The Red Badge

Growing Up

Throughout the novel The Red Badge of Courage, Henry Fleming is in a constant struggle between his illusions of war and reality. When Henry first decides to enlist their is a perception of war that he has in his mind; he later finds out that war is not as glorious and courageous as his mind had perceived. As the novel progresses Henry comes to realize that his idealized notions of war and death, for his country, were all illusions he was creating for himself.

Being a young man from a small house in New York, all that Henry Fleming new about war is what he imagined it to be in his head. He perceived war to be a great struggle between two opposing forces fighting for their own beliefs(Ch.1 ). He believed that he would make a difference in battle and would have a direct impact on the outcome of battle. When Henry arrives for his duty in the military he begins to second guess himself. Henry begins to think that he will not fight but he will run from battle like a coward. In Chapter Three Henry is tested in battle for the first time and stays and fights like a man should. This is the first time that Henry sees a realistic viewpoint of war. Henry begins to become angered for his government sending him on this deathmarch, then he realizes that he had enlisted voluntarily. Henry still had an idealistic thought of war and told himself that “a man became another thing in battle.';(Ch. 3) This fight prove...