Stephen Crane's Red Badge of Courage Essay

"At times he regarded the wounded soldiers in an envious way. He conceived persons with torn bodies to be peculiarly happy. He wished that he, too, had a wound, a red badge of courage." (Ch.9, Pg. 61) Jim Conklin, Wilson, and the tattered man are not only alike in some ways, but also have differences. The purpose of this essay is to tell you the similarities between the tall soldier, the loud soldier, and the tattered man, how they are like or unlike Henry Fleming, and what roles these major characters seem to play in the novel.

In the novel Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton uses words and symbolism to convey the deeper feelings that the characters cannot themselves express. The symbolism in the novel ranges from the sled that ultimately disfigures Ethan and paralyzes Mattie to symbols of death that foreshadow not literal death but the tragedy of the story. Color symbolism is a major literary tool used throughout Ethan Frome to enrich the story and show who the characters really are. White in the story is in a sense used to show the sterile life of Ethan and just how badly his dreams have become buried like underlying life gets buried under a mountain of snow. A major color used throughout the novel though is the color red.

      In The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane explores the theme of courage and heroism in depth. He develops these themes through the main character, Henry Fleming. Henry is a naïve young man faced with the harsh realities of war, in this book, some argue that Henry is transformed into a heroic "quiet manhood" while others see Henry as the same young man who ran from battle in the beginning of the book. I think Henry doesn't change, his heroic status acquired at the end of the book isn't truly him, instead he merely is motivated by fear of dying and being rejected by his fellow soldiers.

Written by Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage is a novel filled with irony. This story is written in the point of view of the main character, Henry Fleming, and tells about his maturation through the war. Including the title, from the beginning to the end of the book there is irony present. The use of irony by Crane helps create a lot of discussion for critics. Henry’s internal debate is a main source of irony in this novel. Also, his fantasy of how he thought war was going to be and how it turned out is ironic.

People tend to be greatly influenced by stories, news, and other contemporary sources of knowledge, which ultimately affects the impact they have on the world. Stephen Crane was greatly impacted by the time period in which he lived. One such influence was the popular literary style of Realism. Realism is the trend in which literature is based on the true nature of everyday occurrences devoid of any fantasy or romance. It is the raw depiction of what life and society is actually like. This literary style can be found in many of Stephen Crane’s novels. Religion also had a significant impact on the way Stephen Crane wrote his novels. He was an atheist which brought about the idea that humans are just part of nature and must solve their own problems without the intervention of a higher being. This notion is evident with the protagonist of The Red Badge of Courage. Henry Fleming, a young union soldier in the Civil War, must overcome the fear of putting his life at risk to achieve what he wants most which is honor. Honor comes from actively participating in battle and sacrificing his life for the cause. Honor is physically represented from a wound noted as the “Red Badge”. In the end Henry doesn’t consult in a higher being and achieves what he wants most by overcoming the mental obstacles and ultimately finding the strength within to realize what courage actually is. Accompanied by the literary movements and his religion, his time period was heavily influenced by the

War forces young soldiers to grow up quickly. In Stephen Crane’s Civil War novel, The Red Badge of Courage, Henry Fleming is no exception. He is faced with the hard reality of war and this forces him to readjust his romantic beliefs about war. Through the novel, the reader can trace the growth and development of Henry through these four stages: (1) romanticizing war and the heroic role each soldier plays, (2) facing the realities of war, (3) lying to himself to maintain his self-importance, and (4) realistic awareness of his abilities and place in life. Through Henry’s experiences in his path to self-discovery, he is strongly affected by events that help shape his ideology of war, death,

