The Red Badge of Courage: A Coming of Age Novel Essay

The Civil war began April 12, 1861. At Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, which was guarded heavily by union troops. Most of the forts arsenals and property had been seized by those in the rebellion but Fort Sumter had not.The picture depicted below is Fort Sumter befor it was burned It soon became a test if the Confederates were even going to attack the union and whether the troops would defend their ground. By March the Union was running out of food so Lincoln ordered people to

Buchanan’s rejection of South Carolina’s demand for the withdrawal of federal troops was one event that led to the firing of the first shots of the Civil War. Another event that led to the firing of the first shots of the Civil War was Buchanan sending a ship with reinforcements to Fort Sumter.

Stephen Crane was born on November 1st, 1871. He wrote several books such as Maggie and Georges Mother, but The Red Badge of Courage was by far his best work and biggest seller. In 1900 he became ill and was nearly broke so he couldn’t afford his multiple health treatments. On June 5th, 1900 he died and left his belongings to Cora Taylor, a close friend.

The bombarding of soldiers at Fort Sumter by the the Confederates was the spark that triggered the civil war. On April 12, 1861, The civil war had begun.

When the southern states had two representatives that really helped Lincoln’s chances of winning. After Lincoln’s win that was when 7 of the lower southern states decided to seceded from the north and it caused a lot of turmoil. The war began on April 12th, 1861 when Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard led a bombardment on Fort Sumter, near Charleston, South Carolina after Anderson refused to surrender Sumter. This lasted two days and ended with Anderson surrendering it to the Confederates. After this battle Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee joined the confederacy (Brinkley

On April 12, 1861 Confederate troops under General Pierre Beauregard fired on Fort Sumter (in Charleston, South Carolina) with fifty cannons, thus initiating the beginning of the Civil War (“The U.S. Civil War,” 1996). And this, of course, was only the first of many military actions which would rage throughout the 5-year conflict.

"At times he regarded the wounded soldiers in an envious way. He conceived persons with torn bodies to be peculiarly happy. He wished that he, too, had a wound, a red badge of courage." (Ch.9, Pg. 61) Jim Conklin, Wilson, and the tattered man are not only alike in some ways, but also have differences. The purpose of this essay is to tell you the similarities between the tall soldier, the loud soldier, and the tattered man, how they are like or unlike Henry Fleming, and what roles these major characters seem to play in the novel.

War changes people in many ways, especially the lives of the soldiers in the army. The changes that the soldiers go through are told in many novels, such as The Red Badge of Courage. The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane is a coming-of-age novel because Henry Fleming changes from an immature adolescent to a mature man by the end of the novel.

The battle for Fort Sumter was the battle that started the American Civil War in 1861 when the first shot were fired that signal the beginning of the war. General Beauregard sent Major Anderson a message saying that he would fire in one hour if he didn’t surrender prior that day Adj. Gen. Of the Secretary of War Samuel Cooper, Anderson composed, (1) The progression I have taken was, as I would like to think, important to keep the emanation of blood."

Stephen Crane wrote The Red Badge of Courage to depict realistic depiction of war and violence. He sought to transform events from the Civil War (which happened three decades earlier) into everyday depictions of an ordinary, young soldier. Although he did not participate in the actual events of the Civil War, Crane delivered an imagination of circumstances that were precise and accurate in description. The pessimistic point of view from both Crane and the main character, Henry Fleming, serves to explain the clashing concepts of glory and gore in wartime. By comparing the mental processes of Henry and the setting of the novel (primarily a battleground or within the regiment), the audience was subject to the immorality and corruption of human

The war started on April 12, 1861 when Confederate forces attacked a Union military base at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. The reason the war started at this time was that Abraham Lincoln had just been elected President in 1860. Abraham Lincoln wanted to end slavery but keep the union together. The North had an increase of industry and the South still depended on farming the land. However, the South

The newly independent state South Carolina fired shots at a Federal ship entering the Charleston Harbor and then proceed to bombarded Fort Sumter until it surrendered. This was the start of the Civil War and it was a result of over decades of continuous malicious tension between the South Carolina and her sister states and the North and rest of the Union. By the mid 1800s the South was able to see that they were being stripped of their state rights and control over slavery by the federal government, abolitionists, and the North. South Carolina was pushed and forced to declared herself seceded from the Union in order to protect the very lives of her citizens and ensured that their rights were not taken away. It was a last resort measure that was careful and patiently decided before declaring.

War forces young soldiers to grow up quickly. In Stephen Crane’s Civil War novel, The Red Badge of Courage, Henry Fleming is no exception. He is faced with the hard reality of war and this forces him to readjust his romantic beliefs about war. Through the novel, the reader can trace the growth and development of Henry through these four stages: (1) romanticizing war and the heroic role each soldier plays, (2) facing the realities of war, (3) lying to himself to maintain his self-importance, and (4) realistic awareness of his abilities and place in life. Through Henry’s experiences in his path to self-discovery, he is strongly affected by events that help shape his ideology of war, death,

The Red Badge of Courage, written by Stephan Crane in 1895 gives a detailed, yet, fictional account of Henry Fleming, a farm boy who joins the Union Army in the American Civil War. Before Henry is battle-tested, he ponders his courage and questions whether he will be able to fight the urge to flee from battle. Henry does indeed end up deserting his comrades however he ultimately overcomes his guilt and becomes one of the best fighters in his regiment. In order to depict a realistic and relatable war scene, Crane includes Henry’s realistic thought-process and emotion in his struggles to maintain courage. The narrative simply revealed war in a manner that was divergent to all prior forms of literature in the 19th century. Previous novels predominately entailed the glorious and romantic aspects of war rather than the tedious, gritty, and gruesome details of close combat. Instead, Crane broke the barriers of literary norms in war-related literature; the novel depicted a pragmatic experience of combat from the eyes of an inexperienced and frightened youth. In the Red Badge of Courage, Stephan Crane primarily uses religious and gory imagery as well as symbolism to contrast the romantic conceptions of war versus the reality of experiencing battle.

His ended his speech with a plea for the restoration of the bonds of union. The South just ignored his plea. Violence and outrage turned to belligerence in the North, which in turn had many southerners clamouring for war. At 4.30am on April 12th 1861, Confederate gunners opened fire on Federal - held Fort Sumter, situated in the middle of Charleston Harbour. The only real casualty was a horse. This gentle brawl was the start of a longer, harder and bloodier war than anyone could dream of.