How Is Henry Fleming Mature In The Red Badge Of Courage

The amount of blood shed, and the amount of soldiers that were fleeing was not a confidence booster for him. The soldier next to Henry dropped his riffle and ran before Henry did. This was ultimately the decision maker. After witnessing this, Henry didn't even need to think twice about fleeing. As Henry is running, he begins to rationalize the decision in which he made. Thinking that maybe he had made the right decision. He completely forgot all the lessons his regiment had instilled in him and his fellow comrades. He abandons all the honor and loyalty he has for his Union, and runs for

But in the second battle Henry flees from his comrades while they held the line as the rebels tried to push them out. The regiment ended up being the victors of the second battle too. But Henry was worried about what the other soldiers would say to him since he ran away from the battle. I believe Henry was always afraid of battle even before it started and when the enemy came sprinting towards him he was shocked and started to flee.

Henry fled from the second battle because he did not fully understand the responsibility of being at war. He was just a boy trying to do what’s right. Angst and inner conflict welled within his conscience from participating in the first battle, but the lieutenant of his regiment filled his and his comrades’ spirit full of false security and bravery, making the first battle easier to bear.

Henry sacrificed his romantic ideas of war to become a good soldier. When Henry enlists, he imagines glorious battles and being a war hero. “His busy mind had drawn for him large pictures extravagant in color, lurid with breathless deeds.” (p. 4) However, in his first battle, war isn't the noble act he envisioned. He watches numerous people he knows die horrible deaths and runs away out of fear. “On his face was the horror of those things which he imagined...He ran like a blind man.”(p. 46) The scenes that he witnesses are so horrific, that it leads to him being unable to focus on anything, even running from those sites. After running, Henry realizes that he isn't going to be a war hero. It is this realization that allows Henry to become a good soldier. In his next battle, Henry forgets about himself and fights as a part of a group. “He suddenly lost concern for himself...He was welded into a common personality that was dominated by a single desire.”(p. 38) He becomes such a good soldier that his commander tells him “‘...if I had ten thousand wild cats like you I could tear the stomach outa this war in less’n a week!’”(p. 111). Sacrificing the idea that he is going to be a war hero is what allows Henry to become

Once the actual guns and cannons were being fired in the first battle, Henry was in shock. He was so scared, but he kept fighting because that's what he was supposed to do. In his mind, this was not how he imagined war at all. Henry began to realize just how wrong he was.

In the beginning of the book Henry is some what eager to be fighting in the gory scenes of battle. “He had, of course, dreamed of battles all his life – of vague and bloody conflicts that had thrilled him with their sweep and fire.” Henry was smitten with the idea of being engaged with killing other people like a wild animal, but when the time came it became known to him that his reactions to the scenes of war was not at all what he thought it would be. When one thinks about the idea of war one thinks highly about it and glorifies it, but in the actual chaos and confusion of war men become petrified, delusional, and lose their sanity. “He had rid himself of the red sickness of battle. The sultry nightmare was in the past. He had been an animal blistered and sweating in the heat and pain of war.” This quotes shows how Henry learned that his longing for war attitude was a incorrect attitude to have. Also that his war thirsty attitude got him into a scenario of war which made him lose his identity and rationality. To conclude, fighting against one another is not something someone should be gleeful about but

In the first battle it seemed like Henry was more excited and his adrenaline was running. He wanted to observe what battle was and show strength to his fellow soldiers. Henry gained confidence as his regiment drove back the enemy. His excitement in the moment gets him more involved with moving horses, flags and wounded men. “He suddenly lost concern for himself, and forgot to look at a menacing fate. He became not a man but a member. He felt that something of which he was a part - a regiment, an army, a cause, or a country - was in crisis.” Henry was beginning to think like a leader.

Henry retreated during the second attack but eventually came back. Henry was immature and he felt wronged because most men in the regiment deserted him and left him to fight without much help. He fled because of annihilation. Another example of how immature Henry is, is that seeing a squirrel run made him feel better because it helped him rationalize his own flight of danger. As Henry becomes more mature, he promises Jim that he will not let him die in the road. His actions show maturity because at this point, Jim’s life is more important that his own. After seeing all the dead soldiers Henry begins to realize that this is a part of a war. He wishes he were dead because he was a coward and had run from battle. He wants to be a war hero but does not believe he can be because he had run from the war earlier.

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 book Henry reflects his decision to enlist in the war because he thinks it’s going to be perfect and glorious, but as he gets involved in the war his perspective changes. When he gets to war he is confident and fears nothing, however, his feelings change when he hears Jim Conklin, the tall soldier, say that the war was imminent. Throughout the novel Henry questions himself. He questions if he is courageous,

His inexperience is replaced by fear which is eventually replaced by the hero, he knows he can be. Henry started out as an immature farm boy that was naïve about the ways of the world then grew into a young soldier who is ready for war and anything that comes his way. But once he is faced with the fear of dying, he has second thoughts about his bravery and abandons his troop and fellow soldiers. But after coming to terms with his coward action, he returns to the war not as a boy but as a man ready to face the battle and lead the others to victory. Crane’s novel detailed the horrors and fear soldiers face during wartime, which changes men, but the Civil War didn’t just change men, it changed boys as

Henry felt unhappy that the tale was false and now was more concerned about himself and it leads him to be depressed because he had done nothing for the last few months when waiting to go to war. He comes to the point that he feels like he cannot do anything at all, and can't be the hero he wants to be. He also comes to the point that he finds out that math and science cannot help him in everything, such as determining if he is a coward or not. Having noticed that he cannot determine on math and science to help him find out if he is a coward or not, he decides to go find an opportunity to help him prove if he is a coward or not. Trying to find an opportunity, he tried to measure himself to the other soldiers of his camp and tried to understand what the other soldiers was thinking about. He explains that he also afraid to show the other soldiers his concern about the war. He then thinks about two theories about his own camp as a whole. His first theory is that he believes that all the soldiers in his camps are heroes. However, at some times, he ignored the positive theories he had about them and saw them instead as a wandered someone who is afraid to do something. His emotions about them made him feel strange, especially about the people who talk about the excitement of the battle that is going to occur right in front of their

Henry also known as “The youth” begins as an egotistical teen that wants to show off to girls while wearing his army uniform so Henry confidently enlisted himself into the war. He slowly starts to doubt himself. He had just heard stories about the famine and the bloody bones sticking out through slits of faded uniforms. “ A little panic-fear grew in his mind. As his imagination went forward to fight, he saw hideous possibility. He contemplated the lurking menaces of the future, and failed in an effort to see himself standing stoutly in the midst of them.” As he had time to Henry fears of the death in battle, so he can already see himself failing already. He tried really hard to prove to himself that he would not run from a battle, but Henry lacked courage. However through the courses of the many battles of the war, he has

“Here they come, here they come!” yelled one of the soldiers. The first battle started when Henry shot the first shot. He works the crowd like the soldier he is, feeling like beast, shooting his rifle, shot after shot after shot. He is confident and strong. He is a part of this regiment and together they push forward, they “helt ‘em back”.

In, “The Red Badge of Courage,” there are many conflicts regarding Henry. The one in the first part of the book is internal. Henry is wondering if he will flee in the heat of the battle. “A little panic-fear grew in his mind. As his imagination went forward to a fight, he saw hideous possibilities. He contemplated the lurking menaces of the future, and failed in an effort to see himself standing stoutly in the midst of them. He recalled his visions of broken-bladed glory, but in the shadow of the impending tumult he suspected them to be impossible pictures. (Crane 8). He wonders if he is actually a coward, and he can never have glory. He continually frets about the problem until he comes upon