersonal nature gets when man dies, stripping them of any ounce of dignity they had. War Is Kind shares many of the same ideas that “The Open Boat” does and by getting grasp of what is being said in the poem, will lead to a greater understanding
“Now every road and highway…was littered with the corpses of human beings and animals…the wounded were left to die. Children ran frantically, shrieking for their mothers…there was no food, water, soap, or medical supplies. Like polluted waters became carriers of disease (Kasenkina 93).” This is a typical scene of war demonstrated in literary works. In literature war is a very common, yet important subject and it is generally demonstrated in plays, short stories, and novels. Some of the pieces of literature in where war is shown include: The Crucible by Arthur Miller, “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, and Leap to Freedom by Kasenkina. In these pieces of literature war is shown as a horrid event that always has both physically and psychologically bad outcomes. In many literary works including the ones mentioned above the good outcomes in war are misrepresented and suppressed by the bad outcomes in war.
‘’War Photographer’’ is a thought-provoking and mind gripping poem by Carol Ann Duffy. The poem revolves around the life of the photographer as he juggles between his two personas as he try to develop his photos and reminisce about the war torn countries, all the innocent people and the horrific and gory things he has witnessed. As the poem progresses and the pictures begin to develop the memories of pain and suffering from his past starts to unravel and becomes clearer and clearer. The main message the writer is trying to convey is the fact that through modern times news about the war is being published by the media in a truthful way that people feel less sympathy towards the innocent lives of the people dying all around the world. The writer effectively raises questions about our feelings and emotions that we feel towards war and death.
Where innumerous catastrophic events are simultaneously occurring and altering the mental capability of its viewers eternally, war is senseless killing. The participants of war that are ‘fortunate’ enough to survive become emotionally distraught civilians. Regardless of the age of the people entering war, unless one obtains the mental capacity to witness numerous deaths and stay unaffected, he or she is not equipped to enter war. Kurt Vonnegut portrays the horrors of war in Slaughterhouse Five, through the utilization of satire, symbolism, and imagery.
The poem “War is Kind” by Stephen Crane gives light to the women who are affected by the men that are in the military. By stating “war is kind” is really the exact opposite because war is not kind, it is gruesome, horrific, and deadly. How it shows irony by insinuating that war is a pleasant thing but then talking death and pain. The language brings attention and glorifies the symbolism behind war. It gives imagery by giving you a picture of the actions that are being brought out in each stanza. The bad that happens in war and the loss that it brings. That no one truly wins this war. There will always be death and loss at every corner no matter who is on the winning side. Mothers lose sons, wives lose husbands, daughters lose fathers, and how
Stephen Crane uses several different poetic and stylistic devices in his lyrical organic poem, “Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind”. For instance, the structure of the poem is made up of five stanzas. The purpose of the poem is to explain to readers the horror and distraction that comes with war. “These men where born to drill and die”-Lines 19. War also comes between families and loved, ones tearing them apart. “Mother.../... shroud of your son”-23-24. Dominant devices prevailing in the poem are tone/mood, diction, imagery, and sound devices.