Stephen Crane's Red Badge of Courage
When reading the Red Badge of Courage, it is necessary to understand the symbolism that Stephen Crane has created throughout the whole book. Without understanding the true intent of color use, this book loses a meaningful interpretation that is needed to truly understand the main character, his feelings and actions. Crane uses very distinct colors in his text to represent various elements that the main character, Henry or “the youth”, is feeling along his adventure of enlisting into battle. Red, yellow and gray are the main color's Crane uses consistently in the majority of the chapters to describe Henry’s inner conflicts and feelings. The color purple is mentioned very briefly but reflects Henry’s feelings in a powerful manner. Certain colors dominate throughout the book and there is a change of domination as Henry matures into a real soldier.
The color yellow, when mentioned in the text, represents Henry feeling like a coward and knowing his actions were cowardly. Crane uses the color yellow more in the beginning as Henry was just learning to become a soldier. As the book goes on and Henry matures, the color yellow is not mentioned as often. The color yellow appears in the first chapter when Henry’s mother states that enlisting is a bad idea. He feels his mother’s words were putting a “yellow light upon the color of his ambitions.” This is a significant statement because at this point in the book, Henry’s cowardice has not yet emerged and his only visions of battle are of him becoming a brave, heroic soldier. Henry’s feelings switch from confidence to cowardice as he runs away from his very first battle. When he looks back at the battlefield with shame, he can see nothing but yellow fog. Crane intended this yellow fog to represent Henry’s feelings of cowardice after running from his first opportunity of battle. The color yellow appears again in chapter nineteen, as Henry is about to face another battle. The guns that are fired are described as having a yellow flame. This image brings the reader back to the fact that Henry still has cowardice feelings about-facing this battle even though his actions may be contradicting.
The color red takes on various contexts in this book and is often used when there is some reference to battle, war, and rage. Unlike the color yellow, Crane used the color red...
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...nded that war brings about horrible situations and leaves the few surviving with lost loved ones and terrifying memories.
The color purple is mentioned only a few times but reflects Henry’s feelings at the beginning and the end of the book. This color signifies royalty and honor. In chapter two, when Henry still believes that in the end all the men will be honorable brave hero’s the uniforms are described as being a deep purple. Not till the end of the book in chapter 24 does Crane again use the color purple when he mentions that the “fellows marched now in wide purple and gold” to show once again that royalty is present and all that had survived are being now being honored.
Throughout the text of the Red Badge of Courage Crane uses but a few specific colors and has significant meaning for each one of them. In order to truly understand and feel what the main characters are feeling, more importantly Henry, it is extremely important for the reader to comprehend what each color signifies and how it relates to the feelings of Henry and the other characters. Without this type of understanding one can not fully appreciate Cranes writing in the Red Badge of Courage.
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.
Events of crisis tend to reveal people’s true character, as well as help those people learn from the experience. Decisions people make during crises can display what kind of personality they have. In The Red Badge Of Courage by Stephen Crane, the youthful main protagonist, Henry, decides to join the army. In the beginning of the novel, Henry exhibits multiple cowardly qualities. However, through a series of battles, Henry learns more about himself and begins to become a remarkably brave soldier. Henry’s transformation from cowardice to bravery is portrayed through Henry’s change in thoughts, actions, and dialogue.
In The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane explores the theme of courage and heroism in depth. He develops these themes through the main character, Henry Fleming. Henry is a naïve young man faced with the harsh realities of war, in this book, some argue that Henry is transformed into a heroic "quiet manhood" while others see Henry as the same young man who ran from battle in the beginning of the book. I think Henry doesn't change, his heroic status acquired at the end of the book isn't truly him, instead he merely is motivated by fear of dying and being rejected by his fellow soldiers.
The Red Badge of Courage, by Steven Crane, has been proclaimed 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. Henry, who is fighting for the Union, is very determined to become a hero, and the story depicts Henrys voyage from being a young coward, to a brave man. This voyage is the classic trip from innocence to experience. The soldier story, The Red Badge of Courage, was used to reflect the harsh Civil War realities. Cranes style of writing to portray these realities included the technique of symbolism. In this technique, symbols are hidden within certain objects throughout the story to help express the theme. Henry, Jim Conklin, and Wilson all symbolized a specific aspect of mankind.
