The Red Badge Of Courage Rhetorical Analysis

Not every question in life can be answered. Rhetorical question are used quite often in literary pieces. Stephen Crane uses this literary tool a lot in his pieces about war. Williams states, “Before dying of tuberculosis at age 29, he published several essays, novels, and even a volume of poetry.” The Red Badge of Courage is one of Crane’s books that really uses this. The Red Badge of Courage is about a boy going to war and returning a man. Another not so famous piece of Crane’s work is Episode of War. Episode of War is about a scene of war for young men. In both of Stephen Crane’s pieces, The Red Badge of Courage and Episode of War, Crane uses rhetorical questions for his reader to use their imaginations.

The first rhetorical question that Stephen Crane uses in The Red Badge of Courage and Episode of War, is what the soldiers are feeling emotionally. While reading both of these stories you are constantly using your imagination to try and feel and think of the thoughts the soldiers are feeling …show more content…

Crane says in Episode of War on page 509, “During this moment the men about him gazed statue-like and silent, astonished and awed by this catastrophe which happened when catastrophes were not expected--when they had leisure to observe it.” the reader has to interpret the scene around them. On page 22 of the Red Badge of Courage Crane states, “He vaguely desired to walk around and around the body and stare; the impulse of the living to try and read in dead eyes the answer to the Question.” The soldier’s were walking like they were in a dream. Helms says, “Crane shows the true nature of war by contrasting Henry Fleming's romantic expectations with the reality that he encounters.” There was no sugar coating the facts in stid story. Clearly, the third rhetorical question is the scenes that are