Red Badge of Courage Essay

Henry’s confidence does not last for a long time. The realities of the battle become a reality and cause his fear and doubt to reappear. Henry goes from being happy because he was able to fight the enemy in the first battle to being anxious at the beginning of a second

Most significantly, the isolation of the characters forms the grim mood. The noseless soldier is a misfit among the three other soldiers. He wears a “black silk handkerchief” on his face, because he does not have a nose (455). His separation from the other soldiers suggests a sorrowful mood. The narrator feels isolated from the other soldiers, because he thinks that he is not the heroic type. He believes that his being wounded is an accident (455). He also does not see himself as a “hawk”

Looking at the plot of the story, one can see that the story deals with a psychological conflict. Before Henry had left for the Vietnam War he and Lyman had a close relationship and since coming back he changed significantly because of what he saw and experienced. Lyman explains, “Once I was in the room watching TV with Henry and I heard his teeth click at something. I looked over and he’d bitten through his lip. Blood was going down his chin” (Erdrich 129). This example shows how Henry is dealing with the post war stress and how he cannot get what he went through out of his head. As he sits and watches the replaying war videos, he is unable to get past that he can live again and go back to the way things were because psychologically he is still at war and fighting.

Meanwhile we meet two men, Jim Conklin or "the Tall Soldier" whom Henry has known for years, and Wilson or "the Loud Soldier." Wilson, afraid that he will die in battle, gives Henry a packet of letters to deliver to his family after the war. When the fighting finally starts, Henry doesn’t do too badly. However, when a second round of fighting begins after a brief lull, Henry is terrified and heads for the hills. Afterwards, he tries to rationalize his decision (to himself) by claiming it was simply a survival instinct. He oscillates between a

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

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.

Henry Fleming is going through a difficult stage between being a "man" and being a "boy". The reason he joined the army was to become a hero. He was blind to the Union’s cause, for Henry it was more for personal achievement and well-being, “his province was to look out, as far as he could, for his personal comfort.” Henry goes through a complete change of character as the war goes on going from a “boy” to a “man” as quick as a war can make that happen.

During war, a soldier's most important support system is his/her regiment. This is a support system that Henry has, then loses throughout this time period in his life. All through the war Henry questions his courage and bravery. He wonders if he will turn and run when death is looking him in the eyes, or if he will decide to stay and do what he came to do; prove that he is a man and can handle even death itself. During battle several soldiers are wounded earning their "red badge of courage" and Henry's confident, Jim Conklin, dies. Here is where Henry's second isolation, the isolation from his regiment, occurs. The soldiers in the regiment feel a certain pride and respectability from earning their "red badge." Henry didn't earn this sense of pride and respectability because of the abandonment of his fellow soldiers. He felt that his assumption was clearly rectified- he was a coward. Henry Fleming seemed to become the virtuoso of separation, individualism, and isolation. The tension is eased after he mistakenly "earns" his "red badge" from a friend.

In Stephen Crane’s novel, The Red Badge of Courage, a young soldier, Henry Fleming, is faced with a challenge of courage and task of commitment to the 304th New York Regiment during the American Civil War. Due to his romantic notions of a glorious war, Henry is concerned with whether or not he will run from battle and abandon his duty. Although the author Stephen Crane himself did not go to war, he represents the harsh realities of combat through the eyes of Henry Fleming. Crane was able to research the details of the Civil War and accurately depict the experiences of soldiers in combat. In The Red Badge of Courage, Crane successfully portrays a realistic war experience through Henry Fleming’s transformation through immaturity, selfishness,

Jim Conklin exemplifies this trait in battle right before he gets shot. He demonstrates that he would die for what he believes in and for his country. His actions when similarly, of what he told Henry what to do in a fight; that he would not run, he would fight with his fellow soldiers till the end. That is only the beginning of what Henry saw, later in the book he learned from all of this and took action. At last, when the time comes Henry fights with all of his heart and later he ends up bearing the flag while marching towards battle. From that point on, Henry learned what it was like to be a brave protector of his country. This is what it should look like today, a man bearing arms with his comrades and fighting for the freedom and rights for his country. In today’s world, men are still fighting for our freedom, but alongside with women. Since the early 2000s, women have started enlisting in the military, and now, according to the Military Times, all restrictions against women joining the military have been lifted. Since the beginning of times the men have been the protectors of land and their family, this is why it should stay that

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.

War can either forge or destroy the many that are subjected to it. Some may say that the only true honor a man can receive is through the heat of battle. Soldiers become obsessed with the idea of embodying the legends of the ancient Greek warriors. Although bloodlust is not the only way for this relative glory to be achieved, it is a rather simple way. All one has to do is dedicate himself or herself to fighting with all of his or her strength possible. There have been many wars and battles that have molded men into legends, and the Civil War was no different. In Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage, the story of a Union soldier just wanting glory is graphically told. The personal stories of every soldier are all unique. Their experiences,

In chapter 3, prior to the first battle, Henry is awoken with a kick and finds himself and his comrades running through the forest, while running he encounters a dead soldier for the first time. A dead confederate soldier. "He was dressed in an awkward suit of yellowish-brown. The youth could see that the soles of his shoes had been worn to the thinnest of writing paper, and from a great rent in one the dead foot projected piteously." This encounter gave Henry the impression that the confederate soldiers were poor, and worn out, and that they would be easily defeated. This gives Henry confidence in the Union Army's ability to overtake the rebels. It also gave him the courage to fight. In the short time between battles, Henry was faced with the sight of his own comrades wounded and dead. Although, Henry survived and the union won the battle, he was faced with the reality of war, and that regardless of whether you win or loose some of your friends and comrades will be wounded or dead. "The men dropped here and there like bundles. The captain of the youth's company had ben killed in an early part of the action. His body lay stretched out in a position of resting, but upon his face there was an astonished and sorrowful look, as if some friend had done him and ill turn." "Underfoot there were a few ghastly forms motionless. They lay twisted in fantastic contortions." Being surrounded by

im Conklin and Henry Fleming have a lot in common, but they also are very different. They are different in the way they act before the first battle. Crane describes Henry when he says, “He contemplated the lurking menaces of the future, and failed in an effort to see himself standing stoutly in the midst of them” (Crane 16). Henry is confused about what he will do when the battle starts, while Jim is assured of what he will do. He states that, “If a whole lot of boys started to run, why, I s’pose I’d start and run… But if everybody was a-standing and a-fighting, why, I’d stand and fight… I’ll bet on it.’... He had feared that all of the untried men possessed a great and correct confidence” (Crane 20-21). Jim and Henry share a the feeling of

Henry overcomes his concerns of the unknown, but he still lacks courage to talk to the commanders and the leaders of the regiment, which shows his cowardice. Henry has this lack of courage because he felt ashamed. Henry viewed his shame and lack of courage as a burden on other soldiers in the regiment. He felt that the soldiers who had a wound were fulfilled, and he envied him because they had "a red badge of courage" (Crane84) the courage that he lacked. His lack of "a red badge of courage" (Crane84) was short lived when he was shot. Jim Conklin, a man of Henry's first regiment, is