An Episode of War wkst – by
Stephen Crane pages 440-447
Background for Understanding
Historical Context: The Bloody Legacy of the American
Civil War
This short story was inspired
by the American Civil War, the bloodiest war in American history. The conflict
claimed the lives of 600,000 soldiers – more American casualties than the total
of all other wars in which the
As you read, “An Episode of War,”
keep in mind that amputation was routine treatment for injured limbs. A wounded
soldier knew that he risked losing his injured arm or leg to a surgeon’s saw,
like those in Civil War medical kits.
When the war began, neither
side was prepared to care for the wounded. There were no ambulances to
transport them from the battlefield, no medical corps to treat them, no
medicines, no nursing staff. Barns, warehouses, and
schools were converted into makeshift hospitals, like the one described in this
story. The conditions were terrible. Even a minor injury was liable to result
in death, most often from disease; twice as many Civil War soldiers died of
infections than of combat wounds.
Realism and Naturalism
“An Episode of War” is a
harsh tale of how a chance event forever changes the life of a Civil War
officer. The story is characteristic of two new literary movements that sprang
up in reaction to Romanticism – an earlier nineteenth-century literary movement
that stressed emotion, imagination, and an appreciation of nature. The first
movement, Realism, sought to portray real life as faithfully and accurately as
possible. Realists focused on ordinary people faced with the harsh realities of
everyday life – a far cry from the improbable situations and optimistic vision
of the world typical of Romanticism.
From the Realism movement
grew Naturalism, which also focused on truthfully portraying the lives of
ordinary people. Naturalists, however, believed that a person’s fate is
determined by environment, heredity, and chance. As a result, they often
depicted characters whose lives were shaped by forces they could neither
understand nor control, but endured with strength and dignity, thereby
affirming the significance of their existence.
Questions from the story:
1. Give two reasons that the
lieutenant’s comrades “look at him with large eyes thoughtfully” but will not
touch him.
2. What treatment does the
doctor ultimately administer to the lieutenant’s arm?
3. How does the way in which
the lieutenant is wounded in “An Episode of War” make him a sympathetic
character?
4. The lieutenant walks with
the detached air of a man watching someone else’s nightmare unfold. What
accounts for his numb state?
5. Name three ways in which
this story suggests that the lieutenant is seen by both himself and others as
separate from, and somehow less a human being than, the uninjured people he
encounters.
6. According to the
Naturalists, humans are weak and ineffectual beings at the mercy of
deterministic forces. Find one example supporting this statement from the
story.
7. Why do you think the
doctor made a promise not to amputate the lieutenant’s arm?
8. How does the final
paragraph of the story help clarify the doctor’s actual intent?