How Can The Red Badge Of Courage Be Considered An Ignorant Teenager

In the novella, The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, the youthful protagonist, Henry Fleming, enlists himself in the Union Army, with the hope of attaining his fantasies of prestige. Soon after his enrollment in the army, the reality of his decision settles in. He begins to realize that he had put himself in a life or death situation, without even thinking twice. Now the adolescent is faced with the tension and anxiety of being either a coward or a hero in battle. In the excerpt from The Red Badge of Courage, Henry Fleming can be viewed as an ignorant teenager because he does not carefully think about the harsh reality of being a soldier before he enlists himself the Union Army.

Henry seems to be a thoughtful, indecisive, and tense young

It comes with the fear of living or dying and being firm and bold on the battlefield. One can say that Henry Fleming is ignorant of his decision to enlist in the army because he never considered the consequences that came with this job. In the excerpt from The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, it states, “However, he perceived now that it did not greatly matter what kind of soldiers he was going to fight, so long as they fought, which fact no one disputed. There was a more serious problem. He lay in his bunk pondering upon it. He tried mathematically to prove to himself that he would not run from a battle,” (Fleming, 1). This quote portrays how Flemming anxiously considers the various consequences that may occur if he goes out into the battlefield. Now that Flemming realizes the many negative outcomes that can potentially take place, he begins to have a growing internal conflict with himself. He begins to question his personality and characteristics, and he begins to question if he can even muster up the courage to stay and fight in the time of battle. His ignorance shines through because he never really thought about all of the negative scenarios that could result in him fighting in a war.