Literary Analysis of A Mystery of Heroism

The theme of "A Mystery of Heroism"" is the foolishness and pointlessness of war. Through his use of symbolism, Crane shows how war costs a very high price to accomplish its trivial goal. The story follows the soldier Collins on his impulsive journey to get water from a well across a dangerous field. Although Collins could easily be killed in doing this, he takes the joking suggestions of his comrades as a dare and goes anyway. After leaving, he realizes that he has been partly motivated by pride and wonders how his "quaint emotions" have led him into the face of death. He also comptemplates heroism, and contemplates that as his motive. However, he d...