The Red Badge Of Courage Character Analysis

Crane defines courage as "a temporary but sublime absence of selflessness," I think Henry experienced a temporary but not sublime absence of consciousness. In battle I think he was acting more like a machine than himself. "Henry ran like a madman to reach the woods before a bullet could discover him...In his haste his eyes almost closed, and the scene was a wild blur...pulsating saliva stood at the corners of his mouth."(Crane Ch. 20) He was acting out of fear, thus he wasn't truly himself in his actions. The one main reason Henry fled in the beginning is because he feared death. When you act out of fear you become more mechanical in your actions. A hero doesn't flee from battle and try to rationalize their actions by lying to

He was now a more courageous man from that point on. He saw his wound as a fact that he survived the shot, and he believes that he can survive what comes his way instead of running. When he ran back into battle one his friends had been killed. The man killed was the flag bearer. Instead of running in fear he pried the flag from his hands and ran into the heat of battle. Henry did not think about the possibility of himself being the one that could die. He decided to fight for his own honor. Henry grew there his experience n the Civil War because of things like his red badge of courage.

Henry states that "Well, we 've helt 'em back. We 've helt 'em back; derned if we haven't." The men said it blissfully, leering at each other with dirty smiles” (Crane 36). This quote contains a repetitive refrain in order to express the shock and the self-satisfaction, until Henry lets his guard down, under the impression that they wouldn’t attack again. There is a sense of courage even though he was terrified. He hung in there, and he is feeling proud with his “dirty smile”, until he sees other run which almost plants a seed in his subconscious mind and he begins to panic again. He ”yelled then with fright and swung about. For a moment, in the great clamor, he was like a proverbial chicken. He lost his direction of safety. Destruction threatened him from all points” (Crane 39). This quote expresses how Henry went from self-satisfaction to being compared to a chicken, frightened and out of control. He panicked when his psyche was compromised. His sense of self and confidence was broken down to zero.

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

Moving closer to the battle, Henry, the rookie private with a lack of self-confidence and courage, starts thinking if he should run away from a battle or fight in the battle. With a lack of war experience, he feels insecure going to battle and does not know what to do. He starts to ask his fellow soldiers on their thoughts and opinions about running away from a battle as he felt cowardliness of doing so. He also asked one

In the Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, Henry has a conflict of individual vs. self as he struggles to mature at first when confronted with the realities of war. We see Henry be mesmerized by the glories of being a soldier but he does not truly understand what it means to be a soldier fighting in a conflict such as the Civil War. He matures and develops throughout his exposure to warfare and understands what it means to be a warrior. This is the central point in understanding why he fights with the other soldiers the first battle, yet he flees when the second battle ensues.

The Novel, The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane, is about a Union Regiment during the civil war that is stationed along a riverbank. Henry Flemming is a newcomer who is bothered about his bravery because there is a rumor the regiment is going to go to battle. The only reason Henry was drawn to enlist was because he wanted to become a war hero. The main conflict is internal. When Henry has to go into battle and risk his life, he realizes that there is no turning back, and he could not run if he tried. The climax occurs when he is enraged by another soldier, Jim Conklin, and takes out his anger on the confederates, impressing the lieutenant. Additionally, Wilson, his friend, and him hear another lieutenant say that the 304th regiment fights like “mule drivers.” The two friends set out to disprove his claim. For example, when the regiment’s color bearer dies, Henry assumes his duties. After continuing to face more adversity from the lieutenants, they work harder and harder to become the best in the regiment. The resolution occurs when Henry finally realizes joining the war is not about reputation or becoming a hero, it is about fighting for a cause that is worth fighting for. At the end of the novel, Flemming reflects on the war and on how he learned the meaning of true courage. (251 Words)

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.

In this skirmish, Henry did the exact opposite of what he did before, and fought with a war crazed vigor. He shot, reloaded, and shot again, never stopping to rest and continued firing like this well after the battle, shooting at nothing. This earned him the nickname “war devil” for his fighting vigor. When the battle ended, Henry was giving permission to go find a stream to fetch some water, but as he was searching, he overheard the generals discussing the battle tactics and learned that his regiment was to charge the enemy, which he told to his regiment. When the time finally came, the regiment surged forward toward the treeline, where gunfire tore at them and brought many to the ground. Despite the heavy losses, Henry managed to wrestle the flag from the fallen flag bearer, only to realize that some of the regiment was fleeing. Suddenly, a renewed and fresh wave of enemy soldiers burst out of the forest, running toward them. Even in this difficult and deadly situation, the regiment slowly encircled the Confederate troops, firing upon them and moving in, finally causing the enemy to retreat. Still the enemy was not vanquished. New soldiers bearing a flag poured from the trees, this time taking cover behind a fence, destroying Henry’s regiment. Their only choice was to charge them yet again, and with words of

Henry fights along with the other soldiers in the first battle, yet he flees from the scene when the second battle ensues. Henry had a confusing opinion about the battles being fought. He believed that the first battle was a sure fire win and that the second battle was a complicated one to win. The battles were both very different.

During the second battle, Henry faced deep and overwhelming bouts of anxiety. He felt hopeless and though his best option was to leave the battle. In Chapter 6 page 41, Henry "seemed to shut his eyes and wait to be gobbled". He felt as if his sole efforts could not be demonstrated and his best option was to flee from his regiment. Henry felt

“The Youth,” which Henry is referred to as, dreamt of glory in battle and being a hero (Crane 2). That is the reason why Henry enlisted himself; even though he told his comrades he was forced to be in the army. His mother’s farewell speech is ironic because he thought that she would give him a tearful and long speech, but all she really said was to “Watch out, and be a good boy” (4). She does not want Henry to be a hero even though that is what he went to war for. She told Henry that she will be fine if he does not return home. Henry tries to pull off being a confident and good soldier, while in the reality he is very nervous about what will happen in battle. Throughout the novel, he questions his courage and if he would run from battle. At an early battle, Henry continuously fires at the enemy line and feels like he is a courageous soldier. However, soon after this battle, another one erupts and Henry runs from it. This is

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 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.

Henry's fears take over, and his only way to achieve his self comfort again is to run away from the battle. Henry uses the forest to calm himself. The forest is where he begins to overcome his selfish ways, he reflects back on the battle and the men, and starts to believe that he can be of help to one or more of the men in the regiment. Henry eventually wins over the fear and joins with another regiment to fight against the rebels.