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The Influence of History on American Literature
The Influence of History on American Literature
How history influences American literature
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Henry is a young and enthusiastic soldier who was at first extremely eager to enter the war. He had a burning passion to be hero and talked about. “ This voice of the people rejoicing in the night had made him shiver in a prolonged ecstasy of excitement” (Crane 2). This young naive farmer boy finally after reading countless articles and hearing many tales of the war could not resist and enlisted in the army. To his surprise joining the army and getting onto a battlefield is not what he has dreamt of. As Henry arrived at the camp he could not be prouder of himself, he was an American soldier and would be a hero when he returned home. He lived luxuriously for a while at the camp. “ The regiment was fed and caressed at station after …show more content…
station until the youth had believed that he must be a hero. There was a lavish expenditure of bread and cold meats, coffee, and pickles and cheese” (Crane 4). He was living the life, care free, and in his mind treated as someone special. However as time passed and life as a soldier became a bit harsher he suddenly began to realize the mistake he had made by joining the army. The question, will he run away from the battle, popped into his mind and he had trouble shaking it off. “Lots of gooda-'nough men have thought they was going to do great things before the fight, but when the time come they skedaddled” (Crane 5). He went around asking people there opinion on if they were ever going to run away from the battle, and to his surprise no one responded with what he had in mind. Every person was strong willed, and confident when they spoke and Henry realized he was out of place- the only one scared. As time passed the young boy was still not pleased since he had not been in battle he was seeking and became restless. He grew tired of all the moving and traveling that ended with everyone tired and no battle. As the regiment were instructed to move closer to the battle the Henry started seeing more horrific images of previous battles. “ Dead soldier, he lay upon his back staring at the sky. He was dressed in an awkward suit of yellowish brown. The youth could see that the soles of his shoes had been worn to the thinness of writing paper, and from a great rent in one the dead foot projected piteously” (Crane 2). As time passed Henry began to think of absurd ideas and became uneasy about going into battle. When Henry finally arrived on the battle field for his first fight against the confederate soldiers he begins to panic. “Perspiration streamed down the youth's face, which was soiled like that of a weeping urchin” (Crane 2). As he is commanded to get ready he complies and aims his rifle at the confederate soldiers and fires. While battling he feel something for the first time, he feels like he is part of something and loses the fear that had previously paralyzed him.” He was a part--a regiment, an army, a cause, or a country--was in a crisis. He was welded into a common personality which was dominated by a single desire” (Crane 2). Lost in the battle he became a machine, or what he referred to himself as a “carpenter”. His comrades comforted him, and gave him confidence. “He felt the subtle battle brotherhood more potent even than the cause for which they were fighting” (Crane 2). As the battle concluded the Union came out victorious, and Henry had survived his first battle unharmed physically but mentally tarnished. “The youth thought that at last he was going to suffocate. He became aware of the foul atmosphere in which he had been struggling” (Crane 3). He has seen his comrades get grazed, another hurt his leg and held onto a tree yelling for help, but worst of all there were plenty of disfigured dead bodies. However, surviving his first battle boosted his self-esteem. “ He felt that he was a fine fellow. He saw himself even with those ideals which he had considered as far beyond him. ” (Crane 1). The situation was great until a second wave of confederate soldiers arrived on the scene.
Surprised by this and terrified Henry wished that the confederate soldiers were just going to turn around, but as they grew nearer he realized the trouble he was in.” His neck was quivering with nervous weakness and the muscles of his arms felt numb and bloodless. His hands, too, seemed large and awkward as if he was wearing invisible mittens” (Crane 2). Weak, and worn out from the previous battle Henry hesitantly picked up his rifle and started to aim. What he saw terrified him, but what made the situation worse was when he saw a comrade who was confident and determined to fight in the battle abandon his post. After seeing that he loses his will to fight and follows in his comrades foot step and runs away from the battle field. It is not a surprise that Henry flees the second battle. Henry starts out as a naive soldier who is eager to engage in war, however as he is in action he realizes the mistake he has made by enlisting. In the first battle he is able to maintain his post because of his comrades, and during the fight he feels a bond with his comrades and forgets all about his doubts. However during the second battle he has seen the aftermath of the first battle, many soldiers dead, or wounded. What finally breaks him and is the factor that makes him flee is when one of his comrade who motivated him abandons his
post.
