STUDY GUIDE
Felipe Ortiz
Bryanna Leal
Lucas Carus
SUSPENSE
 Suspense is the quality of a literary work that make the reader or
viewer not sure about the outcome of events.
 Suspense makes the reader ask "What will happen next?".
 Suspense is greatest when it focuses attention on a sympathetic
character.
SUSPENSE
 This relates to why the most usual and common, kind of suspense
is that which leads this character into the verge of a change in action,
leaving the reader/viewer gasping for more.
 There is also the kind of suspense which is acted upon by a chain
of events all leading to one conclusion which would then cause the
audience to ask themselves “ What will happen Next?”
AS SEEN IN
 This is very popularly seen in movies and novels used in many
different occasions and in many different ways.
 This is seen in such popular movies as Buried, Inception, The Prestige,
Shutter Island, and many more.
 Its also seen in such novels as The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest,
and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo .
MYSTERY VS. SUSPENSE
 Mystery and suspense are two particularly very different things that
happen to be confused very often, but instead of explaining their
differences, I thought that who better to do so than movie
extraordinaire Alfred Hitchcock.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Xs111uH9ss
AN EXAMPLE OF SUSPENSE
IN A THEATRICAL ASPECT
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCRQQCKS7go
REFRAIN
 The word 'Refrain' derives from the Old French word “refraindre”
meaning to repeat. Refrain Poetry Term is a phrase, line, or group of
lines that is repeated throughout a poem, usually after each stanza. A
famous example of a refrain are the words " Nothing More" and
“Nevermore” which are repeated in “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe.
STEPHEN CRANE
 Born Nov. 1, 1871 Newark, N.J., U.S. Died June 5, 1900,
Badenweiler, Baden, Ger. American novelist, poet, and shortstory writer.
 Best known for his novels Maggie: A Girl of the Streets
(1893) and The Red Badge of Courage (1895) and the short
stories “The Open Boat,” “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky,”
and “The Blue Hotel.”
STEPHEN CRANE
 Crane spent less than two years at college and then went to New York
City to live in a medical students' boardinghouse while freelancing his way
to a literary career. While alternating bohemian student life and
explorations of the Bowery slums with visits to genteel relatives in the
country near Port Jervis, N.Y., Crane wrote his first book, Maggie: A Girl
of the Streets (1893), a sympathetic study of an innocent and abused
slum girl's descent into prostitution and her eventual suicide.
STEPHEN CRANE
 Prolific throughout his short life, he wrote notable works in the
Realist tradition as well as early examples of American Naturalism
and Impressionism. He is recognized by modern critics as one of the
most innovative writers of his generation.
STEPHEN CRANE
 In 1896, Crane endured a highly publicized scandal after acting as
witness for a suspected prostitute. Late that year he accepted an offer
to cover the Spanish-American War as a war correspondent.
 These two small events were part influence for having written
“War is Kind” and “A Mystery of Heroism”.
STEPHEN CRANE
 Plagued by financial difficulties and ill health, Crane died of
tuberculosis in a Black Forest sanatorium at the age of 28.
 At the time of his death, Crane had become an important figure in
American literature. He was nearly forgotten, however, until two
decades later when critics revived interest in his life and work.
STEPHEN CRANE
 Stephen Crane's fiction is typically categorized as representative of
Naturalism, Realism, Impressionism or a mixture of the three.
 Crane's work cannot be determined by style solely on chronology. Not
only does his fiction not take place in any particular region with similar
characters, but it varies from serious in tone to reportorial writing and
light fiction. Crane's writing, both fiction and nonfiction, is consistently
driven by immediacy and is at once concentrated, vivid and intense.
STEPHEN CRANE
 Crane ignored the romantic, sentimental approach of slum fiction
and instead concentrated on the cruelness and sordidness of poverty,
using the brashness of the Bowery's crude dialect and profanity.
A MYSTERY OF HEROISM
 A Mystery of Heroism is about Fred Collins whom is in the
middle of a battle during a war, people are dying around him and the
ground is being dug up by explosive shells when he says he wants a
drink of water from a well in the middle of the battle field. The other
man of the company mock him to go get a drink if he is so thirsty,
and eventually he something in him decides he will get a drink from
the well, and he takes off to get the water.
A MYSTERY OF HEROISM
 Character:
 Fred Collins - soldier that decides he will get a drink from a well in
the middle of a battle field
A MYSTERY OF HEROISM
 •The battle is in full force with the shells landing close to the infantry
 •Collins says he is thirsty, wonders if there is water anywhere
 •An officer remarks that "they couldn't shoot any harder if the whole
army was massed here!"; An officer is shot on his horse in the middle of
the battle field trying to get orders out to another commander
 •Collins says he sees a well in the middle of the battle field and when
asked how he will get there by his comrades he states he will if his
comrades don't quit harassing him about it
A MYSTERY OF HEROISM
 •The fellow soldiers do not stop giving Collins a hard time about
getting the water so he goes and ask permission from his captain to go
 •The captain gives Collins permission not knowing whether Collins
wanted to really go or not
 •Collins is told if he goes to bring some extra canteens
 •Getting ready to go Collins does not feel any fear, Collins thinks this
is what heroes feel like, but says he cannot be a hero because he has done
things wrong in his life
A MYSTERY OF HEROISM
 •Collins runs through the field and gets to the well, he begins to
get scared when he fills the water into the canteens because it takes so
long for them to fill up
 •Collins sees a bucket and decides he will fill the bucket instead
and then begins to run through the field back to the infantry
A MYSTERY OF HEROISM
 •On the way back through the battle field Collins hears the fallen
officer that is going to die ask for water, Collins says he cannot stop
but after running by the officer Collins turns around and gives the
man a drink
 •Upon returning to the infantry he gives the bucket of water to the
comrades who drop it on the ground
A MYSTERY OF HEROISM
 •The well is in the middle of a battlefield with artillery shells exploding all
around it
 •Collins decides to go for the water because his comrades keep saying he would
not get it; Collins is upset though because "he was an intruder in the land of fine
deeds" ; heroes were not supposed to have any "shames" in there life
 •Collins first denies the soldier out of fear for his own life, then turns around
after the officers head "sinks" down; the officers death is imminent
 •After giving the officer water; the officer makes a sigh like a child; The officer is
most likely thankful he was able to get some comfort before he died
WAR IS KIND
 Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind.
 Because your lover threw wild hands toward the sky
 And the affrighted steed ran on alone,
 Do not weep.
 War is kind.
WAR IS KIND
 Hoarse, booming drums of the regiment

