Stephen Crane Research Paper

Stephen Crane Stephen Crane entered into the world of writing when realism was prominent. He had adopted this new view on writing called naturalism. Naturalism attacks composing text from a philosophical sense and dives in deeper than realism. It was a struggle for him to be successful writing in a style that people had not been exposed to yet. Because of Stephen Crane’s friends and family influence, he was able to write the Red Badge of Courage and help begin the naturalistic movement (American Lit) In the year 1871 on November first Stephen Crane was born to Jonathan and Mary Helen Crane in Newark, New Jersey. Stephen was the youngest of the fourteen Crane children, however Mary Helen, George Peck, Jonathan Townley, William Howe, Agnes

In 1891 Crane met a fellow leading American realist of the time, Hamlin Garland. The two had very similar ideas when it came to writing. Garland had come to the conclusion about writing that, “to be true, not to the objective reality, but to the objective reality as the author sees it” (Glencoe). The young writer’s discussions with Garland helped him to establish his ideas about writing and jumpstart his career as a novelist. Stories told by veterans helped Crane tremendously when writing his novel. He also referenced many popular magazines written just after the battle. Many veterans also wrote memoirs that portrayed going to war “as an experience of initiation, or growing up, in which a young person moves from innocence, to familiarity, to wisdom” (Glencoe). Although Crane based his novel off these reencounters, the story that he told stood out from the rest. Unlike most adventure stories of the war, he focused his book about the violence and confusing of the battlefield (Glencoe). Naturalism was unheard-of in the 1895 when the Red Badge of Courage was published (History). During the mid to late 1800s realism was prominent in American literature. This movement focused on the average everyday life of an American through literature. Realism interprets any aspect of life without prejudice or romantic color. Naturalism and Realism do share a few ideas in common, however