It is always said that war changes people. In the short story 'The Red Convertible', Louise Erdrich uses Henry to show how it affects people. In this case, the effects are psychological. You can clearly see a difference between his personalities from before he goes to war compared to his personalities after returns home from the war. Before the war, he is a care-free soul who just likes to have fun. After the war, he is very quiet and defensive, always watching his back as if waiting for someone to strike.
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.
War changes a person in ways that can never be imagined. Living in a war as well as fighting in one is not an experience witnessed in everyday life. Seeing people die every time and everywhere you go can be seen as an unpleasant experience for any individual such as Henry. The experiences that Henry had embraced during the Vietnam War have caused him to become an enraged and paranoid being after the war. It has shaped him to become this individual of anxiety and with no emotions. The narrator says:
In The Red Badge of Courage, Henry Fleming was drawn to enlist by his boyhood dreams. His highly romanticized notion of war was eclectic, borrowing from various classical and medieval sources. Nevertheless, his exalted, almost deified, conception of the life of a soldier at rest and in combat began to deflate before the even the ink had dried on his enlistment signature. Soon the army ceased to possess any personal characteristics Henry had once envisioned, becoming an unthinking, dispas...
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"
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.
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.
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
At the beginning of the novel Henry is disappointed with war; he had far greater expectations of war. He wants one thing out of this experience, Glory, and he would go to any extreme to fulfill it. In battle Henry acts impulsively and is easily manipulated, he flees from battle at the sight of others running. When he realizes his cowardice, he rationalizes without end why he ran. He justifies that nature also flees at the sight of fear when he scares a squirrel to runoff.
Henry’s motivation for being at war surely differs from Tim’s motivation for being at war. Henry’s thoughts give us insight into his motives as to serving in war; he doesn’t value the moral reasons for serving in the war. Instead, Henry is very motivated to acquire a praiseworthy reputation as a war hero. In order to boost his own self-esteem when running away from the battle, Henry actually criticizes and mocks those who decided to stay. Returning to camp, Henry lies about how he got the wound that he has. Henry continuously acts pompous, and acts as if he is entitled to praise for his war heroism. Later, though, Henry redeems himself when he is deeply involved in a battle, and explains that he no longer is seeking praise for his war efforts. He is then, ironically, praised for being one of the best in the regiment. Throughout the novel, we see Henry’s growth and how he actually learns from his mistakes. Tim O’Brien received a full scholarship to study at Harvard, when receiving a draft notice that he was selected to serve in the army. He, in contrast to Henry, decided to go to war because he didn’t want to seem weak in deciding to do otherwise considering that others such as Rat Kiley, Azar, Kiowa, and Sanders have already spent some time in Vietnam. He also is influenced to participate in the war because he believes that in doing so, he will be helping his family and
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.
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 ...
Frederick Henry grew up in America and in his early twenties, he decided to go to Europe and fight in the Italian army. Henry’s decision in the first place, showed courage and bravery. Fighting for another country over making a living in your own goes above and beyond what is remotely asked for. Even in my wildest dreams, I would probably not even think about fighting for my own country, let alone a foreign country. Times were tough, especially when the start of the winter came. With that winter came “permanent rain and with the rain came the cholera. But it was checked and in the end and only seven thousand died of it in the army.” (4) In the army, people die, and it is not the nicest place. Frederick Henry chose to enter this world and this portrays bravery.
"hero" in the eyes of the masses by enlisting in the army. Henry's goal of
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!