War In Stephen Crane's A Mystery Of Heroism

How could war be kind? War cannot be kind. Throughout Stephen Crane’s stories, we learn he is opposed to the civil war. Stephen Crane uses sarcasm in “War is Kind” and then gives gruesome details of a soldier’s experience in “A Mystery of Heroism” to prove he is opposed to the war. Sarcasm is meant to provoke thought and to poke fun at the other topic. “War is Kind” uses sarcasm to explain the horrors of war, and the effect it has on those related to those in the war. “Great is the battle-god, great, and his kingdom a field where a thousand corpses lie.” Obviously a field littered with a thousand corpses isn’t a great thing. But the sarcasm changes how the the words are perceived. The sarcasm explains the big impact the war has on the soldiers. These soldiers were ordered to fight and die, or, “die for the cause,” because that’s what they thought was the right thing to do. We even learn of a
Some might even fight back, but in “A Mystery of Heroism” we are told about soldiers who seem to ignore the war going on around them. “In the midst of it all, Smith and Ferguson, two privates of A Company, were engaged in a heated discussion, which involved the greatest questions of the national existence.” While most people like to argue, they should be focused on surviving and maybe even winning. Not proving how much more they know than someone else about the national existence. But they’ve been under gun-fire for so long that they’re just used to it. “But suddenly his face straightened and he called: ‘Say young man, give me a drink of water, will you?’” Before this was spoken, this man had lost an arm and is still trapped under his horse, so how could he suddenly perk up and ask for a drink of water, obviously he didn’t and it was some sort of illusion or delusion. One of the gruesome details is his predicament, he is pinned under his horse, lost his arm, and was about to cry out for