The reader sees repeated use of images of nature, particularly color images, to make the various settings in the novel more vivid. Examples include, “The clouds were tinged an earthlike yellow in the sunrays and in the shadow were a sorry blue” and the flag was “sun-touched.” Crane also uses clouds as a symbol for the confusion produced by war.
In Chapters 11 through 13, Crane creates graphic images by combining colors with concepts, settings, attitudes, and individuals. For example, Henry experiences “the black weight of his woe”; he is both “a blue desperate figure” and “a blue, determined figure”; he fantasizes that he “stood before a crimson and steel assault”; he “soared on the red wings of war”; the army was “a blue machine.” Battlefield examples include “blue smoke,” “blue haze,” and “pink glare,” and war is described as a “red animal.” Evening is described in terms of “orange light,” “purple shadows and darkness,” and “a blue and somber sky.”
Crane’s color imagery creates significant contrasts between dark and light, death and life, and drab and colorful. For example, the faces of the sleeping men are “pallid and ghostly”; Henry confronts a “black and monstrous figure”; the campfires gleam of “rose and orange light”; the leaves of the trees were “shifting hues of silver with red”; and “the stars [are] lying, like glittering pebbles, on the black level of the night”.
In Chapters 17 through 19 Crane makes use of color imagery to bring the battle alive visually. The rifles being fired released “beams of crimson fire,” and “the blue smoke-swallowed line curled and writhed like a snake stepped upon”. The reader also sees the regiment face “yellow flames” and “yellow tongues” (rifle fire), “crimson fury” (cannon fire), and “a blue haze of curses” (the lieutenant’s exhorting his troops to cross the clearing).
In Chapter 18 and 20, Crane also uses color to create moods and to reveal attitudes. For example, “There was a row of guns making gray clouds . . . filled with large flashes of orange-colored flame.” This is a beautiful, but sinister, image that leaves the reader anxious. Equally sinister is the description of a burning house, set afire by a cannon barrage. The burning house is described as “glowing a deep murder red.” A “murder red” can be nothing less than a blood red. In creating this red imagery for a burning house, burning as the result of battle in war, Crane reveals his strong feelings about war.
Color imagery also supports a somber mood in Chapter 20 as Crane uses dark and fog imagery to describe the men as they continue their retreat, their “black journey.” As they retreat, they are pursued by “a brown mass of troops, troops whom the regiment now fires at through “a rolling gray cloud.”
In Chapter 22, Crane uses color imagery and figurative language when describing the battles and the combatants. This helps the reader to identify the combatants, both physically and emotionally. The Union forces are described as “dark-blue lines,” “a blue curve,” and “a magnificent brigade.” Henry’s regiment is “the emaciated regiment,” “the blue men,” “grunting bundles of blue,” and “the robust voice . . . growing rapidly weak.” Crane’s combination of descriptive phrases and figurative language shows the deteriorating status of the regiment. Even the lieutenant is down to “his last box of oaths.” This also shows a regiment in desperate straights. At the same time, Crane’s describing the rebel forces as “dark-hued masses” and as “hounds taking a mouthful of prisoners” paints a picture of an ominous enemy.
Crane concludes the novel with a series of color images to support the various stages of thinking that Henry experienced on the walk back to the camp. Henry had been “where there was red of blood” and “black of passion,” a vivid contrast. Henry’s exploits in battle are now etched in his memory as “gilded images” in “purple” and “gold.” (These colors are colors of kings.) At the end of this chapter, as the rain begins, Henry walks through “a trough of liquid brown mud,’ and he rids “himself of the red sickness of battle.” Crane employs these images to make Henry’s thoughts more vivid—thoughts of battles and the environment that successfully engage the imagination of the reader.
