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The red badge of courage as a psychological novel
The red badge of courage as a psychological novel
The red badge of courage as a psychological novel
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The Red Badge of Courage by Stephan Crane is a war novel published in 1895. It’s mainly about a boy named Henry Fleming who becomes a soldier in the Civil War raging from 1861-1865. He recently just joined the 304th regiment in his hometown, and meets many new people. After hearing that they were going to combat with confederate soldiers, he’s afraid if he will desert or not. He feels that he will desert for fear of death and many of the other soldiers will die if they don’t.
Henry signed up even though his mother told him not to. After he went with his regiment, they were camped on a riverbank for a few weeks. Lately, there’s been a rumor that they will be in combat soon. Many of his friends say that if many people desert, he will also desert.
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Later, he overheard a general on horseback say they managed to defend the charge. After hearing this, Henry is shocked that he deserted and is ashamed of himself. He assures that he did it for his own life, so that he would be okay, but he was still ashamed nonetheless. After a while, he joined a column of wounded soldiers. He says the wounds that the soldiers obtained, were like a red badge of courage. He later finds a man who looks familiar and later finds out it is his friend, Jim Conkin. He later tries to heal him and take care of him. But later, Jim runs from the line into bushes, where Henry watches his best friend in the Union army die in his hands. Later as he is wandering around for a sign of life, he eventually does. He finds a battle ensuing and union Soldiers are retreating. Henry tries to speak with the soldiers to ask what happens. But he accidently gets hit in the head by a rifle. After a while a soldier leads him to their …show more content…
His friend Wilson thought Henry Got Shot and cared for him until he got better. The very next day, they reenter the battlefield. Henry enraged at the enemy for the death of his friend and his experiences fight bravely. They manage to defeat the army and Henry is congratulated by his general, saying “with ten thousand henrys we could win this war in a week.” However, despite his amazing performance, an officer says that the regiment fights like mule drivers. Angered by this, he fought valiantly, even bearing the flag when the color bearer falls. Still, the officers were not impressed, calling the regiment mud diggers. He is very happy when his general says that he’s one of the best fighters in the regiment. He continues to fight and says that he has overcome the red sickness of battle. He says he is now able to look forward in his
Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage. Sculley Bradley, Richard Beatty, and E. Hudson Long Eds. New York: W.W. Norton, 1962.
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.
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.
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
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.
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 ...
In the two books A Soldier’s Heart and Red Badge of Courage there are few differences between the two. In fact, there are so many similarities that many people think one may have copied the other. Each of them explain the lives of two soldiers during the civil war, what they faced, and how they faced it. They encountered similar instances, but typically handled them in opposite manners.
...ther battle begins, but this time, Henry is prepared to fight. Henry's fighting tactics are extremely wild and is afterwards is congratulated by his lieutenant for a job well done. However,between battles, Henry and Wilson (his fellow soldier) overhear a general referring to their regiment as "mule drivers" and preparing to sacrifice them at the front line in the next battle (Crane Chapter 18). Henry accepted this challenge and thinks of it as an obstacle he desires to overcome. When the next battle starts, he and Wilson see the Union flag beginning fall. They both sprint to retrieve the flag and lead their comrades to their next fight. After the battle ended, the officers praise their courageous action (Crane Chapter 21). In the novel’s final battle, Henry captures the Confederate flag as well and helps lead the Union regiment to victory (Crane Chapter 23).
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.
Gibson, Donald B. The Red Badge of Courage: Redefining the Hero. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1988.
"hero" in the eyes of the masses by enlisting in the army. Henry's goal of
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. 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! The supreme trial had been passed. The red, formidable difficulties of war had been vanquished. (Crane, 45).” His delight with his actions can be seen when he begins to chat with his companions. There was a little flower of confidence growing within ...
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, one of the most significant and renowned books in American literature, defies outright classification, showing traits of both the realist and naturalist movements. It is a classic, however, precisely because it does so without sacrificing unity or poignancy. The Red Badge of Courage belongs unequivocally to the naturalist genre, but realism is also present and used to great effect. The conflict between these styles mirrors the bloody clash of the war described in the book – and the eternal struggle between good and evil in human nature.
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.