Rank vs. Human Judgment
In “An Episode of War,” Stephen Crane’s snapshot of a wounded Civil War lieutenant’s search for medical treatment, Crane gives none of his characters a name or even a memorable personality. What he gives them is a military rank, which the men immediately flout with their behavior or attitude toward each other. The anonymity of Crane’s characters, and their disregard of status, suggest that low-ranking buglers and high-ranking generals, rather than staying separate in…
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Inexperience and Shame
Stephen Crane’s short story “An Episode of War” depicts a Civil War lieutenant as he sustains a wound in the battle camp and searches for medical attention. A plot like this might normally appear in a valiant and patriotic war thriller, but Crane uses it ironically: to show the fragility, stubbornness, and naiveté of humans in war. Through the attitudes of secondary characters, Crane makes his wounded protagonist look and feel childishly ill-prepared for the…
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War, Clarity, and Beauty
In Stephen Crane’s Civil War vignette “An Episode of War,” the protagonist, a lieutenant on his way to the field hospital, undergoes a radical change in his perception after a bullet strikes him in the arm. He soon discovers that people removed from the battle have a remarkably clearer understanding of it than he does. He also begins to notice the beauty in the world, realizations that Crane conveys with the type of language he…
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Nature and Human Insignificance
In Stephen Crane’s “An Episode of War,” readers watch the moment a Civil War lieutenant is wounded on the sidelines of combat. But instead of launching into a tale of allies and enemies—as a typical war writer might do—Crane focusses on the fragility of his group of soldiers. They can’t understand what’s happened, and they struggle to take any action at all. People, argues Crane, are often powerless to understand or change their fate—especially in…
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