Digging Deeper in the Work of Stephan Crane
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephan Crane is one of a kind novel, in which the author romanticizes the character of Henry Fleming as a way to portray the reality of war. In the opening chapters of the novel, Crane establishes the setting, mood, and main characters of the story. Thus, the reader is made aware of the fact that the immediate society is being faced with a civil war, a war between the North and the South. Within the lenses of naturalism, Crane exemplifies the theme of war through the development of the character of Henry Fleming. Crane uses naturalism as a way to develop the main character Henry Fleming, the circumstances that he faces, influenced by nature shapes his actions and beliefs …show more content…
Foreseeably, war has always brought along confusion, destruction, desolation, and ultimately death. For the soldiers fighting in the battlefield, like the Henry and his companions, war proved to be harsh, tiring, confusing, desolating, and destructive. Many soldiers “had the gray seal of death already upon [their faces].” Moreover, other soldiers were “full of anger at their wounds, and ready to turn upon anything as an obscure cause (Chapter 8, page 57).” Through his writing, Crane demonstrates that war veterans are scarred both physically and psychologically. For those that manage to survive the battlefields, are thereafter, bond to battle with the horrors and pain that they faced and lived in flesh and blood. “He had been an animal blistered and sweating in the heat and pain of war. Chapter 24, page …show more content…
To put it another way, naturalism is the belief that people behave purely out of instinct and in the end, everything is controlled by nature.” Hence, when we take a closer look at the character of Henry through the lens of naturalism, we can see that his choices and actions were not controlled by his free will. Henry “had never wished to come to war. He had not enlisted of his free will. He had been dragged mercilessly (chapter 3, page 22).” Therefore, refusing to “be sacrifice and killed like pigs,” he was driven by his instinct for survival and outside forces, to be bold and brave. The character of Henry is transformed into a “war devil, a barbarian, a beast.” Nonetheless, in the mist of the gruesome fighting, Henry and the soldiers “showed a lack of a certain feeling of responsibility for being there. It was as if they had been driven. It was the dominant animal (chapter 19, page 119).” Consequently, the “dominant animal” within Henry, allowed him to “overcome obstacles which he had admitted to be mountains (chapter 17, page 107).”
Stephen Crane unequivocally did a fine job in his novel, “The Red Bags of Courage” portraying the reality of war through the lenses of naturalism and by the developing his main character Henry Fleming. The circumstances Henry and his companions faced, influenced by nature shaped their actions and beliefs, and
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephan Crane is one of a kind novel, in which the author romanticizes the character of Henry Fleming as a way to portray the reality of war. In the opening chapters of the novel, Crane establishes the setting, mood, and main characters of the story. Thus, the reader is made aware of the fact that the immediate society is being faced with a civil war, a war between the North and the South. Within the lenses of naturalism, Crane exemplifies the theme of war through the development of the character of Henry Fleming. Crane uses naturalism as a way to develop the main character Henry Fleming, the circumstances that he faces, influenced by nature shapes his actions and beliefs …show more content…
Foreseeably, war has always brought along confusion, destruction, desolation, and ultimately death. For the soldiers fighting in the battlefield, like the Henry and his companions, war proved to be harsh, tiring, confusing, desolating, and destructive. Many soldiers “had the gray seal of death already upon [their faces].” Moreover, other soldiers were “full of anger at their wounds, and ready to turn upon anything as an obscure cause (Chapter 8, page 57).” Through his writing, Crane demonstrates that war veterans are scarred both physically and psychologically. For those that manage to survive the battlefields, are thereafter, bond to battle with the horrors and pain that they faced and lived in flesh and blood. “He had been an animal blistered and sweating in the heat and pain of war. Chapter 24, page …show more content…
To put it another way, naturalism is the belief that people behave purely out of instinct and in the end, everything is controlled by nature.” Hence, when we take a closer look at the character of Henry through the lens of naturalism, we can see that his choices and actions were not controlled by his free will. Henry “had never wished to come to war. He had not enlisted of his free will. He had been dragged mercilessly (chapter 3, page 22).” Therefore, refusing to “be sacrifice and killed like pigs,” he was driven by his instinct for survival and outside forces, to be bold and brave. The character of Henry is transformed into a “war devil, a barbarian, a beast.” Nonetheless, in the mist of the gruesome fighting, Henry and the soldiers “showed a lack of a certain feeling of responsibility for being there. It was as if they had been driven. It was the dominant animal (chapter 19, page 119).” Consequently, the “dominant animal” within Henry, allowed him to “overcome obstacles which he had admitted to be mountains (chapter 17, page 107).”
Stephen Crane unequivocally did a fine job in his novel, “The Red Bags of Courage” portraying the reality of war through the lenses of naturalism and by the developing his main character Henry Fleming. The circumstances Henry and his companions faced, influenced by nature shaped their actions and beliefs, and