Red Badge Of Courage Research Paper

As he is walking, a few soldiers that seems to be fleeing run into him. As Henry tries to stop them to ask what’s been happening, one of the soldiers swings at him with a rifle, opening a bloody gash on the top of his head. After a long while of waiting, a friendly soldier finds him and leads him back to camp, where a friend tends to his wound. After a few days of waiting, they come across another battle. This time Henry doesn’t flee, instead he thinks about all the people who have fought and died in the war, and decides to do the same: fight. Not only for the glory this time, but for the people he was

The Civil War officially started in 1861, yet problems between the North and the South date back as far as the early 1830s. The North was infuriated over slavery after a woman by the name of Harriet Beecher Stowe published her book Uncle Tom's Cabin. Stowe's book analyzed the life of a slave in an astonishing and realistic way. It caused many people to join the Union. Then the war began in July of 1861 when a Confederate army met with a Federal army at Manassen, Virginia. Many battles were fought until finally the north was victorious. Slavery was abolished, and the federal government's power was set as supreme power over all the land.

In today’s issue, we will be covering all the major events that have transpired in The Red Badge of Courage as a sort of “catch-up” for new readers. Firstly, it all began when young Henry Fleming enlisted in the Union Army, wanting to fight for his country. He expects war to be thrilling and exciting, and for him to come back a decorated hero, praised by the town. However, it starts out far from his dreams. Instead, his regiment is only told to stay where they are, drilling and training over and over again and abstaining from any combat. Finally, his wish is granted as his regiment moves out, but not in the way they expected. The “moving” simply consisted of them stopping in one area, settling down, then being ordered to move again, repeating

In the first battle, Henry is shown as young and naive. He really did not understand what was about to happen around him. While he was scared at first, when the enemy started getting closer, he forgot about being scared and just started shooting. Part 2 of chapter 5 states that "He suddenly lost concern for himself, and forgot to look at a menacing fate." Henry saw many soldiers die during this first battle. As things kept going, his emotions changed from scared, to excited, to angry, to sad, and then to surprised. He was amazed at everything that had happened during the first battle.

In the first battle, Henry fights along side the other soldiers. At this time, Henry is feeling confidant in his fighting skills and counted on his fellow soldiers to do their job. The narrator says, "He became not a man but a member. He felt that something of which he was apart- a regiment, an army, a cause, or a country - was in a crisis. He was welded into a common personality which was dominated by a single desire". In this quote, it talks about how he feels that he believes in his regiment. He isn't so selfish, he believes he is no longer an individual with regiments, they work as a whole person. In the second battle, it's different, he flees with the regiment.

As previously discussed, Henry must make adjustments to his dreams as events pertinent to his life manipulate his goals. Henry never seemingly has the exact same life goal at any one point in the book, as he changes his mind from being a courageous soldier, to earning a red badge of courage, and so on. However, Henry never loses his ambition to continue and persevere through the hardships from his sacrifices. He subconsciously understands he will eventually achieve what he is looking for; he realizes it will take time and guidance from the realities of his life. Henry’s approach to life eventually allows him to achieve his dreams. “So it came to pass that as he trudged from the place of blood and wrath his soul changed. He came from hot plowshares to prospects of clover tranquilly, and it was as if hot plowshares were not. Scars faded as flowers” (Crane 130). This quote emphasizes the result of Henry’s life as he leaves his previous forfeits behind in order to finally obtain his goal inspiring happiness, which emphasizes the novel’s overall

Henry’s internal struggle is his view of courage. Henry believes courage is something a person earns and achieves. He never experienced war, but has dreamt and, “He had imagined peoples secure in the shadow of his eagle-eyed prowess. But awake he had regarded battles as crimson blotches on the pages of the past. He had put them as things of the bygone with his thought-images of heavy crowns and high castles.” (Crane 3) Henry wants to go to war to become a hero. He thinks that he has courage and could go to war and get all the glory. Henry runs from battle and has guilt, he comes up with excuses, he is a piece of the army and should save himself. When Henry comes back to the battlefield, he sees wounded soldiers and, “At times he regarded the

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

The Red Badge of Courage is a great American novel, by Stephen Crane, about a young man named Henry Fleming, who encounters much adversity during the Civil War. Along the way, he comes to the realization that many unfortunate events he is unaware of, would lead to self-discovery. A character goes on a journey that revolves around obtaining an archetype known as the red badge of courage, however, he faces many difficulties along this journey as well as the unintentional achievement of self-discovery. It takes an individual journeying to obtain a symbol of honor or courage while coming face to face with many hardships to unintentionally discover new things about themselves and the beliefs they hold.

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 is a immature person at the first time,he wants to be the hero,so he joined the army,and the way people treats them makes him think he is hero already.He saw the real thoughts in his mind in the first battle that he never wants to come to the war,so at the second war, he

However, the realities of war soon catch up with him. My advice to Henry is to see the world as it literally is and not the way it appears in his mind. His expectations of personal valor will only be met if he is brave enough to fight for what he believes in. And he should only fight for things he himself feels strongly about. 2.

As the battles continue, Henry dedicates himself to fighting. He starts working with his soldiers, and not only focusing on himself. He no longer wants approval from the other soldiers, because he knows what he does is right and has a significant amount of self affirmation. This shows his maturation and

He described that he couldn’t escape even if he wanted to. Through this analogy, the reader can see that Henry is reducing the soldiers to unthinking, unfeeling machines, performing their duty without taking into account the threat of injury or death. As he looks around at the faces of the rest of the soldiers in his regiment, he notices their focused commitment to the firing of their rifles. He wonders if he is the only one faced with questions of morality. While the regiment began to advance, Henry was shocked to receive a packet of letters from Wilson, who feared he would die in battle. After the battle, he is glad that he made it through the first day. He begins to lose the romantic vision of war by seeing the realities, but he starts lying to himself about who is really is.

The first steps in war are the steps of overcoming the line of comfort by solving the self-centered beliefs that will break you in a battlefront. Once overcoming those selfish traits and believe in yourself, that is when one flourish on the battle field. Henry Fleming's urge for war was short lived when he was put on the frontline. Henry Fleming was a fearful, coward, who always gained self-control and self-comfort by