Dialectical Journal Of Henry's Life

During the movie, Regarding Henry, Henry goes through a traumatic accident that alters his personality. Before the accident, Henry was very mean to everyone, including his own wife and daughter. After the accident, Henry forgot everything about normal human behavior. He could not move his arms, nor could he speak. Because of this, Henry had to learn how to accomplish tasks in the same manner as he once was able to. This goes to prove that Henry’s natural state is his id, and throughout the movie, it becomes clear that his superego is learned. Once Henry begins to learn how he used to act, he reverts back to his child-like id.

Henry feels he's overcome his fears, until the enemy charges again. Henry, no longer feeling part of the team, pictures the enemy as super human soldiers about to trample him. He runs. He overhears generals celebrating their victory. Chapter 7 Henry resents the victory, accusing his fellow soldiers of being stupid and lucky.

Henry fights along with the other soldiers in the first battle, yet he flees from the scene when the second battle ensues. Henry had a confusing opinion about the battles being fought. He believed that the first battle was a sure fire win and that the second battle was a complicated one to win. The battles were both very different.

Henry is day dreaming about his life back home. He is thinking about everything he left behind. He comes to when soldiers start yelling the enemy soldiers are coming. Henry is immediately nervous, like most of the soldiers. The lieutenant yells instructions for them. They all get lined up ready for battle.

During the second battle, Henry faced deep and overwhelming bouts of anxiety. He felt hopeless and though his best option was to leave the battle. In Chapter 6 page 41, Henry "seemed to shut his eyes and wait to be gobbled". He felt as if his sole efforts could not be demonstrated and his best option was to flee from his regiment. Henry felt

Moving closer to the battle, Henry, the rookie private with a lack of self-confidence and courage, starts thinking if he should run away from a battle or fight in the battle. With a lack of war experience, he feels insecure going to battle and does not know what to do. He starts to ask his fellow soldiers on their thoughts and opinions about running away from a battle as he felt cowardliness of doing so. He also asked one

His doubts got the best of him so he ended up fleeing while in battle. The second quote explains how Henry still cares what others think and how courage is defined to him. The third quote explains how angry Henry got when he saw the enemy killing his fellow soldiers which put a rage and confidence in him to go out and fight even if the outcome could have been death. Henry built up the courage to go back and fight in the battle. This is a big moment in the novel because of Henry’s transformation and show of courage to

First, one should focus on the language and Henry's ethos. The soldiers are burdened with the thought of a

Although there are several different motifs in this novel, two main ones that I noticed are: the idea of becoming a man, or the coming of age, and the constant them of courage. Although the amount of time from the beginning of the book to the end is only a couple of days, the amount of character development within Henry is tremendous. At the beginning Henry is a boy who romanticizes and fantasizes about battles and war, as stated in the first chapter, “He had, of course, dreamed of battles all his life - of vague and bloody conflicts that had thrilled him with their sweep and fire. In visions he had seen himself in many struggles…” (P. 5). But, at the end of the book he is a man who has experienced the real gore and grit of war and as he walks away from the

“The Youth,” which Henry is referred to as, dreamt of glory in battle and being a hero (Crane 2). That is the reason why Henry enlisted himself; even though he told his comrades he was forced to be in the army. His mother’s farewell speech is ironic because he thought that she would give him a tearful and long speech, but all she really said was to “Watch out, and be a good boy” (4). She does not want Henry to be a hero even though that is what he went to war for. She told Henry that she will be fine if he does not return home. Henry tries to pull off being a confident and good soldier, while in the reality he is very nervous about what will happen in battle. Throughout the novel, he questions his courage and if he would run from battle. At an early battle, Henry continuously fires at the enemy line and feels like he is a courageous soldier. However, soon after this battle, another one erupts and Henry runs from it. This is

grows up during the war. Henry faces his fears and fights in the battle. After Henry faces his fears of the

In chapter nineteen, “The youth stared at the land in front of him. Its foliage now seemed to veil powers and horrors” (Crane 118). Henry has changed and sees things in a new perspective. He now understand why the other soldiers did not flee from battles and what their wounds signified. In chapter twenty two, Henry was “deeply absorbed as a spectator” with “serene self-confidence.” In earlier battles Henry was timid and now he is fighting on the front line with the other soldiers. Eventually though, Henry faces internal conflict in chapter twenty three. He believes life is not worth living because of his shameful retreat

In Chapters 3 and 4, Henry’s fears and doubts are increased by rumors from soldiers. At this point in the novel, he has seen battles but has not been part of one yet. Henry’s fear of not knowing what will happen grows because he has not seen the enemy. His fear of the unknown is greater than the idea of having to face the problem head-on.

A little while later, during the next fight, the Confederates started to fire accurately at Henry’s regiment. He forgot all about his great performance during the last battle and instead, was instantly filled with worry and fear as he dropped his hat and rifle and bolted up the hill. As he tried to get as far away as possible, he suddenly heard cheering and looked back to see that the Union soldier had held the line, without him. At this point, all his fears turned to anger and depression.

Freud believes that everyone has a large unconscious. He states that there are three parts of a personality: Id, Ego, and Superego. Id is based on biological urges, the Ego is the rational decision- maker, and the Superego operates on the moral principle. Henry Turner, the main character in Regarding Henry, goes to the store one day to buy cigarettes and is shot in the head. The bullet causes his personality to change and results in him remembering very little about his past life. His new personality is almost foreign to those around him. Henry’s personality after his accident is his natural state because in his “past life” his Id made him veer away from his natural state.