Did you feel that “An Episode of War” (Crane) had momentum or lacked momentum? What are some examples of the language that Crane used that either gave the work its momentum or detracted from it?
4 thoughts on “Response to “An Episode of War” (Crane)”
Comments are closed.
While reading “An Episode of War,” I felt like the story lacked momentum because I didn’t feel the climax of the story. The whole story was very confusing to me and like the ending stated, the main action occurs out of the blue. There was no build up or rising action in the story, just a description of people staring at the lieutenant’s wounded arm. Even as the author described some battle as “the wild thud of hoofs, the cries of the riders…,” the scene seemed to stop abruptly as it describes the lieutenant and the rest of the people just staring there blankly. The topic seemed to switch to making coffee and going to the hospital right after this “battle.” There was a lot of description given for the setting and the whole plot which seemed to be focused more on the little events. The climax of the story occurred in the beginning, but it remained at a pause because of the people’s reaction to it. They eventually “crowded forward sympathetically” as if they didn’t know what to do. Overall, reading this, I felt like it lacked the build-up to the climax and the climax wasn’t all to exciting.
In my opinion I think that “An Episode of War” lacked momentum because it was rather choppy and there wasn’t any build up to the climax. As a reader I felt that Crane was just stating what the characters were going through instead of showing or giving some sort of insight as to how the characters were dealing with the tense situation. To me this short story came across more as a screenplay and was being narrated through every scene in the act. For instance Crane uses the word “awkwardly” to describe a scene where the character holds a blade. I think that this detracted from the momentum of the story because it lacked in fluidity and it made it seem as if the writer was just rambling on.
I believe that “An Episode on War”, by Stephen Crane, did not really contain fluid momentum, but at the same time did not require this specific type of momentum to create a thought out story. The story clearly starts off with the climax at the start. Whilst the lieutenant is cutting coffee beans, he is shot in the arm. The vast majority of the story emphasizes the sights the lieutenant sees and the locations that he goes to as a result of this injury. Each individual interaction is something of a story in it of themselves and it could be said that while the splitting of the story into multiple interactions breaks the fluidity of the story, when readers look at each interaction as an overall part of a story, it can be said that there is a degree of momentum that is created from these interactions. Whether it’s seeing the general and his officers, meeting the stragglers and hearing the depth of knowledge that they possessed, or being scolded by the doctor, they are all leading up to a final point where Crane almost humorously states “And this is the story of how the lieutenant lost his arm.” Crane makes a point by abruptly ending many of his paragraphs and suddenly skipping to the next scene, epitomized by the last paragraph. This sort of sudden shift gives way for the reader to implement their own ideas about the lieutenant’s journey to the medical tent by way of his interactions with the individuals. This is made especially intriguing since Crane portrays the lieutenant as an individual who is surprisingly ignorant about matters of war despite being a lieutenant. While the rank of lieutenant is not by any means spectacularly high, it is still relatively high and constitutes a certain degree of knowledge that is clearly missing, “The lieutenant hung his head, feeling, in this presence, that he did not know how to be correctly injured.” This ignorance is exemplified when we find out that the lieutenant is amazed at the knowledge that some random stragglers possess. There is a lack of fluid momentum, but I believe that the author set out to write the story with that in mind.
“An Episode of War” lacked momentum in the sense of a traditional short story due to its discontinuous nature. This story seemed to focus primarily on the lieutenant’s stark development of character.
As soon as the description of the battlefield was laid out, the lieutenant was shot and the setting of the story subsequently shifted from an anticipated skirmish to the field hospital. Up to this point, obvious descriptions of the lieutenant’s actions and reactions pointed the reader toward his quickly deteriorating sense of pride. “One timidly presented his shoulder and asked the lieutenant if he cared to lean upon on it, but the latter waved him off mournfully” (para 9). Other instances of people offering help, reassurance, and sympathy mirrored this example. When presented with his option of amputation, the lieutenant vehemently resists: “‘Let go of me,’ said the lieutenant, holding back wrathfully…”. However, this is the only line of dialogue where the protagonist objects to the amputation. After that, the lieutenant suddenly only has one arm and the story shortly concludes. Instead of describing the internal conflicts of the lieutenant in detail, giving a description of the lieutenant’s struggle versus the doctor, and ultimately developing to the climax of the story, “An Episode of War” abruptly ends.