"The Red Badge of Courage"

The Red Badge of Courage, by Steven Crane, has been considered one of the greatest war novels of all time. It is a story that realistically depicts the American Civil War through the eyes of Henry Fleming, an ordinary farm boy who decides to become a soldier.

“He suddenly lost concern for himself, and forgot to look at a menacing fate. He became not a man but a member.” (Crane, Chapter 5) “The Red Badge of Courage” written by Stephen Crane is a story taking place during the Civil War. It is about a young new recruit of the Union Army named Henry Fleming. He flees from battle, but as he feels really shameful he returns to his regiment. There are many themes in the story, as Henry longs for courage and man hood, but along the way he learns self preservation.

"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 a crisis. He was welded into a common personality which was dominated by a single desire." (Crane ) The Red Badge of Courage is written by Stephen Crane. It takes place during the Civil War. Some readers think Henry is a Coward while other think he is a hero. Henry shows heroic traits when he ends up fighting, grabs the flag, and stays with the army.

War can force young soldiers to grow up quickly. In The Red Badge of Courage, Henry Fleming is no exception. He enters the war with romanticized ideas of what war is like, and leaves with those ideas very much changed.

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)

the purpose of Crane’s account was meant to reveal incidences in the soldiers’ lives, for example where they took place in the field. Crane wanted to make sure the reader could feel the same feelings as the soldiers, Crane wanted the reader to understand it felt like to be out on the

There are several main characters in this story ‘’The Red Badge of Courage’’ first of all Henry, a young soldier fighting for the Union army during the American Civil War. Jim Conklin, Henry’s friend, a tall soldier hurt during the regiment’s first battle. Jim soon dies from his wounds, and represents, in the early part of the novel, an important moral contrast to Henry.Wilson, loud private; Henry’s friend in the regiment. Wilson and Henry grow close as they share the harsh experiences of war and gain a reputation as the regiment’s best fighters.

Henry, the main character from, "The Red Badge of Courage" by Stephan Crane, showed many different emotions and reactions to battle. The essay will show how nature and human life are similar. In the same sense that the emotions that Henry portrayed fear and bravery in numerous occasions throughout the story; in the end his youthfulness got the best of him. In the first battle Henry stayed with his unit. However, in the second battle, he ran away from the battle. From these two extremely different reactions, it can be determined that Henry was going through internal battles as well as external battles.

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

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.

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,

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

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.

The Red Badge of Courage is a story of self-discovery. The novel is set during the American Civil War, on multiple battlefields. Henry Fleming is a young soldier fighting for the Union. He first joined the army because he dreams of the glories of battle and performing heroic deeds in battle. Although Henry wishes to be a brave soldier, when in battle, his survival instincts take over, and he begins debating fight or flight. His desire to become a soldier and his instinct to survive introduces the main plot and conflict of the story: During a battle, he runs away. This causes him to see the contradiction in himself and it becomes an emotional conflict for him to solve out the contradiction. Because he is so hung up on the image of the war hero, even though he wasn’t shot at, but hit by a fellow soldier, he lies to his comrades that the wound was a bullet wound. He’s lied once to them about fighting bravely in battle when in actuality he ran away, and he lied again telling them that the head would which he actually got from another soldier was a bullet wound. The climax of the plot occurs when Henry redeems himself at another major battle by fighting bravely and taking up the Union flag when the flag bearer is wounded. He ignores his fears and faces the battle like the hero he’s dreamed of and he overcomes his survival instinct. The resolution happens after the battle is over and Henry survives. He reflects on the decisions he’s made and sees how much he’d