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Stephen Crane's War Is Kind

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The poem “War is Kind” is a poem written by the famous Stephen Crane. This poem deals with many serious themes, but the overlapping theme this poem attempts to cover is war. The biggest way this poem explains the theme of war is by using irony such as in the title itself “War is Kind.” The title in itself is an ironic reference to how in reality war in one of the worst things that can happen to mankind. Another way the author reflects on Civil War themes is by mentioning how soldiers are trained to fight and die such as in line when the speaker says,“These men were born to drill and die”. The others ways this particular author reflects on the themes of the Civil War is by utilizing the ideal of irony such as with the lines “Do not fear maiden for war is kind” this phrase in itself is a way of irony because it once again pushes the idea that war is gruesome and horrible. Next up, Stephen Crane proves he is no stranger to the idea of war and brutality which were common during the Civil War. Such as where he points out that war sends innocent people to their deaths. This theme appears in line “Point them for the virtue of slaughter”. …show more content…

A way this poem reflects on dark themes of the civil war is the theme of losing loved ones such as a wife or maiden if you will having no choice, but to watch their loved ones get shipped off to meet their fate, then their loved ones meeting great sorrow after their loved on got sent off to die with almost no impact on the

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In the poem Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind by Stephen Crane, Stephen talks about the aspects of war and the effects it has on people outside of the war. Another poem called the sonnet-ballad by Gwendolyn Brooks, talks about a woman who has just lost her lover do to the war and is asking her mother where happiness is. In both texts, the authors focus on the negative and how cruel war really is. Although the authors focus the the horrific parts of war, Brooks sees beauty in war and how tempting it is. However, Crane only focuses the dreadful and grim parts of war.

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This description paints the scenes of the poem as they happen, the powerful connotations of the words battling against each other, and to the grievance of the reader, the negative feelings prevail. This battle illuminates the brutality and fear experienced by soldiers, in WWII, during their final moments on Earth - their fear, sadness, and horrified disgust all hidden between the lines of these two sentences. Foreshadowed by the soldier's machine like tone, the speaker alludes to the fact that he will fight for his life, and

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This does not show anything about war being sweet. For example, Owen makes us picture a soldier’s “hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin” (20). This clearly shows us how the man’s face is burning off. The final way authors protest war is by demonstrating structure. In “ The Yellow Birds” Kevin Powers does not use any complete sentences.

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The author has the bias that nothing good can come from war. He remembers the death that surrounded him, from the first body he saw of an old man to the men he served with who he would call a

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He also, shows them how soldiers could become desensitized fighting ‘machines’ throughout the Civil War. Stephen Crane uses irony in “War is Kind” and “A Mystery of Heroism” to prove that he is opposed to the Civil War by showing the reader how soldiers became desensitized to the war, while he also, informs the reader about the hardships the Civil War caused. The Civil War just like any other war there ever was has caused many soldiers to become desensitized. Making the soldiers believe that they were just “...born to drill and die.”

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Stephen Crane and Figurative Language Stephen Crane’s “A Mystery of Heroism” is a short story of a soldier Fred Collins and his seemingly ignorant decision to get water from a well in the middle of a battlefield. Crane uses figurative language to depict the brutality of war and how foolish Fred Collins’ decision to act brave was. This story uses symbolism, imagery, and personification to help the readers understand why Collins’ act was so imprudent yet ended up being heroic. Crane’s story suggests that turning your back on war to serve yourself can be a form of bravery, however, doing it to serve others, i.e. getting a trapped officer water is heroic.

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War brings out the worst in people. Even though war is necessary, it can come with terrible actions and event as well as greed. While Saranell and Geneva are in the cabin, a Confederate soldier barges in. As he shrugged off the blue greatcoat, he

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For example colonel Read said,” Be brave and help your mother bear up she needs somebody now” (Collier and Collier 200). This shows that you get torn apart and depressed during war. The authors Collier and Collier's viewpoint on war is futile. One way the authors argue against war is the Meeker family is torn apart. The Meekers go through hard times as the book progresses.

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Also in the poetry called “War is Kind” by Stephen Crane, the narrator says, “War is kind”, multiple times throughout the poetry. Repetition in this poetry is a type of structure used to try and get you to remember something. The author is trying to get you to remember that “War is kind”, when it actually is not. In the piece of poetry after the narrator says a things that happen in war that are not kind and that actually happen it proves that war is not kind. The author uses repetition to show that war is not kind by giving you images that are not kind before he say it.

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721 Words | 3 Pages

War is best described from the words of Harry Patch who was the last surviving soldier of WWI “War Is Organized Murder, And Nothing Else”. These words coming from a person who experienced what it means to be fighting in a war, not knowing if he will live another second speaks volumes. This idea of just how gruesome and costly war truly is, exemplified with pieces of writing like Chickamauga by Ambrose Bierce, “To His Love” by Ivor Gurney, and The Things They Carried by Tim O’brien. The Civil war the deadliest war in American History.

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/ War is kind,” to showcase the fact that war is ugly and painful not only for those who perish in it (the men whose deaths are described), but also for those who grieve because of it (the women whose lives are forever changed by war). Additionally, verbal irony can be found in stanzas two and four, in which Crane chooses words that, taken literally, speak of the glory of war in order to highlight the shame of it. For instance, Crane writes, “These men were born to drill and die / The unexplained glory flies above them / Great is the battle-god, great, and his kingdom – / A field where a thousand corpses lie” (Crane 8-11).

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Throughout human history, war has been a common solution to settle conflict or disagreements between people. War has and will always be apart of this world, because no matter how much death it causes humans will never change. Some people have come to see the idiocy in war and have even written about it in poems, short stories, etc. One of these people, Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, has mocked this absurd and pointless practice. Twain’s essay The War Prayer satirizes the customs of praying for safety and victory in war and for equating war with patriotism.

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Even though Crane was born years after the Civil War had ended, Crane conducted extensive interviews and viewed an immense amount of photographs, battle plans, and biographical accounts to input realistic attributes into his literary work, “An Episode of War.” To begin with, Crane describes an event in which a soldier divides up coffee, when he states “His lips pursed as he drew with his sword various crevices in the heap until brown squares of coffee, astoundingly equal in size, appeared on the blanket” to depict what soldiers did when they were not fighting. Although most historical accounts center on battles, soldiers were not conducting battle at all times, for the most part they had incredible amounts of free time. In addition, soldiers

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The poem aims to glorify soldiers and certain aspects of war, it goes on to prove that in reality there really isn 't good vs bad on the battlefield, it 's just a man who "sees his children smile at him, he hears the bugle call, And only death can stop him now—he 's fighting for them all.", and this is our hidden meaning.

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Many poems about the civil war convey universal themes of the time. Stephen Crane’s poem “War is Kind” is no different. The poem,“War is kind” written by Stephen Crane(1871-1900) has three themes common to civil war literature: Warfare, Home, and Patriotism. This poem’s overall theme is about how war destroys families conversely to the title of “War is Kind” or the many times which Crane says “War is Kind”.

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