What Does Paul Breslin Symbolize In The Red Badge Of Courage

The quote shows that Henry finally found his courage and finds happiness within himself. He had gone through a hard change from having no pride to gaining full self-pride.

In the first battle, Henry is shown as young and naive. He really did not understand what was about to happen around him. While he was scared at first, when the enemy started getting closer, he forgot about being scared and just started shooting. Part 2 of chapter 5 states that "He suddenly lost concern for himself, and forgot to look at a menacing fate." Henry saw many soldiers die during this first battle. As things kept going, his emotions changed from scared, to excited, to angry, to sad, and then to surprised. He was amazed at everything that had happened during the first battle.

The Red Badge of Courage is about finding the strength within oneself to keep one’s courage and bravery. Henry Fleming recently joined the 304th regiment during the Civil War because he was drawn to the glory of military conflict, but doubts his courage to fight and risk his life when a tall soldier named Jim Conklin spreads a rumor that the army will march soon. As the regiment marches for days and the soldiers become weary, they finally come across the enemies (Confederates) and attack. Although Henry wants to be brave, he internally fights his fear of war and death, and he runs off which becomes the main conflict. When he returns to fight, he discovered that the Union army defeats the Confederates. This gained him confidence, but as the

"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.

Henry sacrificed his romantic ideas of war to become a good soldier. When Henry enlists, he imagines glorious battles and being a war hero. “His busy mind had drawn for him large pictures extravagant in color, lurid with breathless deeds.” (p. 4) However, in his first battle, war isn't the noble act he envisioned. He watches numerous people he knows die horrible deaths and runs away out of fear. “On his face was the horror of those things which he imagined...He ran like a blind man.”(p. 46) The scenes that he witnesses are so horrific, that it leads to him being unable to focus on anything, even running from those sites. After running, Henry realizes that he isn't going to be a war hero. It is this realization that allows Henry to become a good soldier. In his next battle, Henry forgets about himself and fights as a part of a group. “He suddenly lost concern for himself...He was welded into a common personality that was dominated by a single desire.”(p. 38) He becomes such a good soldier that his commander tells him “‘...if I had ten thousand wild cats like you I could tear the stomach outa this war in less’n a week!’”(p. 111). Sacrificing the idea that he is going to be a war hero is what allows Henry to become

After the war, Henry remained cold to everything around him. “He sat in front of it, watching it, and that was the only time he was completely still. But it was the kind of stillness that you see in a rabbit when it freezes and before it will bolt. He was not easy. He sat in his chair gripping the armrests with all his might.” By comparing Henry to a rabbit frozen in fear, it really shows how immense his anguish is. “I looked over, and he’d bitten through his lip… So we went and sat down. There was still blood going down Henry’s chin, but he didn’t notice it and no one said anything even though every time he took a bite of his bread his blood fell onto it until he was eating his own blood mixed in with the food.” This quote uniquely shows how closed off he is emotionally. He has experienced so much pain from the war that he ignores his own suffering. It is clear that Henry had some extent of PTSD from the war. He was drowning in pain so much that he ignored his own purpose and value, so much so that he ended up taking his

1. Crane appeared to be enthusiastic, as he used a fresh approach, to write about the war. There are two quotes, from the story, which, exactly, reveal this. From the first of the quotes, ("...As the landscape charged from brown to green, the the army awakened, and began to tremble with eagerness at the noise of rumors..."), we can tell, that something exciting, in a dramatic way was going on. We can, also, begin to see, that the army seemed to be fighting for something big, since it is mentioned, in the text, that they were awakened, suddenly. The army was fighting, for something they, probably, wanted, badly, as we can see, that the army "began to tremble with eagerness"). The second quote, from the story, which reveals Crane's fresh approach, was ("He was swelled with a tale he had heard from a reliable friend...").

      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.

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

“He felt that in this crisis his laws of life were useless. Whatever he had learned of himself was here of no avail. He was an unknown quantity. He saw that he would again be obliged to experiment as he had in early youth. He must accumulate information of himself, and meanwhile he resolved to remain close upon his guard lest those qualities of which he knew nothing should everlastingly disgrace him.” (Crane, Chapter 1) From this quote the reader can tell that Henry is fearful about whether he has the courage to fight in a battle. Henry assumes that war is only for creating heroes and that they are granted prestige in society. When he recalled his mothers advice, he realizes that it isn’t about making a name for himself, but meeting his responsibility honestly even if he has to sacrifice his own life.

“The Youth,” which Henry is referred to as, dreamt of glory in battle and being a hero (Crane 2). That is the reason why Henry enlisted himself; even though he told his comrades he was forced to be in the army. His mother’s farewell speech is ironic because he thought that she would give him a tearful and long speech, but all she really said was to “Watch out, and be a good boy” (4). She does not want Henry to be a hero even though that is what he went to war for. She told Henry that she will be fine if he does not return home. Henry tries to pull off being a confident and good soldier, while in the reality he is very nervous about what will happen in battle. Throughout the novel, he questions his courage and if he would run from battle. At an early battle, Henry continuously fires at the enemy line and feels like he is a courageous soldier. However, soon after this battle, another one erupts and Henry runs from it. This is

People tend to be greatly influenced by stories, news, and other contemporary sources of knowledge, which ultimately affects the impact they have on the world. Stephen Crane was greatly impacted by the time period in which he lived. One such influence was the popular literary style of Realism. Realism is the trend in which literature is based on the true nature of everyday occurrences devoid of any fantasy or romance. It is the raw depiction of what life and society is actually like. This literary style can be found in many of Stephen Crane’s novels. Religion also had a significant impact on the way Stephen Crane wrote his novels. He was an atheist which brought about the idea that humans are just part of nature and must solve their own problems without the intervention of a higher being. This notion is evident with the protagonist of The Red Badge of Courage. Henry Fleming, a young union soldier in the Civil War, must overcome the fear of putting his life at risk to achieve what he wants most which is honor. Honor comes from actively participating in battle and sacrificing his life for the cause. Honor is physically represented from a wound noted as the “Red Badge”. In the end Henry doesn’t consult in a higher being and achieves what he wants most by overcoming the mental obstacles and ultimately finding the strength within to realize what courage actually is. Accompanied by the literary movements and his religion, his time period was heavily influenced by the

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.

The Red Badge of Courage became a splash of reality to everyone around the world. Reality television, movies and the internet have a way of depicting aspects of life that not everyone can see; Stephen Crane gave a new insight to the world about war life with his character Henry Fleming in his most successful novel. It was six years after the end of the most horrid war in America that Stephen Crane was born in 1871. His father was a Methodist minister and a strong female figure in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union as a mother. Crane was the last child of fourteen children; the family grew up in New York and New Jersey.

An Episode of War and The Red badge of Courage. Early in his career Stephen Crane worked as a journalist in New York City. The most common themes for his novels are harsh realities of war, the degradation of humanity, social rebellion, betrayal, and guilt (page 507). He is considered a literary prodigy who wrote as quickly and passionately as he lived. Crane attended military school (Stephen).