Little souls who thirst for fight,

These men were born to drill and die

The unexplained glory flies above them

Great is the battle-god, great, and his kingdom--

A field where a thousand corpses lie.
WAR IS KIND
 Do not weep, babe, for war is kind.
 Because your father tumbled in the yellow trenches,
 Raged at his breast, gulped and died,
 Do not weep.
 War is kind.
WAR IS KIND
 Swift, blazing flag of the regiment

Eagle with crest of red and gold,

These men were born to drill and die

Point for them the virtue of slaughter

Make plain to them the excellence of killing

And a field where a thousand corpses lie.
WAR IS KIND
 Mother whose heart hung humble as a button
 On the bright splendid shroud of your son,
 Do not weep.
 War is kind.
WAR IS KIND
 The refrain commonly used in this poem is “war is kind”. The
language of the first, third, and fifths stanzas is plain and closer to
everyday speech, while the language of the indented second and
fourth stanzas is embellished and inflated, and uses more formal verse
conventions such as end rhyme. The contrast between these two
styles adds to the poem's complexity, and furthers the author's
intention to deflate the idea of romantic heroism in all of its guises.
WAR IS KIND
 The title alerts us to the ironic tone of the poem, as it is very
difficult to imagine war being kind in any way. The opening stanza
confirms that tone, as it addresses the lover of a soldier who has died
in battle, telling her not to weep at his death. We are then presented a
melodramatic image of that death, with the dying soldier throwing his
"wild hands towards the sky/ And ... his affrighted steed ... running
on alone."
WAR IS KIND
 The speaker presents more generalized images and statements
about war, as opposed to the close-up image in the opening stanza.
These lines convey a sense of the soldiers' exhaustion, futility, and
resignation, as they fight with the flag ("unexplained glory") flying
overhead.
WAR IS KIND
 It’s about war and its aftermath. In twenty-six lines, the persona of
the poem addresses the loved ones of the soldiers who died on the
battlefield amid mayhem and chaos. Crane’s use of blank verse is well
suited for the subject of war because it lacks the harmonious patterns
of rhyme and meter. The poem is composed of five stanzas, and the
indented beginning of the second and fourth stanzas characterize a
change in setting.
REVIEW

Suspense is the quality of a literary work that make the reader
or viewer not sure about the outcome of events.
True or false?
True

Mystery and suspense are the exact same thing and
differentiating them is not an issue.

True or false?

False

Refrain is a phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated
throughout a poem, usually after each stanza.

True or false?

True

Nothing in Stephen Crane’s life influenced him to write any of
his stories.

True or false?

False

Stephen Crane’s work was forgotten but then became popular
again after his death.

True or false?

True.

Stephen Crane died of tuberculosis at the age of 25.

True or false?

False

A Mystery of Heroism is a story about a man who wants to
get a drink of water from a well in the middle of a war.

True or false?

True

The refrain commonly used in “War is Kind” is “do not weep,
war is kind”

True or false?

True

“War is Kind” uses imagery to present a visibly image of war
and its sad difficulties.

True or false?

True.