Blood on a Battlefield in A Mystery of Heroism by Stephen...

Often times war is depicted in a victorious, triumphant manner when in reality war is chaotic; full of destruction and death. In Stephen Crane’s â€Å"A Mystery of Heroism† and Ambrose Bierce’s â€Å"An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge,† we witness the harsh reality of the war and the common human reaction to the havoc. Fred Collins simply wants water, but the well is on the other side of the battlefield. Peyton Farquhar, a loyal civilian to the South, just wanted to help in the war but instead was hanged for his good-intentioned attempt to destroy the bridge to help the Confederates. Ambrose Bierce and Stephen Crane wrote â€Å"An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge† and â€Å"A Mystery of Heroism† to show the natural human condition in adverse situations. In ‘A Mystery of Heroism,† Stephen Crane opens his story with specific details of a war scene. He writes, â€Å"He could now be seen lying face downward with a stirruped foot stretch ed across the body of his dead horse† and â€Å"around this motionless pair the shells still howled.† This scene describes how there are dead soldiers and horses just lying around in the middle of the turmoil. That man is just another dead body to everyone else. This shows the reality of war, violent and deadly and definitely not the pretty picture some paint it to be. Later on in the story, Crane also writes â€Å"a lieutenant of the battery rode down and passed them, holding his right arm carefully in his left hand. And it was as if his arm was not at all part of him, but belongedShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Stephen Crane s A Mystery Of Heroism Essay875 Words   |  4 Pagesin Stephen Crane. When a conflict between two powers reaches its peak, the war becomes inevitable. This usually leads to the change in roles among men and women. Men turn into soldiers and women turn into field nurses. . Living under critical conditions, one could die easily just by walking out the street or starving to death due to uncontrollable hysteria. In such situations, one could truly reveal his personality by either saving themselves or other individuals. .For that reason, Stephen Crane’sRead MoreIrony and Sarcasm in A Mystery of Heroism and War is Kind Essay examples947 Words   |  4 PagesIrony and Sarcasm in A Mystery of Heroism and War is Kind In literature, similar themes are portrayed in many different ways, mostly according to the time period they were written in. A new generation of writers came of age after the civil war, known as the realists. They dominated American fiction from the late nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth. They took their ideas from the slums of the rapidly growing cities at that time, from the factories replacing farmland, and fromRead MoreOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 PagesE SSAYS ON TWENTIETH-C ENTURY H ISTORY In the series Critical Perspectives on the Past, edited by Susan Porter Benson, Stephen Brier, and Roy Rosenzweig Also in this series: Paula Hamilton and Linda Shopes, eds., Oral History and Public Memories Tiffany Ruby Patterson, Zora Neale Hurston and a History of Southern Life Lisa M. Fine, The Story of Reo Joe: Work, Kin, and Community in Autotown, U.S.A. Van Gosse and Richard Moser, eds., The World the Sixties Made: Politics and Culture