Henry, Wilson, and Jim are similar in many ways but they also have many differences. They are all soldiers who chose to fight for their own reasons. Each of them goes through theirthere own journey of self discovery when they enter battle. They have to decide if they are willing to stay and fight for what they believe in or if the will coware and run out of fear. When Henry decides he wants to join the war, he thinks it will be this great epic event. He seeks honor and glory, which in my opinion cannot be found on a battlefield. He is known as the youth or the quiet soldier because he doesn’t talk to much. When the first battle starts Henry runs out of fear making him a disereter. This goes to show that Henry is very young and may not
War changes a person in ways that can never be imagined. Living in a war as well as fighting in one is not an experience witnessed in everyday life. Seeing people die every time and everywhere you go can be seen as an unpleasant experience for any individual such as Henry. The experiences that Henry had embraced during the Vietnam War have caused him to become an enraged and paranoid being after the war. It has shaped him to become this individual of anxiety and with no emotions. The narrator says:
Henry's flaws were very similar to those of Pip and the Greek heroes. Arrogance was a flaw that many Greek mortal heroes, especially Odysseus and Oedipus, had. When Henry realized that none of his fellow soldiers were aware that he had run from the first battle, he regained his self-pride and self-confidence. Before long, he had convinced himself that he was "chosen of the gods and doomed to greatness." At first, Pip believed that status and wealth determined the "goodness" of a person. Henry had similar illusions. He believed that a war hero was a person who could manage to escape every tight situation he got into, and also a godly figure people looked up to and were fascinated by. His other illusions were that the only the best could survive against the hideous "dragons" of war, and that the enemy was a machine that never tired or lost will to fight.
We learn that when Henry comes home from the war, he is suffering from PTSD. "It was at least three years before Henry came home. By then I guess the whole war was solved in the governments mind, but for him it would keep on going" (444). PTSD changes a person, and it doesn 't always stem from war. Henry came back a completely different person. He was quiet, and he was mean. He could never sit still, unless he was posted in front of the color TV. But even then, he was uneasy, "But it was the kind of stillness that you see in a rabbit when it freezes and before it will bolt"
With Jim and Wilson by his side, Henry and his men with different outlooks on the war will fight and be the ideal team. Being the youngest of three men Henry desires honor along with a high reputation and will let nothing stand in his way. Jim was pragmatized about war. If the other soldier's were going to fight he was going to fight with them. Being classified as the "Loud soldier" and transitioning to a more mature man, Wilson undergoes many trials. These hardships show him the true meaning of life and how insignificant his life when there are other lives in the mix. As war wages on these men will fight for their own personal cause's and together will strive for a victory.
Although Henry appears to rile up his peers for war, his true motive is to convey the urgency of his call to arms against the British oppressors; therefore, asserting that people must act upon injustices they face before it is too late.
In The Red Badge of Courage, readers are not given a very good description of Henry physically; although, they are given subtle clues and often can make educated guesses with the details provided. Henry appears to be around the age of seventeen when he enlisted in the war. He does not seem like a typical war man. My depiction of Henry is that he is a scrawny, lanky young man who has all these romantic thoughts about war; he wants to be a hero. I envision him having dark brown hair that hangs around his face. Also, I envision him to having baby blue eyes because he appears to be innocent and to me blue eyes represent innocence. Overall, Henry ...
At the beginning, Henry Fleming has an undeveloped identity because his inexperience limits his understanding of heroism, manhood, and courage. For example, on the way to war, “The regiment was fed and caressed at station after station until the youth [Henry] had believed that he must be a hero” (Crane 13). Since he has yet to fight in war, Henry believes a hero is defined by what others think of him and not what he actually does. The most heroic thing he has done so far is enlist, but even that was with ulterior motives; he assumes fighting in the war will bring him glory, yet another object of others’ opinions. At this point, what he thinks of himself is much less important than how the public perceives him. As a result of not understanding
The perfect solider is what Jim Conklin brings to the book. Jim never complains about war and fights as good as the next man. Many of the people look up to Jim because he is so strong willed. The regiments almost look up to Jim in a spiritual way find ing peace inside of them when they think of him. It is a tragedy when Jim dies because of all of the moral inspiration he gave the regiment. True to his character Jim dies a quiet and peaceful death not distributing any of the regiment.
