The Red Badge of Courage

1344 Words3 Pages

War changes life in the way it never can; from the novels The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane and Catch 22 by Joseph Heller, the perception of anti-war, which the scars of humans’ mind can be seen. Though war ends, but war in the heart of the people is hard to erase. The authors convey this through symbolism of the name of the novel in which the characterization of the main character take place, the first person point of view of the novels, the satire tone, and the deception of war.

The Red Badge of Courage symbolizes the wound that Henry viewed it a symbol for courage. "He wished that he, too, had a wound, a red badge of courage."(81) ‘a badge of courage’ is a diction that the author creates, in order to be ironic to the main character, Henry Fleming who believe that wound is a symbol or badge of courage. From the way he said he wished to have a wound, courage is use to be an excuse for view war bad to good. Contradict to the method of Catch 22; Catch 22 symbolizes the illusion of the reality that war makes to the people. “Catch-22 did not exist, he was positive of that, but it made no difference. What did matter was that everyone thought it existed...” (516) The diction of Catch 22 reveals the inexistence of it. The connotation of this is the no-win situation that only brings deception yet demonstrates the influence of the paradoxical frustration to the people. “…Yossarian but only two Yossarians, or maybe even only one Yossarian- but that really made no difference!”(267) The main character, John Yossarian is an example of Catch 22 of the deception war creates to him; this demonstrates of the lives in paradoxical situation. The authors use the situations of the setting to characterize the main characters, in order to n...

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...06) He thinks that he is seeing the hell. The repetition of the sentence emphasizes on the illusion that the character are seeing while, draws the attention of the readers of the deception the character who is a soldier facing. Similar to Catch 22, the author uses repetition to emphasize on the meaning of the sentence, “What’s fair is fair. What’s fair is fair.” (472-473) The sentence is said by Milo, who gains wealth and popularities from the military troops as war occur and deception take place with the people. He takes advantages from other soldiers in order to reach his personal greed. ‘fair’ is a diction that the author uses, to shows the deception of war. ‘Fair’ in this case does not have the meaning it normally mean but an excuse for actions that is totally not fair. The author intention is to reveals the judgmental of the people as deception of war occur.

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The Red Badge of Courage

The War Escalates By Paul Boyer

Themes and Symbols in “The Red Badge of Courage”