More handpicked essays just for you.
Existentialism in Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage
The Red Badge of Courage Stephen Crane book reports essays
Stephen crane essay
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The Red Badge of Courage as a Naturalistic Work with Realistic Tendencies
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, one of the most significant and renowned books in American literature, defies outright classification, showing traits of both the realist and naturalist movements. It is a classic, however, precisely because it does so without sacrificing unity or poignancy. The Red Badge of Courage belongs unequivocally to the naturalist genre, but realism is also present and used to great effect. The conflict between these styles mirrors the bloody clash of the war described in the book – and the eternal struggle between good and evil in human nature.
There are many characteristics in Crane’s novel that would more readily fit within the category of realism: the ordinariness of his characters, the use of dialect, the portrayal of protagonist Henry Fleming as a complex individual, the description of nature as disinterested in human affairs, and the positive ending of the story. Realism, often described as "slice of life" or "photographic" writing, attempts to portray life exactly as it is, without twisting it or reworking it to fit it into preconceived notions of what is appropriate or what is aesthetically pleasing. In this book, Crane relies on neither the oversimplified rationalism of classicist literature nor the emotional idealism of romantic prose. Instead, he offers realistic, believable characters with average abilities. The soldiers are presented neither as epic heroes nor as bloodthirsty killers; rather, their most noticeable trait is their overwhelming normalcy. The soldiers of Henry’s regiment curse, fight, and argue just like normal people. This down-to-earth, gritty, everyday style is characteristic of realism. A particular convention used by Crane in convincing the reader of his characters’ existence is dialect. The distinctive speech of the soldiers enhances the photographic effect of the novel, lending it authenticity. Another distinctive trait of realism is complexity of character – a trait readily evident in Henry Fleming. As he switches between cowardice and heroism, compassion and contempt, and optimism and pessimism, the reader observes that he is more than just a stereotype. He is a person with fears, hopes, dreams, and foibles.
Nature is often portrayed as indifferent or disinterested in the affairs of humankind. Whereas naturalism involves emphasis on the hostility of nature, realism lacks this trait. For example, after fighting a battle, "the youth [feels] a flash of astonishment at the blue, pure sky and the sun gleaming on the trees and fields.
In The Red Badge of Courage, Henry Fleming was drawn to enlist by his boyhood dreams. His highly romanticized notion of war was eclectic, borrowing from various classical and medieval sources. Nevertheless, his exalted, almost deified, conception of the life of a soldier at rest and in combat began to deflate before the even the ink had dried on his enlistment signature. Soon the army ceased to possess any personal characteristics Henry had once envisioned, becoming an unthinking, dispas...
However, the most traditionally "romantic" facets of his artifice are most fully manifested in a series of private correspondence between himself and a certain society maiden by the name of Nellie Crouse. It is these letters that serve to illustrate Crane's writing prowess as it transcends traditional Romantic genrefication. Through these letters, which serve as an informed testament to Crane's marked skill as a writer, we begin to examine Crane in the context of his own existence, devoid of the fictional trappings of his most acclaimed accomplishments.
...x the problem. In today’s society, because of the advancements in the medical field, technology and the rise of professional doctors, we do not need to resort to supernatural phenomena to cure medical hardships. Doctors have the ability to fix most of our troubles through procedures such as medicine or surgery. Hence, this demonstrates how the study of history, puts human experience in context and allows us to understand ourselves as people and how much we have evolved, and will continue to evolve for centuries to come.
In the Red Badge of Courage, the protagonist Henry, is a young boy who yearns to be a Great War hero, even though he has never experienced war himself. Anxious for battle, Henry wonders if he truly is courageous, and stories of soldiers running make him uncomfortable. He struggles with his fantasies of courage and glory, and the truth that he is about to experience. He ends up running away in his second battle.
The various interpretations of the Carter Doctrine made by Presidents are a key factor in its multiple consequences.
