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Examples Of Henry In The Red Badge Of Courage

Decent Essays

Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage portrays war through the youth Henry fleming’s conception. In the beginning of the novel, war is romanticized by Henry; he is enchanted by the idea that war produces heroes. However when Henry does finally fight in a battle, the romanticized idea of war is destroyed. Although Henry seems to grow up in some parts in the novel, there are parts that show he still is a child with superficial and shallow desires and ideas involving war. Henry shows his ignorance and naivness in some scenes, but then he shows his progression into adulthood and acquiring of courageousness in other scenes.

Henry can be shown as still being ignorant and naive in certain situations. One example is when Henry flees a battle after …show more content…

This shows that Henry allows himself to now be a part of something bigger. This also shows that Henry lets himself become sucked in a bigger cause, to not to save himself but to but to save and help his other comrades. He loses his sense of being an individual completely, which cuts self-preservation out of his picture.
In the beginning of the novel Henry repeatedly questions his courageousness and whether or not he is a hero or not but will believe it if someone calls him a hero he will believe he is. By the end of The Red Badge of Courage, Henry Fleming is transformed from the scared youth that struggles with his courageousness to a soldier that is outraged in battle and hungry to fight. Henry starts out in the novel as an idealistic and completely egotistical teenager who wants superficial benefits from war like the chance to be considered a hero.. He selfishly only wants to fight to be adored by others. The procedure he goes through pushes him to recognize his cowardice and selfishness. Then, however, Henry transforms into an adult and his selfish desires vanish. Henry Fleming, although is forced into it, does grow up in the

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