The Civil War was a brutal time in American history, pinning neighbor against neighbor. Many families were broken up and soldiers often the went wandering into battle aimlessly. Frustrated by this war, an American author, Stephen Crane shows his distaste for this war by his ironic works: the poem “War is kind” and the short story “The Mystery of Heroism” by bringing the loss of family and pointless deaths to advocate against the war.
Throughout “War is Kind” a mockery of how the barbarity of war affect spouses, children and parents of the soldiers lost. It specifically focuses on the families orientated around the soldiers in battle and how their deaths have came to be. The repetition of the phrase “Do not weep.. For war is kind” is an ironic joust at the reality that war cause harm. He tells children, spouses, and mothers not to cry for their beloved ones were slain in battle. Stephen
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He shows how even the people risking their lives do not even care much for war and have become so numb to the horrors of their situation. The main character Fred Collins makes a journey through a death field risking his life for water that was then spilled by his comrades. While Fred was on his journey into the battle zone, “He wondered why he did not feel some keen agony of fear” and this is because he has become numbed to all the dead surrounding him. Meanwhile instead of being present in their state of being under attack, and put effort into their side of the war some of the men discuss “..the greatest questions of the national existence.” This showcases how even the men whose lives are at risk could care less about what is actually happening in the war around them. This ironic display of how even the soldiers find their battles to be unimportant reveals Crane’s explicit distaste for