1. Discuss the following questions.

1) What is the point of view of this story? In other words, what kind of narrator does it have? Give one piece of evidence from the text to support your answer. How does the narrator affect the content of the story?

2) What does the following quote reveal about Stephen Crane’s view of man? How does this differ from the way that Transcendentalists view man? Find an example from Transcendentalism to which you can compare this quote.“It is as if the wounded man’s hand is upon the curtain which hangs before the revelations of all existence — the meaning of ants, potentates, wars, cities, sunshine, snow, a feather dropped from a bird’s wing; and the power of it sheds radiance upon a bloody form, and makes the other men understand sometimes that they are little.”

3) What does the following quote reveal about how Stephen Crane views death? How does this differ from the way that Romantics or Transcendentalists view death?“Moreover, they fear vaguely that the weight of a finger upon him might send him headlong, precipitate the tragedy, hurl him at once into the dim, grey unknown.”

4) What does the following quote reveal about Realism’s view of man? Compare this thought with that of the Transcendentalists and provide one example from Transcendentalism to support your claim. The doctor cried out impatiently, “What mutton-head had tied it up that way anyhow?” The lieutenant answered, “Oh, a man.”

5) What is the tone of the ending of the story? Explain your answer with an example from the text. What does the tone imply about the world-view of Realism?

2. Tell whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F).

1) An Episode of War is the story of the conflict between a soldier and a doctor. ( )

2) An Episode of War may be viewed as a realistic story because in this tale an ordinary man’s life is shaped by a force he cannot control, but he endures this life-changing event with strength and dignity. ( )

3) Crane seldom directly reveals the lieutenant’s thoughts or feelings. He may have chosen to do this to show that the lieutenant likes to observe events around him.( )

4) The lieutenant’s injury has transformed his role in the war and his perspective on the world around him. ( )

5) Wounded men in the war are often treated as “non-people”.( )

6) Crane chose not to depict the amputation procedure because he didn’t want to shock his readers. ( )

7) To better understand the lieutenant’s battlefield experiences, you must consider your knowledge of the terrible conditions facing injured Civil War soldiers. ( )

8) The fact that the lieutenant can now “see many things which as a participant in the fight were unknown to him” helps to emphasize that war is a waste. ( )

3. Fill in the blanks with the words in the box and check the answers with your partner.

In this very short piece, the author plunges the reader immediately into a scene from the American 1) War. During a lull in the fighting, a young 2) is dividing the morning’s ration of 3) for his men when a shot rings out. A 4) has struck the officer’s arm, and his men crowd around to view the damage. As the lieutenant makes his way to the rear for 5) assistance, he sees all about him — a general, an 6) battery, some stragglers — in a new light. Another officer stops to 7) the wound. When the lieutenant finally reaches a 8) , the doctor assures the wounded man that 9) will not be necessary. Of course, it is only to calm the man, and when the lieutenant returns home to recuperate, his families cry at the sight of his flat 10) . He tells them, “I don’t suppose it matters so much as all that.”