The Red Badge of Courage is not a war novel. It is a novel about life. This novel illustrates the trials and tribulations of everyday life. Stephen Crane uses the war as a comparison to everyday life. He is semi-saying that life is like a war. It is a struggle of warriors—the every day people—against the odds. In these battles of everyday life, people can change. In The Red Badge of Courage, the main character, Henry Fleming, undergoes a character change that shows how people must overcome their fears and the invisible barriers that hold them back from being the best people—warriors, in the sense that life is war—they can be. Henry has a character change that represents how all humans have general sense of fear of the unknown that must be overcome.
Not only was the war bloody and violent but also the soldier's had to deal with bad weather, poor clothing and malnutrition. This particular setting is important to "the red badge of courage" because the book is about courage and bravery. To fight in these harsh conditions you must be courageous and brave. Many times Henry wanted to back out and he did once he found courage in himself and he fought till the very end. Without Henry's courage he would not of been able to overcome this
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, courage, and manhood. The romantic ideologies will be replaced with a more realistic representation.
The Red Badge of Courage takes place during the Civil war and begins with a soldier named Jim Conklin returning back to his regiment to inform them that they might go into battle any day now. The main character of the story Henry Fleming who was recently recruited in the 304th regiment begins to worry about how brave he really is since he has never really been in battle before. The main reason he joined the army was for the honor and glory that came after the battle but he never really analyzed what it took to gain all the glory and honor that he wanted to obtain.
	The book Red Badge of Courage is insightful because it gives great detail about the hardship of war, the physical and emotional side of it. It shows how a young solider of the Civil War would have felt and also it shows all his fears. It is not just about war and the fighting, the book gives details about the camp and the other soldiers that Henry Flemmings interacts with. Stephen Crane has a unique writing style because it is very symbolic and it paints a lot of pictures for you. Crane is very imaginative and takes a look from one viewpoint into an isolated person and his relationship with society. I believe the book was well writing at times because some parts could have used more detail. It would have been easier to understand. Some parts of the book I felt like I was really there but others it just felt so distance. This work is important because of its historical value that it has with the Civil War. It tells not just about the war itself and what is going on but the emotional side of a young solider. It tells how soldiers break down in war and that all of them are heroes at sometime in the war. I learned from the book that you must face your fears and that if you run from them once then the next time you must face them.
Stephen Crane's purpose in writing The Red Badge of Courage was to dictate the pressures faced by the prototypical American soldier in the Civil War. His intent was accomplished by making known the horrors and atrocities seen by Unionist Henry Fleming during the Battle of Chancellorsville, and the conflicts within himself.
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.
The Red Badge of Courage is a descriptive novel about the courage one can develop if he/she rises above the fear. Henry Fleming was afraid and cowardly but, saw the look in his comrade's eyes and changed his entire mindset on the battle. Henry is my favorite character and the most like me for these reasons, he changed his entire way of thought for his regiment. This book is a well written Civil War novel on how war changes people not just for the negative but, for the positive
...ern Critical Interpretations: Stephan Crane's The Red Badge of Courage. New Yourk: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.
Henry Fleming’s growth is demonstrated after the first battle when he becomes mentally stronger and surmounts his fear of being a coward. Henry Fleming is a romantic dreamer, inspired by visions of a chivalric type of warfare in which he becomes a mighty hero (Solomon). He reads of “marches, sieges, conflicts, and longed to see it all. (Crane, 4)” He never knows where he is going or what is expected of him until the order comes. As a “fresh fish” (Crane, 9), Henry must prove to the veterans and himself that he is not a coward although he is not sure how he will react in real combat. Henry does not have much self-confidence in himself and contains many of his fears in terror of being ridiculed. His insecurity causes him to be in the state of mental agony until he can prove that he is not a coward in the heat of the battlefield. In the first battle, Henry believes he has passed his test and is in an ecstasy of self-satisfaction. “So it was all over at last! The supreme trial had been passed. The red, formidable difficulties of war had been vanquished. (Crane, 45).” His delight with his actions can be seen when he begins to chat with his companions. There was a little flower of confidence growing within ...
The Red Badge of Courage uses both color imagery and color symbols. While Crane uses color to describe, he also allows it to stand for whole concepts. Gray, for example, describes the 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 Fleming's mental visions of battle. In the process, it gains a symbolic meaning which Crane will put to an icon like the "red badge of courage" (110, Penguin ed., 1983). Crane uses color in his descriptions of the physical and the metaphysical and allows color to take on meanings ranging from the literal to the figurative.