Crane’s Differences
(The Analysis of Stephen Crane in the Red Badge of Courage and “An Episode of War”) Many people have noticed that Stephen Crane tends to ask questions in his writings but fails to answer them. This is guessed to be strategic, causing the readers to think deeper about the concept at hand. Or, in this case, to evaluate their own ideas about people’s behaviors, feelings and thoughts. Donald Vanouse commented, “Stephen Crane's works present sudden shifts in tone and point of view, and frequently the works end without establishing either certainty about characters or resolution of thematic issues.” Stephen Crane’s novel, The Red Badge of Courage and the short story, “An Episode of War” are two exceptional examples when assessing Crane’s tendency to vaguely describe things, causing one to assume and evaluate the event closer. …show more content…
When reading his texts quickly, one’s mind just assumes the supposedly self-evident aspects of it. But, when it is closely analyzed it seems to become a bigger question, a question of why? For example in “An Episode of War” Crane doesn’t describe the lieutenant’s behaviors or why he acts the way he does after getting the bullet wound. “The lieutenant hung his head, feeling, in this presence, that he did not know how to be correctly wounded.” (page 512) This stands as an excellent example of how Crane doesn’t explain why the character was behaving the way he was. Crane was still considered an outstanding writer, maybe because of this trait. “Influenced by William Dean Howells's theory of realism, Crane utilized his keen observations, as well as personal experiences, to achieve a narrative vividness and sense of immediacy matched by few American writers before him.” (Adam King) Obviously, Crane’s hidden way of writing was still very