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 fact, Henry’s transformation from cowardice to bravery is portrayed through Henry’s change in thoughts. For example, Henry conveys cowardice after the second battle in the book. After Henry runs away from battle he thinks that “he had fled with discretion and dignity” (Crane 121). Henry portrays cowardice by running away from his problems and trying to convince himself that he did the right thing. However, Henry grows more
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For example, Henry’s actions in the second battle convey his initial cowardice. In response to the enemy coming back to fight, Henry “ran like blind man” (Crane 57). Henry’s actions illustrate his cowardice since he is afraid to stay and fight and flees instead. However, as Henry matures throughout the novel, he learns to control his fears and show courage through his fighting. For instance, in the battle after Henry rejoins the regiment, Henry “had not deemed it possible that his army could that day succeed, and from this he felt the ability to fight harder” (Crane 133). Henry portrays bravery in this battle, since he still fights with all of his strength, when he believes the enemy would win. Henry’s change from cowardice to bravery is conveyed through his act of running away from battle, to fighting courageously in
Even though Henry never expressed his fears to Tom Wilson or Jim Conklin. the audience could tell by the expressions on his face that he was scared. While he was writing a letter to his parents he wrote about how he is going to fight for the first time and he wants to make the proud. After Henry runs away from the first battle. He feels embarrassed because he didn't have a wound.
Henry's flaws were very similar to those of Pip and the Greek heroes. Arrogance was a flaw that many Greek mortal heroes, especially Odysseus and Oedipus, had. When Henry realized that none of his fellow soldiers were aware that he had run from the first battle, he regained his self-pride and self-confidence. Before long, he had convinced himself that he was "chosen of the gods and doomed to greatness." At first, Pip believed that status and wealth determined the "goodness" of a person. Henry had similar illusions. He believed that a war hero was a person who could manage to escape every tight situation he got into, and also a godly figure people looked up to and were fascinated by. His other illusions were that the only the best could survive against the hideous "dragons" of war, and that the enemy was a machine that never tired or lost will to fight.
The first time Henry's flaw gets him in trouble is in chapter 10 and when he gets his chance to go into battle he flees. He at first thinks the war is boring but he soon learns that war is very frightening. When Henry flees he also shows insecurity when he tries to make up an excuse for why he wasn't with the rest of the regiment. Henry thinks very poorly of himself at this point and really anyone would run from a war, I don't think he was ready.
We learn that when Henry comes home from the war, he is suffering from PTSD. "It was at least three years before Henry came home. By then I guess the whole war was solved in the governments mind, but for him it would keep on going" (444). PTSD changes a person, and it doesn 't always stem from war. Henry came back a completely different person. He was quiet, and he was mean. He could never sit still, unless he was posted in front of the color TV. But even then, he was uneasy, "But it was the kind of stillness that you see in a rabbit when it freezes and before it will bolt"
He struggled to fight and ran away. He felt ashamed of himself and wanted to change. He saw what JIm did and how he put all his effort and life into this war. Henry destroyed his guilt and lead his regiment into victory. He changed from cowardice and fear to courage, humility, and wisdom. My emotional response was motivational because Henry was afraid and his fear almost consumed him but, he rose up and developed the courage to be victorious.
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.
There are four main themes to me in “The Red Badge of Courage.” These themes are courage, personal growth and maturity, self-preservation, and nature. The theme of courage is what this story is all about really. What is courage? Who has courage? I want courage. How does one obtain courage? This is what Henry wonders and eventually figures out after having a misunderstanding of what bravery and courage was to begin with though. “His self-pride was now entirely restored. In the shade of its flourishing growth he stood with braced and self-confident legs, and since nothing could now be discovered he did not shrink from an encounter with the eyes of judges, and allowed no thoughts of his own to keep him from an attitude of manfulness. He had performed his mistakes in the dark, so he was still a man” (Crane 78). Henry feels that because the other men are giving him praise, then he is right in his behavior. But is this courage? Absolutely not. As Henry marches from battle, the reader is led to believe
Through Henry's progression in thoughts, Crane explores this changing view of the hero. As the book opens, "the youth [Henry] had believed that he must be a hero" (Crane 50), as he set out as a newly enlisted man. Awaiting the call of his first battle, Henry reflected that "[s]ometimes he inclined to believing them all heroes" (Crane 75) based simply on their role as soldiers. However, when confronted with the reality of battle, Henry soon noticed that "[t]here was a singular absence of heroic poses" (Crane 86). Trying to cope with his own inadequacy, Henry finds himself always lacking in comparison with those around him. As they marched along he thought that heroes "could find excuses . . . They could retire with perfect self-respect and make excuses to the stars" (Crane 123). Marching among those heroes wounded in battle, "they rendered it almost impossible for him to see himself in a heroic light" (Crane 125). Henry began to despair "that he should ever become a hero" (Crane 126). However, through a new confrontation in battle, Henry found himself funct...
