The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane is a novel depicting the life of a young soldier fighting for the Union in the Civil War. Henry Fleming is an inexperienced soldier battling with ideas of what courage and glory are, and dealing with fear and self confidence in his ability to fight. The book follows Henry throughout many battles, he watches his friend Jim die before his eyes, he receives a gash on his head by a scared soldier leaving battle injuring him with a rifle butt, and he runs away from one of his battles in fear that they might lose, and in fear of death. He struggles with shame of running from the fight, but as the book progresses Henry gains confidence and experience. Fleming finishes the book by playing an important role
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In the first chapter, you realize how scared Henry is. “As his imagination went forward to a fight, he saw hideous possibilities.” He spends most of the first half of the book describing his emotions and how he feels about going into battle. Henry, like most of the men, is wildly unprepared for the lifestyle of war, the hurry-up and wait, the anxiety, and the self-doubt. Henry is terrified that he will go into war and run away, or even …show more content…
He returns to camp and lies to his fellow soldiers, instead telling them a tale about how he sneakily and heroically retreated with his injury. “His self-pride was now entirely restored… and since nothing could now be discovered he did not shrink from an encounter with the eyes of judges, and allowed no thoughts of his own to keep him from an attitude of manfulness. He had performed his mistakes in the dark, so he was still a man.” He feels that if no one knows about his cowardly action, then it is like it never happened at all.
Throughout The Red Badge of Courage the idea of heroism is questioned. All Henry wants is glory and the title of a hero. He is not ready, like almost all others in the war, to do what it takes to achieve that. So many men of Henry’s time were led to believe that war heroism was simple and they could walk home with countless exciting tales of heroic deeds. After joining, the realize how scary it is. I think people question the definition of heroism all the time, in today’s world, we still question it all the
In the first chapter, you realize how scared Henry is. “As his imagination went forward to a fight, he saw hideous possibilities.” He spends most of the first half of the book describing his emotions and how he feels about going into battle. Henry, like most of the men, is wildly unprepared for the lifestyle of war, the hurry-up and wait, the anxiety, and the self-doubt. Henry is terrified that he will go into war and run away, or even …show more content…
He returns to camp and lies to his fellow soldiers, instead telling them a tale about how he sneakily and heroically retreated with his injury. “His self-pride was now entirely restored… and since nothing could now be discovered he did not shrink from an encounter with the eyes of judges, and allowed no thoughts of his own to keep him from an attitude of manfulness. He had performed his mistakes in the dark, so he was still a man.” He feels that if no one knows about his cowardly action, then it is like it never happened at all.
Throughout The Red Badge of Courage the idea of heroism is questioned. All Henry wants is glory and the title of a hero. He is not ready, like almost all others in the war, to do what it takes to achieve that. So many men of Henry’s time were led to believe that war heroism was simple and they could walk home with countless exciting tales of heroic deeds. After joining, the realize how scary it is. I think people question the definition of heroism all the time, in today’s world, we still question it all the