Definition of Imagery
Crane’s writing style in “A Mystery of Heroism” is lyrical and poetic. The following passage, in which the narrator sets the scene near the beginning of the story, demonstrates how Crane uses rich figurative language to capture the brutality of war:
For the little meadow which intervened was now suffering a terrible onslaught of shells. Its green and beautiful calm had vanished utterly. Brown earth was being flung in monstrous handfuls. And there was a massacre of the young blades of grass. They were being torn, burned, obliterated. Some curious fortune of the battle had made this gentle little meadow the object of the red hate of the shells, and each one as it exploded seemed like an imprecation in the face of a maiden.
While Collins is sitting at the well in the middle of an ongoing battle, collecting water for himself and his comrades, Crane uses imagery to capture the chaos surrounding him, as seen in the following passage:
Unlock with LitCharts A+There was the blaring thunder of a shell. Crimson light shone through the swift-boiling smoke, and made a pink reflection on part of the wall of the well. Collins jerked out his arm and canteen with the same motion that a man would use in withdrawing his head from a furnace.