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 decides that he must not be a hero because he has shame in his life. Eventually, he concludes that "heroes were not much," anyway. Collinęs motivation of pride is parallel to the fact that many wars are initiated because of foolish pride. The desires of thousands of men at war to be heroes and their confusion about whether or not they actually are heroes, is represented by Collinęt consideration of heroism. Crane uses vivid images of nature and beauty contrated with death and destruction. Aothough war stories of heroes are often glorified, ther harsh relaity is horrible. Craneęs description of a beautifuol meadow being destroyed through sever shelling parallels how war destroys innocent beauty.
The hopelessness and pointlessness of war is made clear by Craneęs use of the symbol water. Collinęs journey involves risking his life for water, which represents life. On his way back from the well with a bucket of water, Collins stops to give some to a dying soldier. Once back, two lieutenants carelessly spill the water that Collins could have died for. These thress events all maintain the same theme: A waręs overall goal may be to bring about a victory that benefits people, but the risky process is not necessarily worth accomplishing this goal. Just as giving water to a dying man is pointless, a war "misses the point" by trying to solve problems by a means that only kills people.The spilling of the water at the end symbolizes the blood of thousands of soldiers that has been carelessly spilled on the battlefield.