“The Red Badge of Courage” was written by Stephen Crane in 1985 as a fictional tale of a soldier of the Civil War. With its accurate depictions, readers were led to believe that Crane had at one time been a soldier. This was however not the case. Crane has a unique way of using themes and symbols in “The Red badge of Courage” to relay a very realistic portrayal of war.
Under Emperor Napoleon III, who detested the United States, the French came to stay. They brought a Hapsburg prince with them to rule the new Mexican empire. His name was Maximilian; his wife, Carolota. Napoleon's French Army ...
...around the United States. He had a butler that would always tell him when a different state was on the phone and it had to deal with his bootlegging business. This period of time was known as the Jazz Age. That was when jazz music and flapper dance became popular. In the book Gatsby always had jazz music and dancers at his parties to keep the guest happy.
...he was able to induce a sense of poignancy in his listeners by using his experiences as a slave (“Frederick Douglass”). Frederick Douglass was an accomplished journalist, orator, and autobiographer. His speeches and written work had a big impact on the nation and on others’ views on slavery.
A tragic character is someone who experiences misfortune in courtesy of poor judgment, fate or a conflicted personality. In the tragedy, Antigone, there is a heavy debate over whether Antigone or Creon is the tragic character. Creon can be classified as the tragic character of the play because he has been affected the most due to his decision of sentencing Antigone to death. For instance, a fight emerges between the king and his son, Haimon, as a result of his harsh punishment. Also, he lets his pride get in the way which triggers the suicide of Haimon and his wife, Eurydice. By the end of the tragedy, Creon is forced to live through the painful death of his family, thus being the tragic character because he suffered the most.
As indicated by studies from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, students fall short when it comes to critical thought and reasoning (Jasparro, 86). Because of the current classroom practices of rote memorization, “students are generally deeply habituated to passivity and low-level performance,” reports Linda Elder, executive director for the Center for Critical Thinking, who promotes the integration of critical thought into current curriculum. “Most [students] have no conception of what discursive reasoning is. Most have spen...
...isory body were all established”(Health Milestones). This shows the importance of the establishment of this health department by outlining all of the extra types of division and departments it offers. The more one area can offer, the better. This created optimism in Canada, because the health care creates a healthier and more secure area, which all people of Canada at the time were looking for. In conclusion, the optimism of the 1920’s in Canada was influenced by the mind blowing insulin discovery and the creation of a Canadian department of health.
The Red Badge of Courage, by it’s very title, is infested with color imagery and color symbols. While Crane uses color to describe, he also allows it to stand for whole concepts. Gray, for example, describes both the literal image of a dead soldier and Henry Fleming’s vision of the sleeping soldiers as corpses and comes to stand for the idea of death. In the same way, red describes both the soldiers’ physical wounds and Henry’s mental vision of battle. In the process, it gains a symbolic meaning which Crane will put an icon like the ‘red badge of courage’. Stephen Crane uses color in his descriptions of the physical and the non-physical and allows color to take on meanings ranging from the literal to the figurative.
If it was not for Stephen Crane and his visionary work than American Realism would not have taken hold of the United States during the eighteen hundreds. During the years following the Civil War America was a melting pot of many different writing styles. Many scholars argue that at this time there was still no definite American author or technique. Up to this point authors in the Americas simply copied techniques that were popular in regions of Europe. Stephen Crane came onto the scene with a very different approach to many of his contemporaries. He was a realist, and being such he described actions in a true, unadorned way that portrayed situations in the manner that they actually occurred (Kaplan). He had numerous admired pieces but his most famous work was the Red Badge of Courage (Bentley 103). In this novel he illustrates the accounts of a Union soldier named Henry Fleming. At first the writing was considered too graphic and many people did not buy the book. Eventually the American people changed their opinions and began to gravitate towards Crane’s work. The readers were fascinated by the realistic environment he creates even though he himself had never fought in a war (Bentley 103). By spreading the influence of realistic writing Crane has come to be known as the first American Realist.
Rudd, R. (2007). Defining critical thinking. Techniques: Connecting Education & Careers, 82(7) 46-49. Retrieved December 9, 2007, from EBSCOhost database.