In the Historical fiction, “The Red Badge of Courage”, written by Stephen Crane; a young man try’s to find courage in himself in the time of war. After watching your commander die in war, would you stay and fight or return home and be a coward? Enlisting Himself into war Henry, to be more than the common man to prove worthyness and bravery. With the sergeant dead will Henry lead his men to victory, or withdraw his men in war. Not being the only are faced with the decision Jim and Wilson Henry’s platoons will have the same decision.
Having read of marches, sieges, conflicts, and the exploits of Greek warriors, and, as well, longing to see such, Henry enlisted into the Union army, against the wishes of his mother. Before his departure, Mrs. Fleming warned Henry, "...you must never do no shirking, child, on my account. If so be a time comes when yeh have to be kilt or do a mean thing, why, Henry, don't think of anything `cept what's right..." Henry carried with himself this counsel throughout his enlistment, resulting in his questioning himself on his bravery. As a sign of Henry's maturation, he began to analyze his character whilst marching, while receiving comments from his brethren of courage in the face of all adversity, as well as their fears ...
Henry’s personable nature is formed to enhance his ability to connect to his men. He uses this side of himself when he pretends to be a commoner before the battle of Agincourt. From his earlier vagabond years, Henry understands the psyche of the common man, and he uses this experience to make himself accessible as a person. Henry understands morale is low, and that his troops need to feel support so they do not give up. To do this, Henry disguises himself and speaks as a friend to his men to understand their opinions of the battle ahead. This persona differs so greatly from what most men see of Henry that his men can not even recognize their own king. Henry even drops the name “Harry le Roy,” with le roi being French for the king. The goal of this encounter is to retrieve unbiased intelligence about how his men feel without the intimidation that is associated with talking to the king. With this persona, Henry gets such candid results that he is insulted by a man named Williams. By disguising himself and changing his persona, Henry manipulates his own personality. He uses experiences from his previous lifestyle, builds on them, and then uses...
In chapter nine, Henry shows his brave character once again. In Paula, Henry was installed in a roadside trench. Some of the men were hungry so Henry volunteered to go and fetch some cold macaroni from the other side of the trench. The major advised him against it and said, “You better wait until the shelling is over.” Henry replied, “They want to eat.” (53) As Henry and the others came back to the dugout, shelling began and bombs burst around them. Then the blast furnace door swung open and Henry was badly injured. This incident showed his selfless courage and bravery. He did not have to do it, yet he went and got the food anyway. Henry risked his life for the others, and that is another true sign of bravery.
In the first part of the novel, Henry is a youth that is very inexperienced. His motives were impure. He was a very selfish and self-serving character. He enters the war not for the basis of serving his country, but for the attainment of glory and prestige. Henry wants to be a hero. This represents the natural human characteristic of selfishness. Humans have a want and a need to satisfy themselves. This was Henry's main motive throughout the first part of the novel. On more than one occasion Henry is resolved to that natural selfishness of human beings. After Henry realizes that the attainment of glory and heroism has a price on it. That price is by wounds or worse yet, death. Henry then becomes self-serving in the fact that he wants to survive for himself, not the Union army. There is many a time when Henry wants to justify his natural fear of death. He is at a point where he is questioning deserting the battle; in order to justify this, he asks Jim, the tall soldier, if he would run. Jim declared that he'd thought about it. Surely, thought Henry, if his companion ran, it would be alright if he himself ran. During the battle, when Henry actually did take flight, he justified this selfish deed—selfish in the fact that it did not help his regiment hold the Rebs—by natural instinct. He proclaimed to himself that if a squirrel took flight when a rock was thrown at it, it was alright that he ran when his life was on the line.
This idea is the major framework. of The Red Badge of Courage, in which Henry Fleming aspires to be a man, a hero in the eyes of the masses by enlisting in the army. Henry's goal of the day. Returning a man from war has already marred his image of being a potential hero because his thoughts are about himself and not about the welfare of others. The.
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!