The Red Badge of Courage, written by Stephan Crane in 1895 gives a detailed, yet, fictional account of Henry Fleming, a farm boy who joins the Union Army in the American Civil War. Before Henry is battle-tested, he ponders his courage and questions whether he will be able to fight the urge to flee from battle. Henry does indeed end up deserting his comrades however he ultimately overcomes his guilt and becomes one of the best fighters in his regiment. In order to depict a realistic and relatable war scene, Crane includes Henry’s realistic thought-process and emotion in his struggles to maintain courage. The narrative simply revealed war in a manner that was divergent to all prior forms of literature in the 19th century. Previous novels predominately entailed the glorious and romantic aspects of war rather than the tedious, gritty, and gruesome details of close combat. Instead, Crane broke the barriers of literary norms in war-related literature; the novel depicted a pragmatic experience of combat from the eyes of an inexperienced and frightened youth. In the Red Badge of Courage, Stephan Crane primarily uses religious and gory imagery as well as symbolism to contrast the romantic conceptions of war versus the reality of experiencing battle.

There are struggles that all humans go through. Even though there are certain difficulties some will never experience, like pregnancy, the whole world has and will continue to have troubles. From stubbing a toe, to being diagnosed with cancer, every person in all of history has undergone adversity. Even though some people may have troubles bigger than others, everyone has troubles. Since struggles are undeniably something everyone goes through, it is important on how one approaches troubles. In the end, how people react to adversity is what separates a champion and a failure. In the book, The Red Badge of Courage, the author, Stephen Crane, shows through the story of Henry’s adversity, that the differences between winners

In The Red Badge of Courage, the protagonist Henry often deals with internal conflict. First, he wants to feel the glory of surviving a war, but his instincts forced him to flee for his own safety. Second, he tries to protect himself by running from a battle, but then envies other soldiers with injuries. Henry struggles with what he wants and what his instincts make him do. He wants to get injured and be admired, but all he would allow himself to do is run from

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

The Red Badge of Courage is written by Stephen Crane. The book was named The Red Badge of Courage because the main character, Henry, sees a wounded soldier and wishes that he too also had a battle wound. This book portrays one of the most accurate, physical, and psychological effects of intense battle. Stephen Crane was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1871. His father was an elder in the Methodist Conference, which required him to move a lot. He was born when his mother was 45 years old, so he was mainly raised by his sister. Stephen Crane was mainly raised by his sister because his mother was 45 when he was born. When Crane was 17, his mother sent him to Claverack College, a military school. The military did not have an effect on his discipline,

Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald manages to draw the attention of the reader to miniscule details and symbols in the text. He uses colors to communicate to the reader feelings and attitudes of the protagonists. Color symbolism, in many ways, plays a large role in the novel. It is the most powerful method of granting the reader insight into the personality of a character; it reveals the hidden ideas and values. The style of symbolism that is most riddled throughout the text is the attachment of ideas to colors. Some of the color based symbols used are vague, while some are specific. The colors most prominently represented are the hope and purity of white, the optimism of green, the wealth of gold and the faux wealth of yellow.

394). The second connection is found with the color red in the story are the American ideas of the negative things found in association with it. These things included blood, aggression, danger and war. These negative associations are connected with Henry throughout the story. When he returns home from war, Lyman says "once I was in the room watching TV with Henry, I looked over, and he'd bitten through his lip. Blood was going down his chin". This depiction is important because not only does it show Henry's misdirected aggression, but again uses red. "There was still blood going down Henry's chin, but he didn't notice", in this we see how a color once associated with the car that made Henry so happy, has become a body fluid going unnoticed (p. 396).

The drive that Henry does show in “The Red Badge of Courage” is the instinct of survival rather than heroism. However, while the sum of all fears is mortality, Crane makes it evident that one can find meaning whilst dealing with death. For Henry, in his psyche, by the end of the story, the idea of death has now become manageable. He found his

The author of American history, uses many colors to symbolize things in the story. In this story, it uses colors such as gray, green, and flower colors (red, yellow, purple,) to symbolize the emotions throughout the story. Colors may not have too much meaning at first Justin glance, but if you go back and read it over, you may be able to pick up on something that you didn’t he first time.