Acclaimed as America’s greatest war novel, The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane offers insight to the war mentality during the Civil War. Although Crane did not experience the aspects of war himself, he vicariously narrates the war experience and impact in an effort to realistically describe the impact of war on perception of life and courage. A defining part of the book, pages 29-32, effectively succeeds in Crane’s efforts to describe the effects of war on man’s ability to resist fear and the limitation of previous beliefs. It begins with “He turned away amazed and angry. He felt that he had been wronged” (29). It ends with “But he saw that it was good, else, he said, in battle every one would surely run save forlorn hopes and their ilk” (32). The passage,
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The two chapters this passage encompasses and reveals the weakening morale of Henry and his internal justification for his disappearing courage, a necessary development for the story’s hero to later redeem himself. Here, Crane employs a wide range of literary devices such as parallel structure, symbolism, perspective, imagery and emotions in order to paint a realistic image of the War and to captivate the reader with alluring rhetoric.
The passage in pages 29-32 displays a rich use of parallel structure and descriptive emotion to encapsulate the fearful mentality of many in the face of war. For example, Henry’s feelings of shame for disloyalty on his war regiment is effectively captured by Crane’s use of parallelism. After Henry disappeared from the war effort, “‘He had fled, he told himself, because annihilation approached. He had done a good part in saving himself, who was a little piece of the army. He had
The two chapters this passage encompasses and reveals the weakening morale of Henry and his internal justification for his disappearing courage, a necessary development for the story’s hero to later redeem himself. Here, Crane employs a wide range of literary devices such as parallel structure, symbolism, perspective, imagery and emotions in order to paint a realistic image of the War and to captivate the reader with alluring rhetoric.
The passage in pages 29-32 displays a rich use of parallel structure and descriptive emotion to encapsulate the fearful mentality of many in the face of war. For example, Henry’s feelings of shame for disloyalty on his war regiment is effectively captured by Crane’s use of parallelism. After Henry disappeared from the war effort, “‘He had fled, he told himself, because annihilation approached. He had done a good part in saving himself, who was a little piece of the army. He had