The Red Badge of Courage - Henry is No Hero
In The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane explores the theme of courage and heroism in depth. He develops these themes through the main character, Henry Fleming. Henry is a naïve young man faced with the harsh realities of war, in this book, some argue that Henry is transformed into a heroic "quiet manhood" while others see Henry as the same young man who ran from battle in the beginning of the book. I think Henry doesn't change, his heroic status acquired at the end of the book isn't truly him, instead he merely is motivated by fear of dying and being rejected by his fellow soldiers.
At the beginning of the novel Henry is disappointed of war; he had far
…show more content…
Henry hated to be ridiculed so badly that he abandoned the poor man who only showed care and concern for Henry. A hero doesn't abandon a fellow soldier in desperate need of help. Henry tries to reassure his confidence by asking other soldiers how they would respond to battle. Jim Conklin honestly said that it depended on the circumstances, "but if everyone was a standing and a fighting, why, I'd stand and fight."(Crane Ch.1) When he asked Wilson, Wilson dismissed the notion of running from battle. Henry was trying to look for someone to relate to, but as a result of questioning his fellow soldiers he further isolated his insecurities of battle.
Crane defines courage as "a temporary but sublime absence of selflessness," I think Henry experienced a temporary but not sublime absence of consciousness. In battle I think he was acting more like a machine than himself. "Henry ran like a madman to reach the woods before a bullet could discover him...In his haste his eyes almost closed, and the scene was a wild blur...pulsating saliva stood at the corners of his mouth."(Crane Ch. 20) He was acting out of fear, thus he wasn't truly himself in his actions. The one main reason Henry fled in the beginning is because he feared death. When you act out of fear you become more mechanical in your actions. A hero doesn't flee from battle and try to rationalize their actions by lying to
But in the second battle Henry flees from his comrades while they held the line as the rebels tried to push them out. The regiment ended up being the victors of the second battle too. But Henry was worried about what the other soldiers would say to him since he ran away from the battle. I believe Henry was always afraid of battle even before it started and when the enemy came sprinting towards him he was shocked and started to flee.
Henry fights along the other soldiers in the first battle but flees in the second because he might be scared. Henry saw and fought in the first battle but didn't flee because he didn't see what he did the first time around. It was his first time fighting in a war or battle with other people. He remembered what his mother said before he left and wanted to see her again. He might have thought that if he didn't flee he wouldn't have a wife or kids or a family later on in life.
When faced with adversities early into his first battle, he quickly reconsidered his views on war and courage. By running away from the face of battle, Henry “saw his vivid error, and he was afraid that it would stand before him all his life” (Cane 24.30). This pushed him into believing that he would never be a man of courage of masculinity. This “error” of running away caused Henry to be angry at himself for mistakenly thinking the battle was over and abandoning his fellow soldiers. While away from the battle Henry discovers “that he had a scorching thirst” and “his body was calling for food” (Cane 11.21). From the struggle of war and the experience of Wilson, Henry learns to reflect upon his life and learn from his mistakes, rather than being angry at himself. This allowed Henry to be influenced by the culture around him, shaping him into acknowledging that courage was not depicted by a gunshot or a wound, but by the act of adhering to the line of duty and learning from your
“The Red Badge of Courage” By Stephen Crane is an amazing book. The Red badge of courage is set in the 1860s during the civil war, specifically the battle of Chancellorsville. The Physical aspect of the book and his own personal traits shapes Henry throught the book. Due to this by the end of the book Henry is completely different than how he was in the beginning. A couple of these reasons would be Emotions,Physical landscape,and even the men's moral.
"He became not a man but a member. He felt that something of which he was a part -a regiment, an army, a cause, or a country -was in a crisis. He was welded into a common personality which was dominated by a single desire." (Crane ) The Red Badge of Courage is written by Stephen Crane. It takes place during the Civil War. Some readers think Henry is a Coward while other think he is a hero. Henry shows heroic traits when he ends up fighting, grabs the flag, and stays with the army.
