A Study Guide for Stephen Crane's "An Episode of War"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for Stephen Crane's "An Episode of War," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Short Stories for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Short Stories for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Jul 27, 2016
• ISBN: 9781535818193

Book preview

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An Episode of War

Stephen Crane

1899

Introduction

Stephen Crane is perhaps best known for The Red Badge of Courage (1895), a novel depicting the horrors of the American Civil War. Like this novel, a number of Crane's works of short fiction explore a variety of aspects of warfare. An Episode of War takes place during the Civil War and focuses on one soldier's loss of his arm. Ironically, he is not injured during combat but is shot by a stray bullet off of the battlefield. The brief story describes the soldier's short journey past the battlefield, from which he is now isolated, to the makeshift hospital comprising tents grouped around an old schoolhouse.

In this tale, Crane focuses on capturing the way war and injury isolate the soldier both from his fellow soldiers and from his family. Crane additionally demonstrates the fear experienced by the man and explores the way his injury shapes his perceptions. An Episode of War was originally published in England in 1899 in the magazine the Gentlewoman and was reprinted in 1902 in the collection Last Words. It is included in The Complete Short Stories & Sketches of Stephen Crane (1963) and Great Short Works of Stephen Crane (2004).

Author Biography

Crane was born in Newark, New Jersey, on November 1, 1871, the last of fourteen children born to the Reverend Dr. Jonathan Townley Crane and Mary Helen Crane. Crane's father was a Methodist minister, and owing to Dr. Crane's various ecclesiastical positions, the large family moved about during Crane's youth. In 1876 the family settled in Paterson, New Jersey, and just two years later they moved to Port Jervis, New York. When Dr. Crane died in 1880, Mrs. Crane moved her family to Asbury Park, New Jersey.

From 1888 to 1890, Crane attended the Hudson River Institute. In the fall of 1890, he began studying at Lafayette College, intending to pursue a degree in mining engineering. Crane abandoned this goal, and the college itself, before the end of the first semester. In 1891, he enrolled at Syracuse University but completed only one semester. During this time, Crane had begun writing for the