In the novel of “The Red Badge of Courage”, the author, Stephen Crane used Henry Fleming to be his subject for how situational surrounding can affect one’s behaviors and characters. Throughout Crane’s novel, he managed to prove that war can have a big effect on people. he used protagonist, Henry Fleming, to support his belief of war thoroughly with details of battles, Henry’s actions during battles and the scenes of dead people.
Stephen Crane wrote, “He imagined some strange voice would come from the dead throat and squawk after him in horrible menaces” (Crane 60). So, in this short quote, crane is basically telling the readers that the protagonist is already losing his mind, but not going crazy yet. This is the effect war have on the people especially in the beginning of the war. Crane’s novel is also different than the other novels are the focus on the theme. Some other Civil War related novels often talks about love as it show in Glory, One Wore Blue by heather Graham, Always to Remember by Lorraine Heath, etc... Heather Graham is best known for Civil War stories and almost most of them are connected to the romance genre. In one of his book, glory, he talked about soldier found his love while sheltering in a plantation house. War has lead him to that adventure. So, there are common things that the Civil War can connect to other relating story. But, Crane’s novel really made a different aspect for us to view because throughout the whole novel, he never talked about the romantic scene whereas the other mentioned about it. So, that would be the uncommon thing I see in Crane’s novel compared to other Civil War based novels. Crane’s idea of war is, “writing of a hero who reverses the romantic ideal and pretends to have a wound wher...
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...e’s life through surroundings. Crane has completely changed Henry’s behaviors through naturalism and the situations of the war. Henry once thought that being in the army is very cool, but when he got into the army, everything start changing and even his character were changed and led him to a new person. Crane’s ability to write a novel like this became a very good naturalism and realism book.
Works Cited
Brooks, Sydney. “Mr. Stephen Crane and His Critics.” The Dial 20 (16 May 1896): 241-244.
Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage. New York: Amsco School Publications, Inc., 1971.
Mason, Jean. "Glory by Heather Graham." The Romance Reader. Anderson/The Romance Reader.
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Solomon, Eric. “A Definition of War Novel.” Stephen Crane: From Parody to Realism. Cambridge:
Harvard UP, 1966. 181-187.
Schroeder, John W. "Stephen Crane Embattled," University of Kansas City Review, XVII (Winter 1950), 119 Rpt. in
The Red Badge of Courage and The Blue Hotel: The Singular Love of Stephen Crane
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
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, 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. Henry is somewhat nave, he dreams of glory, but doesn't think much of the duty that follows.
The Red Badge of Courage - Henry is No Hero 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 nave 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 is motivated by fear of dying and being rejected by his fellow soldiers.
Bloom, Harold, ed. Modern Critical Interpretations: Stephan Crane's The Red Badge of Courage. New Yourk: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.
The reaction of one soldier to another is the basis of war, as camaraderie is the methodology by which wars are won. Henry gave witness to the horrors of war, the atrocities of battle, the deaths of his friends, and later a life of victory. The ultimate transformation in Henry's character leading to a mature temperament was found by finding himself in the confusion of war and companionship.
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.
The world of Stephen Crane's fiction is a cruel, lonely place. Man's environment shows no sympathy or concern for man; in the midst of a battle in The Red Badge of Courage "Nature had gone tranquilly on with her golden process in the midst of so much devilment" (89). Crane frequently anthropomorphizes the natural world and turns it into an agent actively working against the survival of man. From the beginning of "The Open Boat" the waves are seen as "wrongfully and barbarously abrupt and tall" (225) as if the waves themselves had murderous intent. During battle in The Red Badge of Courage the trees of the forest stretched out before Henry and "forbade him to pass. After its previous hostility this new resistance of the forest filled him with a fine bitterness" (104). More omnipresent than the mortal sense of opposition to nature, however, is the mortal sense of opposition to other men. Crane portrays the Darwinian struggle of men as forcing one man against another, not only for the preservation of one's life, but also the preservation of one's sense of self-worth. Henry finds hope for escape from this condition in the traditional notion that "man becomes another thing in a battle"‹more selfless and connected to his comrades (73). But the few moments in Crane's stories where individuals rise above self-preservation are not the typically heroicized moments of battle. Crane revises the sense of the heroic by allowing selfishness to persist through battle. Only when his characters are faced with the absolute helplessness of another human do they rise above themselves. In these grim situations the characters are reminded of their more fundamental opp...
Wolford, Chester L. "Stephen Crane." Critical Survey of Long Fiction. Ed. Frank N. Magill. English Language Series. Vol. 2. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Salem Press, 1991.
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.
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.
Kaplan, Amy. “The Spectacle of War in Crane’s Revision of History”. Bloom, Harold ED. New
The short story “The Veteran” by Stephen Crane has many techniques such as dialogue, imagery, and setting to show how even in war a soldier can be afraid, but one’s strength can show later in life when the