“He wished that he, too, has a wound, a red badge of courage.” (Crane, 40). The book The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane is about a 16 year old soldier named Henry Fleming, fighting in the the civil war. A union soldier fighting for the north, he is a hero in the story because even though he made some wrong decisions earlier in the war, by the end of the book he was a brave and independent young man. Henry was a hero in the story The Red Badge of Courage because he makes it through battle and does not give up, he grabs the flag when it is about to fall, and matures very quickly while in battle.
“Within him, as he hurled himself forward, was born a love, a despairing fondness for this flag which was near him.” (Crane 108). In the story, The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, Henry Fleming is a 16 year old soldier who is fighting for the Union during the civil war at the Battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia. Many readers believe that Henry is a hero, but some also believe he is cowardly throughout the book. Henry proves he is that he is heroic throughout the last few chapters of the book because he picks up the fallen flag, encourages people to stay and fight, and he continues to fight even after the enemy is gone.
In The Red Badge of Courage, Henry shows immaturity by enlisting in the army and being naïve about the war. Henry explains that since he was young, he dreamed about the war of the bloody battles that the soldiers fought in. He thinks fighting in a war will make him a hero and achieve glory. He enlisted in the army, although his mother opposed the decision. However, when he makes it to the camp, he had to wait many weeks in the camps until he was called up to battle, and he started to doubt his place in the army.
In the novel Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, Union soldier Henry Fleming fights in his first battle along with the other soldiers, but flees during the second battle. The main reason Henry did not run from the first battle was because he was afraid of what would happen if he did run. The second battle, however, was much more brutal. Henry decided to protect himself and flee much like a great number of his fellow soldiers did.
In Stephen Crane’s cynical novel “The Red Badge of Courage” Henry believes a “red badge of courage “ is irrefutable proof that a soldier used self sacrifice to display bravery. Henry longs for a “red badge of courage” to relieve himself of the shame and guilt he feels for abandoning his regiment. In chapter nine of “The Red Badge of Courage” Stephen Crane makes Henry’s internal battle of self worth extremely apparent. “At times he regarded the wounded soldiers in an envious way.
Stephen Crane composed many novels, poems, and short stories but one of his novels stood out more than the others- The Red Badge of Courage. In The Red Badge of Courage, Crane utilizes tone, conflict, and imagery to emphasize courage and bravery. In his novel, Crane accurately and precisely describes not only the physical and mental challenges that face a soldier in battle, but the emotional challenges as well. This creates the theme of bravery and valor throughout the entire novel.
He described that he couldn’t escape even if he wanted to. Through this analogy, the reader can see that Henry is reducing the soldiers to unthinking, unfeeling machines, performing their duty without taking into account the threat of injury or death. As he looks around at the faces of the rest of the soldiers in his regiment, he notices their focused commitment to the firing of their rifles. He wonders if he is the only one faced with questions of morality. While the regiment began to advance, Henry was shocked to receive a packet of letters from Wilson, who feared he would die in battle. After the battle, he is glad that he made it through the first day. He begins to lose the romantic vision of war by seeing the realities, but he starts lying to himself about who is really is.
Henry overcomes his concerns of the unknown, but he still lacks courage to talk to the commanders and the leaders of the regiment, which shows his cowardice. Henry has this lack of courage because he felt ashamed. Henry viewed his shame and lack of courage as a burden on other soldiers in the regiment. He felt that the soldiers who had a wound were fulfilled, and he envied him because they had "a red badge of courage" (Crane84) the courage that he lacked. His lack of "a red badge of courage" (Crane84) was short lived when he was shot. Jim Conklin, a man of Henry's first regiment, is
In Henry's first battle, although he stood his ground with his regiment , He simpl y followed the motions and did not fight with courage. "He suddenly lost concern for himself, and forgot to look at a menacing fate. He became not a man but a member (Crane) ." In this battle although Henry repelled the enemy with his regiment he was still a youth who simply followed the people around him .
The drive that Henry does show in “The Red Badge of Courage” is the instinct of survival rather than heroism. However, while the sum of all fears is mortality, Crane makes it evident that one can find meaning whilst dealing with death. For Henry, in his psyche, by the end of the story, the idea of death has now become manageable. He found his