The Civil War was a monumental and tragic time in American history. A professor at the University of Illinois wrote, “At least 600,000 men died in the Civil War....Mass death numbs the mind and heart as it numbers its vast toll.(Phillip Shaw Paludan, Victims: A True Story Of The Civil War) ” The horrors and bloodshed of this war were translated into every artistic medium imaginable, in an attempt to honor and come to terms with the mass destruction caused.. One author in particular used his writings to explore the faces of naturalism found in war. This author, Stephen Crane, was a naturalist and an American poet, who lived in Newark, New Jersey, for his short life (spanning 1871-19000). Crane used heavy symbolism in his writings, which revealed his views on both the Civil War, and the ways in which humans respond to trauma.
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In “Red Badge Of Courage,” A young soldier named Henry Fleming goes off to fight in the war, only to face the crushing reality of the horrors war brings. He is also mistaken for a brave hero, despite having done nothing he found “heroic,” and must consider the definition of hero, and the morality of taking credit for something Henry feels he has not earned. In “An Episode of War,” a soldier is safely in camp, when he is badly injured by a stray bullet, which lodges itself in his arm. He then spends the rest of the story wandering about in a stupor, and pondering the reasons, if any, for which he is the victim of this unlucky shot. Both “Red Badge of Courage” and “An Episode of War” make great use of symbolism and unwritten allusion, and create incredible and thought-provoking stories of Civil War.
In “Red Badge Of Courage,” A young soldier named Henry Fleming goes off to fight in the war, only to face the crushing reality of the horrors war brings. He is also mistaken for a brave hero, despite having done nothing he found “heroic,” and must consider the definition of hero, and the morality of taking credit for something Henry feels he has not earned. In “An Episode of War,” a soldier is safely in camp, when he is badly injured by a stray bullet, which lodges itself in his arm. He then spends the rest of the story wandering about in a stupor, and pondering the reasons, if any, for which he is the victim of this unlucky shot. Both “Red Badge of Courage” and “An Episode of War” make great use of symbolism and unwritten allusion, and create incredible and thought-provoking stories of Civil War.