Character Analysis Of Henry In 'The Red Badge Of Courage'

The Red Badge Of Courage is a story about a boy who signed up for war not really knowing much about it. When it comes down to the time where he actually has to fight Henry begins to run away from the battle instead of being a man and fighting. As you get more into the story you'll see that Henry becomes a little more brave but I would still consider Henry a coward because of his decision , thoughts, and his actions during is time in war. In this story Henry makes so many bad decisions, but one of the big ones he made was joining the army and not knowing much about it. When it started getting close to war Henry started becoming very scared. Henry starts to wish he was back at home. In the story on page 22 Henry says " He wished, without reserve, that he was at home again making the endless rounds from the house to the barn, from the barn to the fields, from the fields to the barn, from the barn to the house. He remembered he had often cursed the brindle cow and her mates, and had sometimes flung milking stools.” This shows that Henry is a coward by his decisions because after signing up for the war and learning more about it he starts regretting the decision he made and …show more content…
In the story on page 72 Henry said " "He now thought that he wished he was dead. He believed that he envied those men whose bodies lay strewn over the grass of the fields and on the fallen leaves of the forest" this shows that Henry is a coward because he doesn't want to live anymore because before he just ran from the battle instead of fighting and now that he had ran into all these wounded and dead soldiers he feels like it is his fault and he doesn't want to be seen again. It's all a point of war Henry should have stayed and helped fight instead of running away from the battle he could have at least tried to help fight and maybe not as much people would have been hurt or