Analyzing Crane's Novel 'The Red Badge Of Courage'

How does Henry come by Andy Lansell’s diary? What is his impression of the writing style?

In this essay you will notice the differences and similarities between ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ and ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’. ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ was written in nineteenth century by Alfred Lord Tennyson. In contrast, ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ was written in the twentieth century by Wilfred Owen. The main similarity we have observed is that they both capture war time experiences. However, the poets’ present these events using their own style, and the effect is two completely different observations of war.

The comparisons in the plot service in molding the books and helping the reader to have a better understanding of a soldier’s thoughts, and their mental state of mind. Close friendships form between the boys and other soldiers in their lines, in both cases the friend dies, forcing reality to set in and the boys are stricken with fear, and an urge for blood. At the beginning of the book, like Charley in “Soldier’s Heart,” Henry has certain morals he wants to keep, but loose in the heat of battle, becoming a savage in order to protect himself and his country. Surviving to see the end of the war, both boys have a wound left over from the war, whether it be a mental or physical scar, it is still present. These stories are alike in a numerous amount of ways that gives the reader a better sense of knowledge of what the soldiers go through during battle.

War can force young soldiers to grow up quickly. In The Red Badge of Courage, Henry Fleming is no exception. He enters the war with romanticized ideas of what war is like, and leaves with those ideas very much changed.

Using Writing style, theme, and context for both stories The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane and Camouflaging the Chimera by Yusef Komunyakaa shows that even though they are both about different wars they can have similarities and also some difference. Even though both writings were about the same subject they could have differences but also none the less

The most powerful part, I felt, was on page 263, where there was a soldier who did not recognize his own brother. The conditions were so terrible that one could not even recognize someone with whom they had lived with for years. It was also shocking to see that kids the same age as me and even younger going with their parents to fight in a war. If you could not even recognize your own family how could you recognize if someone was on your side? The conditions were gruesome at several times, especially the weather. The summers were hot and humid, and the winters were cold and windy. The ways the soldiers kept warm such as gathering around candles, lanterns, and even mounting on top of a canon for warmth were very interesting to me. Washington's skills to move an entire army within a few short hours without being noticed also grabbed my attention. Then at the battle of Trenton, where the Americans completely surprised the British was shocking. Throughout this book there were many well written accounts, and spellbinding parts to this

John Keegan describes his book, The Face of Battle, as "a personal attempt to catch a glimpse of the face of battle." This personal aspect that Keegan mentions is essential to his book and is excellently articulated, driving home his point. Keegan, who taught at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst for over 25 years, begins by acknowledging his uneasiness with the fact that even though he taught British cadets military history, "I have not been in a battle; not near one, nor heard one from afar, nor seen the aftermath . . . And I grow increasingly convinced that I have very little idea of what a battle can be like." Keegan is clear to state his proposition that almost all military history has functioned simply as a “battle piece” description in which one can see all the larger moving aspects followed by the outcome. However, this sort of recounting fails to acknowledge the personal side of war, the experience of battle. What really ensues when a cavalry unit meets an infantry unit? What are the vital features in determining whether soldiers stand and fight or turn and run?

Written by Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage is a novel filled with irony. This story is written in the point of view of the main character, Henry Fleming, and tells about his maturation through the war. Including the title, from the beginning to the end of the book there is irony present. The use of irony by Crane helps create a lot of discussion for critics. Henry’s internal debate is a main source of irony in this novel. Also, his fantasy of how he thought war was going to be and how it turned out is ironic.

In this essay, I will discuss how Tim O’Brien’s works “The Things They Carried” and “If I Die in a Combat Zone” reveal the individual human stories that are lost in war. In “The Things They Carried” O’Brien reveals the war stories of Alpha Company and shows how human each soldier is. In “If I Die in a Combat Zone” O’Brien tells his story with clarity, little of the dreamlike quality of “Things They Carried” is in this earlier work, which uses more blunt language that doesn’t hold back. In “If I Die” O’Brien reveals his own personal journey through war and what he experienced. O’Brien’s works prove a point that men, humans fight wars, not ideas. Phil Klay’s novel “Redeployment” is another novel that attempts to humanize soldiers in war. “Redeployment” is an anthology series, each chapter attempts to let us in the head of a new character – set in Afghanistan or in the United States – that is struggling with the current troubles of war. With the help of Phil Klay’s novel I will show how O’Brien’s works illustrate and highlight each story that make a war.

