Stephen Crane's War Is Kind

Stephen Crane’s “War is Kind” discusses the effects of war and the new evolution of war in the turn of the century. Crane’s focus on the perspective of civilians affected by war rather than just soldiers allows him to remind the world that war affects everyone. War changed from being glorious to dismal. Crane uses ironic descriptions of war to criticize the perceived glory of war.

The main piece of irony in the poem lies in the title and the repetition through the stanzas. Crane repeatedly states that “War is kind”, which is completely false (Crane 1). Whenever the narrator is addressing one of the women in the poem, he says the phrase as reassurance to the person he is speaking to, but he knows what he says is not true. The lie, if said enough

The narrator says “war is kind” with an ironic tone to assure the women forthright, but continues to describe how horribly the soldiers died. By saying that “war is kind” the narrator implies that the soldiers died nobly and mercifully, but the exact opposite happens; the father “tumbled in the yellow trench… gulped and died” (1, 14-15). The way the narrator states that war is benevolent and merciful first is ironic on its own, but by going into further details of how the father died shows a deeper level of irony. The father died by a chemical attack, a new invention in warfare, specifically mustard gas.. Mustard gas is a horrible way to die as it liquefies the lungs, causing the person to drown in their own lungs. The death should be longer and painful, but narrator only says the father “gulped and died” as if that were all the father did as he died (14). The short and quick death the narrator describes

Military glory is often signified in banners, horses, and emblems. “War is kind” uses irony to remove the idea that war is glorious. The narrator describes glory as “unexplained”; unexplained to the commanders and to the soldiers (9). No one understands the glory of war, which adds to the irony that it could exist at all. another symbol of glory is the “crest of yellow and gold” which was the roman standard, Aquila (17). Aquila was an golden eagle, a symbol of nobility and pride. Like the Roman Empire, soldiers have their moment of glory, but in the end crumble under their own hubris and are slaughtered in masses. the irony here is the great and mighty should not meet such a horrific end, but do. Using colors of red and gold symbolize nobility, but the soldiers are dehumanized to make them better at killing as “these men were born to drill and die” (19). There is nothing noble about the men whose sole purpose to exist is to kill and to die. The regimented life they face leaves no room for any other thoughts or emotions. The soldiers are indoctrinated to complete the task of killing and die once their usefulness ends. They are not treated as the humans they are, rather as something else much more horrid and subhuman capable of the atrocities they