22 pages • 44 minutes read
Stephen CraneA Mystery Of Heroism
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 2009A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Personification
War comes alive in this story. The guns are personified as full of “red hate” as they tear up the land (Paragraph 12). As the weaponry is personified, the people in this story are dehumanized. Characters do not have the opportunity to become fully developed or “personified” in this world of sudden explosions and vicious deaths. Only one character, Collins, has his thoughts and feelings explored as he travels to get the water. Collins does admit to terror, but the only other terror comes from the personified weapons: the “crimson terror of an exploding shell” (Paragraph 3).
By giving the weaponry the power to feel terror but denying this power to the soldiers, Crane makes humans seem inconsequential and disposable. When the guns are characterized with “demeanors of stolidity and courage” (Paragraph 6), it contrasts with the humans, who fail to show such qualities. Of course, the ironic tone of the story makes the reader aware of how war strips away humanity, turning the powerful shells into people and people into empty shells. The personified shells are the only ones to hear the pitiable cries of the lieutenant: “Those futile cries, wrenched from him by his agony, were heard only by shells, bullets” (Paragraph 71).
Metaphors and Similes
Crane is a highly metaphorical writer, constantly using metaphors to transform the world into a strange and disturbing landscape. Everything that war is compared to—a farmer, an angel, a star, the sea—becomes tainted with the stench of death on a battlefield. Rather than allowing an escape from war, the metaphors work to further enclose and trap more and more of the world into it.
For example, Crane often uses domestic metaphors, comparing scenes on the battlefield to clothing images (“fibres of flame that seemed like lances” (Paragraph 3), ribbons (“grey smoke ribboning upward” (Paragraph 4), and curtains (“curtain of green woods” (Paragraph 5). By juxtaposing the world of war and the domestic world, Crane inextricably links the two. The domestic world cannot remain separated from war. When he uses “fibres of flame that seemed like lances,” his metaphor comparing flame to fibres actually comes full circle back to war when the fibres are yet again compared to “lances.” This doubling of metaphor further traps all into the language and reach of war.
In addition to domestic images, Crane also compares his battle scenes to images of nature to emphasize distance between relative safety and the brutality of the fighting. He compares the infantry, who are sheltered by the bank, to “men standing upon a shore contemplating a madness of the sea” (Paragraph 14). This image of the distance between the men safe on shore and the dangerous sea is deceptive because Crane shows how such metaphors can quickly shift, transforming safety into danger. This is seen when Collins leaves the men to get the water. When he is in danger from the shelling, he is described “as a man submerged to the neck in a boiling surf” (Paragraph 61). Crane reverses the metaphor, showing that no one is safe. Everyone is trapped in the rushing waters of war.
Synecdoche
Crane’s use of synecdoche (when a part stands in for a whole) runs throughout the story. A part stands in for a whole when he uses “eyes” and “legs” to stand in for soldiers. This reliance of parts emphasizes the fragmented, disembodied nature of war. It also foreshadows the violent deaths of the soldiers, who are literally ripped apart by the incessant machinery of war.
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