The Civil War took more lives than any other war in history, seeing this devastation first hand can change a person. In Stephen Crane’s “The Red Badge of Courage”, his military school background is evident. During his education, he established a desire to learn and write about the Civil War. In this novel Stephen Crane illustrates the battles of the Civil War, but more importantly the Battle of Charlottesville and the effect war has on the soldiers. Stephen Crane reflects on the journey of his main character Henry Fleming and his development from a young, immature farm boy into, not just a man, but a hero, while facing the brutal realities of the Civil War.

However, this novel is not an anti war novel because it displays the truth behind the actual civil war. Stephen Crane goes into the depth of three days of Civil War to display the victories and defeats of the Union through the Fleming’s point of view. This novel respects the civil war and provides the actual emotions and feelings of a soldier in a battle. Crane uses literary devices such imaginary to display the gunshots,dead bodies on the ground, regiments and hospitalized camps. For example, this novel displays bloody battles along with wounded and dead soldiers on the ground waiting for the war to be over to maintain the peace between the North and the South.

In the beginning of Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, Henry Fleming, or the “youthful private,” is a farm-boy who to enlist in the Union army. The novella begins after Henry has joined the 304th New York regiment, encampment in Virginia. The month is May 1863, two years after the Civil War has already begun, and the stage is set for the upcoming Battle of Chancellorsville. Through the course of the weeks leading to his first battle, Henry is brought to question himself and face the reality of war. Through the use of irony, the literary point of view, and naturalism, Crane gives the reader a look into the reality of war through Henry Fleming’s perspective.

War forces young soldiers to grow up quickly. In Stephen Crane’s Civil War novel, The Red Badge of Courage, Henry Fleming is no exception. He is faced with the hard reality of war and this forces him to readjust his romantic beliefs about war. Through the novel, the reader can trace the growth and development of Henry through these four stages: (1) romanticizing war and the heroic role each soldier plays, (2) facing the realities of war, (3) lying to himself to maintain his self-importance, and (4) realistic awareness of his abilities and place in life. Through Henry’s experiences in his path to self-discovery, he is strongly affected by events that help shape his ideology of war, death,

The Red Badge of Courage, written by Stephan Crane in 1895 gives a detailed, yet, fictional account of Henry Fleming, a farm boy who joins the Union Army in the American Civil War. Before Henry is battle-tested, he ponders his courage and questions whether he will be able to fight the urge to flee from battle. Henry does indeed end up deserting his comrades however he ultimately overcomes his guilt and becomes one of the best fighters in his regiment. In order to depict a realistic and relatable war scene, Crane includes Henry’s realistic thought-process and emotion in his struggles to maintain courage. The narrative simply revealed war in a manner that was divergent to all prior forms of literature in the 19th century. Previous novels predominately entailed the glorious and romantic aspects of war rather than the tedious, gritty, and gruesome details of close combat. Instead, Crane broke the barriers of literary norms in war-related literature; the novel depicted a pragmatic experience of combat from the eyes of an inexperienced and frightened youth. In the Red Badge of Courage, Stephan Crane primarily uses religious and gory imagery as well as symbolism to contrast the romantic conceptions of war versus the reality of experiencing battle.

“An Episode of War” by Stephen Crane proves to be a fantastic way to illustrate the stylistics of the American Realist movement. The grit of the war and the formation of the blob army where each person is indistinguishable from the next provides a realistic view on how wars were fought during this time period. The way Crane shows off the world he creates is an intriguing fashion; a man severely wounded walking around with a battle raging on while he is pumping full of adrenaline. “An Episode of War” shows how a nameless character is capable of showing off a world with minimal effort.