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Maggie a girl of the streets on the society setting
The red badge of courage as a psychological novel
The red badge of courage heroism
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Stephen Crane was one of America’s most influential nineteenth century writers of realism. He was credited for being a novelist, short-story-writer, poet, and journalist. He was born on November 1, 1871, in Newark, New Jersey, as Stephen Townley Crane. Stephen was the youngest sibling of fourteen children (“Stephen Crane Biography”). His writing inspiration came from his family. His mother dedicated her life to social concerns, while his father was a Methodist minister. Two of Crane’s brothers were journalists so it was destined for Stephen Crane to become a writer. His passion came from his parents and the insights from his family life. He attended preparatory school at Claverack College, where he developed a better concept of the Civil War. He attended at Lafayette College and Syracuse University for less than two years. He quit college to become a full-time writer. His first work was Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. In his novel, he used firsthand experiences of poverty. The realism in this novel shows his readers what a realistic writer he was to become later (“Stephen Crane”).
He wrote his most famous work The Red Badge of Courage, in 1895, at the age of twenty-four. Much of his work was not recognized as acclaimed writing until The Red Badge of Courage. This novel won him international fame. Because of the realistic and vivid writing, he became well known for his emotional writing about fear, courage, and pride. Although he did not use firsthand experiences as he did in his first novel, he used descriptive words to make believable that he was there for first hand experiences. Crane had never been to war, so he used combat on the football field for his descriptions. It was not until later, after he published his novel that...
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...ng, but if the reader can interpret what is being said it can create a picture in his mind of what is being portrayed through the words.
Works Cited
"Stephen Crane Biography ." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 15 May 2014. http://www.biography.com/people/stephen-crane-9260647#awesm=~oEm0FzRdGbps4s.
"Stephen Crane." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 15 May 2014. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/stephen-crane.
Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage. New York, NY: Pocket of Books, 1895. Print.
Crane, Stephen. A Mystery of Heroism. Elements of Literature: 5th Course - Pennsylvania Edition Essentials of American Literature. Holt Rinehart & Winston, 2004. 435-31. Print.
Richardson, Mark Ed. Jay Parini. Vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003. p237-255. COPYRIGHT 2003 Charles Scribner's Sons, COPYRIGHT 2009 Gale, Cengage Learning.
Though in his short life Stephen Crane was never a soldier, his novel The Red Badge of Courage was commended by Civil War veterans as well as veterans from more recent wars not only for its historical accuracy but its ability to capture the psychological evolution of those on the field of battle (Heizberg xvi). Walt Whitman, on the other hand, served as a field medic during the Civil War. He was exposed perhaps to the most gruesome aspect of the war on a daily basis: the primitive medical techniques, the wounded, the diseased, the dying and the dead. Out of his experiences grew a collection of poems, "Drum Taps" , describing the horrors he had witnessed and that America suffered. As literary artists, a wide chasm of structure and style separates Crane and Whitman. The common cultural experience, the heritage of the Civil War connects them, throwing a bridge across the darkness, allowing them, unilaterally, to dispel notions of glorious battles and heroic honorable deaths. By examining Crane's Henry Fleming and the wound dresser from 'Whitman's poem of the same name, both fundamental literary differences and essential thematic consistencies emerge.
Stephen Crane firmly cemented himself in the canon of American Romanticism with the success of works such as The Red Badge of Courage and "The Blue Hotel." His writing served to probe the fundamental depths of the genre while enumerating on the themes vital to the movement's aesthetic. Such topics as heartfelt reverence for the beauty and ferocity of nature, the general exaltation of emotion over reason and senses over intellect, self-examination of personality and its moods and mental possibilities, a preoccupation with genius and the heroic archetype in general, a focus on passions and inner struggles, and an emphasis on imagination as a gateway to transcendence, as well as a predilection for the exotic, the remote, the mysterious, and folk culture are all characteristic of his stories.
13th Ed. -. Jo Ray McCuen-Metherell and Anthony C. Winkler. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2011. 428.
“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.
