Every adult has made the dramatic change to adulthood, and they went through an experience to realize his or her new maturity. In The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, Henry transitions from being a fearful child to a fearless adult in the war. This shows that he is a dynamic character, as he goes through a drastic change for the better. Crane’s portrayal of Henry’s becoming a man demonstrates how war turns a boy to a man, the implications of war on soldiers, the life changing effects war can have on someone (especially a child), and how one can find peace through war.
At the beginning of the novel, Henry is merely a youth, a young boy. He goes into war and quickly realizes he is afraid, and he is not the brave-hearted man he thought he was. It takes Henry time to mature and gain courage, but he fights, and he wins. It is here, with this newfound sense of courage, that he becomes a man. Henry goes from being afraid he will run from battle to becoming the hero of the battle, and fighting with every ounce of courage
…show more content…
he can muster. War does does exactly that, it takes a scared young boy with fear in his eyes and fire in his heart and molds him into a true soldier, a man who fights for what he believes in. Soldiers are predisposed to believe that just by going into war you will become a hero. Henry “had imagined peoples secure in the shadow of his eagle-eyed prowess,” (3). But, just showing up does not turn you into a hero. Fighting when you are afraid, combatting the intense pain and suffering, going through traumatic experiences, and still coming out alive and victorious, that is what makes a hero. That is also exactly what Henry did. Henry went into war and immediately realized how petrifying it is, but he went into the battle anyway. And while Henry did come out of war a hero, recalling “the respectful comments of his fellows upon his good conduct” (98), he also came out as a man, and a better human being. A major part of Henry’s transformation into adulthood includes his transformation into this better human being, this man who has found a sense of peace with all he has experienced.
Henry “smiled for he saw that the world was a world for him, though many discovered it to be made of oaths and walking sticks. He had rid himself of the red sickness of battle. The sultry nightmare was in the past. He had been an animal blistered and sweating in the heat and pain of war. He turned now with a lover’s thirst to images of tranquil skies, fresh meadows, cool brooks -- an existence of soft and eternal peace,” (100). Henry has gone through war, this horrifying, soul-sucking machine, and he comes out of it at peace with the world. He finds peace through the event of war. Henry leaves war with a more mature outlook on life, and he truly becomes a new man, because to be a man is not to take part in the cataclysm of war, but to walk away from it and towards
peace. The war shaped Henry into a bold young man, and the peace he finds once it is over made him more grateful for everything he had. The beginning of the novel showed us a Henry who wanted purely to become a hero, but the end showed us a new side of Henry, the side that Is a man of experience and wisdom that recognizes the horrors of war. Henry suddenly knew war for what it truly is, evolving away from the ignorant child version of himself that believed battles “seemed to have much glory in them,” (3). As a child, Henry put the thought of war on a pedestal, putting them as “things of the bygone with his thought-images of heavy crowns and high castles” (3), but once the war was over, he refers to the battleground as “the place of blood and wrath” (99). This is an example of how one’s views change after experiencing war. One might argue that Henry kept the same perspective and ideals throughout the novel, but it is clear that he did undergo a great change in what he believed, because he goes from seeing war from an ignorant, childish perspective to seeing war from the perspective of a war-weary adult. Henry enters war with completely self-absorbed ideals of heroism, and he leaves with the understanding of how selfish and cowardly he had been. He leaves the war as a new person, a brave and loyal one who put his immature views behind him. The portrayal of Henry being such a changing, dynamic character shows the reader how drastically war can change a person. However, war doesn't only change the mindset of a child to one of a man, war takes a toll on every person who enters it. But, it doesn't always have the same effect on everyone. War changes everyone, but not always for the better. War shapes someone into a different person entirely, and while sometimes it is not for the better, in Henry’s case it was. Henry experienced the dramatic change into adulthood, and war was the experience that got him to that point. For Henry, war forced him to mature, and to become a man.
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.
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 The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane explores the theme of courage and heroism in depth. He develops these themes through the main character, Henry Fleming. Henry is a naïve young man faced with the harsh realities of war, in this book, some argue that Henry is transformed into a heroic "quiet manhood" while others see Henry as the same young man who ran from battle in the beginning of the book. I think Henry doesn't change, his heroic status acquired at the end of the book isn't truly him, instead he merely is motivated by fear of dying and being rejected by his fellow soldiers.
As time progressed Henry also thought of the injustice in working and paying the wages he had earned to a master who had no entitlement to them whatsoever. In slavery he had been unable to question anything of his masters doing. He was unable to have rage, sadness, or even sickness, for he would be b...
The Red Badge of Courage is not a war novel. It is a novel about life. This novel illustrates the trials and tribulations of everyday life. Stephen Crane uses the war as a comparison to everyday life. He is semi-saying that life is like a war. It is a struggle of warriors—the every day people—against the odds. In these battles of everyday life, people can change. In The Red Badge of Courage, the main character, Henry Fleming, undergoes a character change that shows how people must overcome their fears and the invisible barriers that hold them back from being the best people—warriors, in the sense that life is war—they can be. Henry has a character change that represents how all humans have general sense of fear of the unknown that must be overcome.
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.
“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.
At the beginning, Henry Fleming has an undeveloped identity because his inexperience limits his understanding of heroism, manhood, and courage. For example, on the way to war, “The regiment was fed and caressed at station after station until the youth [Henry] had believed that he must be a hero” (Crane 13). Since he has yet to fight in war, Henry believes a hero is defined by what others think of him and not what he actually does. The most heroic thing he has done so far is enlist, but even that was with ulterior motives; he assumes fighting in the war will bring him glory, yet another object of others’ opinions. At this point, what he thinks of himself is much less important than how the public perceives him. As a result of not understanding
Henry's final step in maturation was finally made through the sacrifice of his companions, and their pressuring him to lead the charge. The reaction of one soldier to another is the basis of war, as camaraderie is the methodology by which wars are won. Henry gave witness to the horrors of war, the atrocities of battle, the deaths of his friends, and later a life of victory. The ultimate transformation in Henry's character leading to a mature temperament was found by finding himself in the confusion of war and companionship.
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...
Through high moral character Henry established credibility with the audience through creating a setting that aroused feelings in the people at the convention in order to convince them they had to fight for more than just peace. The goal Henry had when he spoke about war was to be honest with the crowd and point out that they needed to do something now or they would loose not just what he loved, but what they also loved. Henry said “If we wish to be free, if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending...and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight!”. In this quote the tactic of ethics is apparent in that Henry wanted to achieve a personal level of connection with the audience and establish his credibility. By relating losing the war it also meant the lose of their feelings of comfort and contentm...
Bloom, Harold, ed. Modern Critical Interpretations: Stephan Crane's The Red Badge of Courage. New Yourk: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.