Henry’s personable nature is formed to enhance his ability to connect to his men. He uses this side of himself when he pretends to be a commoner before the battle of Agincourt. From his earlier vagabond years, Henry understands the psyche of the common man, and he uses this experience to make himself accessible as a person. Henry understands morale is low, and that his troops need to feel support so they do not give up. To do this, Henry disguises himself and speaks as a friend to his men to understand their opinions of the battle ahead. This persona differs so greatly from what most men see of Henry that his men can not even recognize their own king. Henry even drops the name “Harry le Roy,” with le roi being French for the king. The goal of this encounter is to retrieve unbiased intelligence about how his men feel without the intimidation that is associated with talking to the king. With this persona, Henry gets such candid results that he is insulted by a man named Williams. By disguising himself and changing his persona, Henry manipulates his own personality. He uses experiences from his previous lifestyle, builds on them, and then uses...
Henry V, like most characters created by Shakespeare, is very complex, and cannot by defined in black and white or as good or bad. However, he is the sum of his actions, and his actions and decisions during the campaign during the campaign in France lead him to be classified as a war criminal. A politician who works for his own good and through that, the good of his country, Henry’s decisions are often cold and calculated, designed to manipulate those around him.
Henry is determined throughout the story. One example of his determination is when he first enlists to join the Union army. He puts his mind to it, enlisting against his mother's wishes. Another example is when he is hit in the head by the stock of a gun from another soldier, who is trying to get away from Henry. Although he is hurt very badly, he is determined to make it out of the way of harm and back to his regiment's encampment. Later in the story,...
Frederick Henry grew up in America and in his early twenties, he decided to go to Europe and fight in the Italian army. Henry’s decision in the first place, showed courage and bravery. Fighting for another country over making a living in your own goes above and beyond what is remotely asked for. Even in my wildest dreams, I would probably not even think about fighting for my own country, let alone a foreign country. Times were tough, especially when the start of the winter came. With that winter came “permanent rain and with the rain came the cholera. But it was checked and in the end and only seven thousand died of it in the army.” (4) In the army, people die, and it is not the nicest place. Frederick Henry chose to enter this world and this portrays bravery.
Henry V looks like the perfect leader; however, despite all the heroic speeches, Henry is still irresponsible at times. In Act I, Henry relies on Bishop of Canterbury to give him the reasons to go to war. He asks, "Why the law Salic that they have in France or should or should not bar us in our claim (19)?" And once more, he asks, "May I with right and conscience make this claim (23)?" Based on these statements, Henry is putting the responsibility of a King to decide to go to war onto a Bishop. This shows that King Henry is irresponsible. Furthermore, in Act III, sc. 3, after Henry has conquered half of Harfleur, he demands the governor to open the gate, or he will not take the blame for his soldiers' doings. King Henry says, "Take pity of
When Henry decides to go off to war, he has a romantic image of what the war will be like. He makes references to the great battles of the Greeks, and hopes that his own battles will be as heroic. Henry had “long despaired of witnessing a Greek-like struggle” (Crane, 3). His motivation to fight comes from his will to become a hero. He believes that he will do great things on the battlefield because that is his destiny, and hopes to gain recognition for his achievements. When he tells his mother that he will be going to war, she doubts his motivation and encourages him to keep clean socks (Crane,5)! Clearly, she was treating him like a child, not a man. She is a reminder that Henry begins his journey to war as a youth trying to find himself.
Foremost among the characters William Shakespeare develops in his series of historical plays is, undoubtedly, the character of Henry V. Henry, also at times referred to as Harry or Hal, develops through the course of four plays: Richard II, I Henry IV, II Henry IV, and Henry V. From the brief mention of Henry in Richard II to the full focus upon him in Henry V, a dramatic change clearly takes place: the playful carousing youth portrayed in the first play develops into a King and conqueror by the conclusion of the final play. In order to truly examine his development however, one must examine the growth and eventual fusion of two undeniable separate characters: the prince Henry, and the youth Hal. Only through a careful examination of these distinctly unique characters can one hope to truly understand the Henry we witness at the conclusion of Shakespeare's Henry V.