How Does Henry Mature In The Red Badge Of Courage

Gabrielle Steers

Hans-Georg Erney

English 2100

9/28/14

The Red Badge of Courage

In Stephen Crane's "The Red Badge of Courage", we examine the sequences of war through the perspective of the main character, Henry Fleming. Since the book is vague regarding many details, we don't know Henry's age or anything about his appearance. However, we can conclude that he is from the state of New York and he was raised by his mother. Although a few people argue that throughout the story Henry matures and becomes a better person, passages from the book show quite the contrary. Key actions show Henry is cowardice, although he considers himself heroic. Throughout the book he continually proves that he is everything but courageous.

Henry's journey originates at the point where he signs up for the Union Army. Although at first glance this seems like a solid choice, Henry does it for the wrong reasons. He does not have a strong understanding of the Union's mission, but believes that he will be a hero. Henry has a skewed perception of what war is all about. His busy mind had drawn for him large pictures, extravagant in color, lurid with breathless deeds(Crane, 3). This simply reveals that Henry had romanticized nothing short of a glorious adventure in his

head. Despite his mother attempting to give him rational advice, Henry sat disappointed. He was expecting a lecture from his mother on pride and heroism.
When Henry and his regiment (the 304th New York) finally integrated into the camp, he began to question his bravery. He soon begins to feel insecure about himself. However, he fights well in the first battle that he endures. His self-admiration grows to the point of arrogance. He saw himself even with those ideals that he had considered far beyond him. He smiled in deep gratification (Crane, 30). This passage conveys that Henry now views himself as a hero.
At the beginning of the 304th New York regiment's second battle, Henry notices that two other soldiers are fleeing the fight out of fear. At this point, he becomes quite scared and runs from the battle himself. He attempts to rationalize his actions to himself by declaring: Death about to thrust him between the shoulder blades was far more dreadful than death about to smite him between the eyes (Crane, 32). When Henry discovers that they were victorious in battle, he feels anger and jealousy towards his counterparts involved in the fight: The youth cringed as if discovered at a crime...The imbecile line had remained and become victorious...He turned away, amazed and angry. He felt that he had been wronged (Crane 34).
At this point, Henry is not fleeing out of terror, but pure shame. He is trying to run away from his own cowardice actions. He begins to pity himself and lose faith in his own romanticized reasons for initially enlisting. After strolling through the woods for an extended period of time, Henry approached a dead soldier. The sight of the body frightens him and again he flees from the harsh realities of war.
Later Henry is struck over the head with a rifle of a retreating Union soldier.

Henry is ashamed of the wound and becomes embarrassed and fearful that the other soldiers will taunt him. When he meets back up with his regiment, they question his battle inflicted wound. Henry lies and creates a story about a fight with an opposing regiment: I've - I've had an awful time. I've been all over. 'Way over on th' right. Terrible fightin' over there. I had an awful time. I got separated from the reg'ment. Over on th' right, I got shot. I never see sech fightin'. Awful time. I don't see how I could'a got separated from th' reg'ment. I got shot, too(Crane, 62). The rest of Henry's regiment believe his lies and are amazed at his false

bravery.
The next day, Henry once again begins to view himself as a hero. He almost forgets that the wound wasn't inflicted by an enemy's weapon, but by another Union soldier's. He forgets about his previous cowardly actions and becomes quite vain. He even begins criticizing the generals of his regiment. Henry's arrogance clearly continues to grow: His self-pride was now entirely restored...when he remembered his fortunes of yesterday, and looked at them form a distance he began to see something fine there. He had license to be pompous and veteran-like (Crane, 71).
On the second day, the regiment once again engages battle. Here, Henry pauses basking in thoughts of his own heroism, and is able to fight like a well-trained soldier. He revels in the praise of the lieutenant and the colonel. When the fighting ended, Henry felt he was brave and had finally become a mature man.
Understanding Henry's personality is critical to comprehending the true meaning of
“The Red Badge of Courage”. The novel itself is about the romanticized experience of a boy wishing to be a hero. I personally noticed insinuations that Henry is becoming a better person, yet; there is usually something that Henry does that is contradictive to this notion. I see the main character as an egocentric coward. He only thinks about himself and has a distorted perception of who he actually is as a person.
I feel that by the end of the novel, Henry has not changed much in terms of honesty, bravery, or maturity level. After running from a battle, he is still capable of telling himself that he is braver than the other soldiers. Furthermore, Henry's feelings of love for the flag in Chapter 19 can simply be compared to childish romanticism at best.
However, it is possible that this could relate to war in the contemporary world in which we live. Young soldiers enter battle with certain misaligned expectations. They want to be recognized as heroes, and have over-sized wrought iron statues erected in their memory. However, unlike Henry, once they have experienced the reality of war, most become disheartened. The ending basically conveys Henry's distorted view of himself as a heroic soldier. He also ignores the reality of what the soldiers experienced during their time at war.

Word Count: 1030