The Red Badge Of Courage Essay

War is “an immense and terrible machine,” (Crain). In the nineteenth century, the effects of the Civil War were still taking place. Soldiers were living with the trauma that was caused by the war. With their experiences, many authors wrote war stories that heavily influenced the era of literature. Those authors focused on the war and the sentimental aspects, romanticizing everything. However, Stephen Crane was the one of the first authors in this era to accurately depict the real aspects war had on a soldier. In composing The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane wanted to show the real effects of war on a soldier because of his love and curiosity of war and the military.

Years after the Civil War, Stephen Crane was born on November 1, 1871,

in New Jersey. His mother, Mary Helen Peck Crane, was a writer. His father, Reverend Jonathan Townley Crane, was a Methodist Episcopal minister, (Moore). As the youngest of fourteen kids, though only nine survived infancy, Stephen was raised by his older sister, Agnes. She raised him since their father died in 1880, and their mother was said to be out of her mind. Despite his rather unusual childhood, he was already reading by the age of four. Growing up, Crane fantasized about joining the military. Because of his dream, his mother agreed to send Crane to Claverack College, a semi-military boarding school, rather than a Methodist boarding school. To say he loved his time at this school would be an understatement. He memorized all he could, helped younger students, and even rose to captain of the school’s military corps. However, in 1890, his brother convinced him to give up on joining the military because “there wasn’t likely to be a war in his lifetime.” Crane knew his childhood had come to an end and needed to put his dream of the joining the military aside.
Later in life, Stephen Crane started to pursue other interests, since his dream of the military seemed far-fetched. He started to attend classes at Lafayette College to pursue mining engineering, but ultimately, Crane failed a majority of his classes. It was not until he transferred to Syracuse University that he realized he had an interest in journalism and literature. He started writing for the school newspaper and even started his first novel, Maggie. He did not become successful until he had published The Red Badge of Courage, (Crain). Because of his success as a war writer, Crane took on a new job as a war correspondent to report on Cuba in 1897. Unfortunately, his boat sank on the way to Cuba, and Crane and three other men were left stranded. Instead of going to Cuba, he was then sent to Greece to report on the Greco-Turkish War. His travels contributed to his career, giving him inspirations for new publications. Additionally, because of his travels, Crane contracted many illnesses, declining his health over time. On June 5, 1900, Stephen Crane died of tuberculosis, only twenty-eight years old, (Moore). Although his life was short, Crane was able to make a great impact in the history of realistic literature.
Having an immense fascination and curiosity of war, Stephen Crane was determined to write a realistic novel about the Civil War, which was followed by a huge amount of success.

Crane was obsessed with old Civil War memoirs from The Century magazine. Feeling like something was missing, he soon wondered exactly how those soldiers felt. This curiosity caused him to write The Red Badge of Courage. An abridged version of the novel was sent out to newspapers all throughout the country in 1894, and the full length version followed only a year later. Setting the book in the Civil War, Crane wrote so vividly about the experiences and emotions of a soldier. Some reviewers thought he was writing from first-hand experiences because of his exemplary attention to realistic detail. Though he did not have military experience, Crane said that he took inspiration from his “rage of conflict on the football field.” However, he centered the realism of his book on “psychological rather than photographic.” One critic said that “he stages the drama of war, so to speak, within the mind of one man,” (Crain). Crane was able to capture the internal conflict of being a coward or being a hero. By focusing on the psychological war within the soldier, Crane’s novel was set apart from other war stories of the time, (“The Red Badge”). Because of Stephen Crane’s interest, the whole country was now interested in the life and mind of a soldier at

war.
Although Stephen Crane did not live during the time, the Civil War and the literary era played an instrumental part of his inspiration for The Red Badge of Courage. Crane lived in a time where he was surrounded by veterans telling their stories. Also, with the new innovation of photography, more and more people were starting to see the devastating effects from the war. This was the era that people were starting to realize that life in the war was not as romantic as it was made out to be. Romanticism dominated nineteenth century literature, causing Crane to break away from it. Romantic authors wrote “moralistic works” that were sentimental and inspirational. However, Crane wanted to do the opposite; he wanted to provide the readers with the most realistic story about life as possible. Literature started to see a rise in Realism in the late nineteenth century, which Stephen Crane added to with The Red Badge of Courage, (Skiba). As the world of literature and the time period was changing, Crane’s curiosity led him to be one of the leaders of this new era in literature.
With Crane’s introduction of a new literary style, critics of the nineteenth century were both praising and criticizing The Red Badge of Courage. This novel was the first of Crane’s to introduce him to international success. Many British and American reviewers supported Crane and his novel. One British critic, Sydney Brooks, supported Crane by saying that “its realism would be nothing short of a miracle.” While it did have success, the novel also received criticism. Some critics really wondered how he could write so vividly about a life that he did not experience first hand. General Alexander C. McClurg, owner of Dial magazine, was one of the most adamant critics to attack Crane’s portrayal of the war. Having served in the Northern Army, discrediting the book as a "vicious satire upon American soldiers and American armies.” Others, such as J. L. Onderdonk, agreed with McClurg, calling it a “literary absurdity.” Some wondered whether Crane could even be considered a realistic writer, (“Critical Reception”). Stephen Crane’s ability to accurately depict war life made critics either support or denounce The Red Badge of Courage.
Stephen Crane became a successful writer all because he wanted to showcase the realistic aspects of a soldier at war. When he was younger, Crane was obsessed with the idea of the military, learning all he could while at a military school. However, it was not until he was older that he really started to wonder what was going on in soldiers’ minds. He noticed that authors in the nineteenth century did not focus on the realistic aspects, rather they romanticized war. Crane set out to break away from that standard by writing a realistic war novel. Since the book was focused on the psychological war in the mind of a soldier, some critics loved the book, while others were skeptical. Despite some harsh criticism, Crane achieved what he set out to do. He created a realistic novel about a soldier, making his name forever well-known.