Crane’s Influence on Hemingway’s War Novels

Abstract

This myth that war is glorious, heroic, full of adventure and excitement has been for centuries and even now exists for those who have not experienced it.  Romantic visions have always been associated with war. Going into the war as classical heroes, fighting in it with ghastly wounds and returning home with the hope of  hero worship and applause of the awaiting countrymen and many other similar visions have been envisioned by the romantic naive soldiers. But there exists a world of difference between seeing war from outside and seeing it from inside. The whole euphoria about war goes in air the moment these romantic naive soldiers participate in the war and confront the harsh realities of war as Erich Maria Remarque has said, “Death isn’t an adventure to those who stand face to face with it” (11). The same thing Brian Murdock says about war, “War is not heroism, but about terror, either waiting for death or trying desperately to avoid it” (207).