In literature, similar themes are portrayed in many different ways, mostly according to the time period they were written in. A new generation of writers came of age after the civil war, known as the realists. They dominated American fiction from the late nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth. They took their ideas from the slums of the rapidly growing cities at that time, from the factories replacing farmland, and from the every day common people: poor factory workers, corrupt politicians, soldiers, and even prostitutes. Realists sought to accurately portray real life. One of those Realist writers was Stephen Crane (1871-1900).
Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage is a Civil War novel written in 1895. The novel tells the story of a young soldier who flees from the war, and subsequently is afflicted by mental anguish. Though the novel may be centered around the Civil War, the real war revolves around this anguish occurs in Henry’s head. From the onset of the novel, the protagonist tries hard to reconcile the mythological stories of past heroes arising from glorious battles with the ordinary and much less exalted experiences of his regiment. When presented with the knowledge that he may be moved to the front lines, Henry begins to deliberate over the war and glory he envisioned with the reality of the situation he is now in, and wonders if he’ll return ‘with his
According to The Poetry Foundation, critics have had numerous debates on what literary movement The Red Badge of Courage should be classified as. Crane’s novel has been considered a work of realism, naturalism, impressionism, and symbolism. Those who view the novel as realistic see it as the “first unromanticized account of the Civil War” and a truthful depiction of war and soldiers (Poetry Foundation). The naturalistic viewers believe that the characters and experiences of the novel “are shaped by social, biological, and psychological forces” (Poetry Foundation). The Red Badge of Courage also displays many unique symbols and images and also a “consistent use of color imagery” which leads critics to classify the novel as Symbolistic and Impressionistic as well (Poetry Foundation). To sum up the literary movement of the novel, Edwin H. Cady stated, “’The very secret of the novel’s power inheres in the inviolably organic uniqueness with which Crane adapted all four methods to his need. The Red Badge’s method is all and none’” (Poetry
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.
Seeking and expressing the bare truth is often more difficult than writing stories of fiction. This truth can be harsher to the reader than works of fiction; it can make an author's desire to reveal the essence of society through characters the reader relates to risky and unpopular. Stephen Crane wrote of ordinary people who face difficult circumstances that his readers could relate to (Seaman 148). Crane sought to debunk the ideas that were inherent in nineteenth-century literature, which depicted life in a more favorable, but often unrealistic, light. In Crane's works, Dorothy Nyren Curley says, "There are no false steps, no excesses," (255).
Stephen Crane was a realistic author who often times wrote about the difference in ideal life versus reality. He is seen as one of the most groundbreaking writers of his time. Crane’s poetry was unique during his time period because most of his poems told a story; they were narratives. In Crane’s poem “In the Desert” he shows that a person who can overcome their mistakes and not let the negative aspects of life overwhelm the positive is a person who is human.
Bates, Milton J. "Tim O'Brien's Myth of Courage." Modern Fiction Studies 33.2 (Summer 1987): 263-279.
Crane's story is about a girl named Maggie who grew up in a life that would cause any person with feelings to have the utmost sympathy for her. To explain briefly; her brother was a roughneck in the community, her mother and father were alcoholics, a younger brother died at a young age, and they lived in a tenement building. Crane is described as a "realistic" author because of the way he describes the social environment and the stress of everyday life.
Stephen Crane began his quest for the truth in the summer of 1889 while visiting his brother who lived in New Jersey (Peden, 104). While living with his brother Crane was drawn to the idea of realistic writing. He would travel to New York on almost a daily basis to witness and experience the poverty and abusive conditions of the slums (Colvert, 104). During his visits to New York Crane was able to establish an understanding and develop a feeling for what life was like in the slums. He soon acquired a craving for individuality and a yearning to express his experiences. He began his mission by placing upon himself the desire to become his own individual, separating himself from other writers of the era by using his unique style of r...
Crane's writings depict what he believes are the norms of the world. He molds himself after the dying form of realism but finds himself often giving naturalistic qualities to his work. Such is evident in Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. Though this example of Crane's work is realistic, offering an accurate, detailed, unembellished depiction of life, it is written within a frame that can only be deemed as naturalistic. These shifts in writing form leave the reader wondering from which perspective did Crane approached the story, that of realist or naturalist; evidence supports that of the latter more than that of the prior.
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.