How Does Henry Mature In The Red Badge Of Courage

1030 Words3 Pages

Gabrielle Steers
Hans-Georg Erney
English 2100
9/28/14
The Red Badge of Courage In Stephen Crane's "The Red Badge of Courage", we examine the sequences of war through the perspective of the main character, Henry Fleming. Since the book is vague regarding many details, we don't know Henry's age or anything about his appearance. However, we can conclude that he is from the state of New York and he was raised by his mother. Although a few people argue that throughout the story Henry matures and becomes a better person, passages from the book show quite the contrary. Key actions show Henry is cowardice, although he considers himself heroic. Throughout the book he continually proves that he is everything but courageous. Henry's journey originates at the point where he signs up for the Union Army. Although at first glance this seems like a solid choice, Henry does it for the wrong reasons. He does not have a strong understanding of the Union's mission, but believes that he will be a hero. Henry has a skewed perception of what war is all about. His busy mind had drawn for him large pictures, extravagant in color, lurid with breathless deeds(Crane, 3). This simply reveals that Henry had romanticized nothing short of a glorious adventure in his …show more content…

Henry is ashamed of the wound and becomes embarrassed and fearful that the other soldiers will taunt him. When he meets back up with his regiment, they question his battle inflicted wound. Henry lies and creates a story about a fight with an opposing regiment: I've - I've had an awful time. I've been all over. 'Way over on th' right. Terrible fightin' over there. I had an awful time. I got separated from the reg'ment. Over on th' right, I got shot. I never see sech fightin'. Awful time. I don't see how I could'a got separated from th' reg'ment. I got shot, too(Crane, 62). The rest of Henry's regiment believe his lies and are amazed at his false

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