The Red Badge of Courage (Identities and Issues in Literature)
At a glance:
- Author: Stephen Crane
- First Published: 1895
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Bildungsroman, Impressionistic literature
- Subjects: Maturation or coming of age, Tradition, South or Southerners, Courage, Friendship, Guilt, Violence, Fear, Civil War, War, Self-confidence, Duty, Military life or service, Heroes or heroism, Soldiers, Naivete, Battles
- Locales: United States
The Work
The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War, Stephen Crane’s “psychological portrayal of fear,” follows a young, inexperienced Yankee soldier, Henry Fleming, into battle for his first time. Bored with farm life and motivated to enlist by the heroic images of war in conventional stories, Henry looks forward to battle, but the conversations of seasoned soldiers Wilson and Jim Conklin make him question how he will react under fire and whether he is really a soldier.
Henry’s first, unnamed battle (perhaps Chancellorsville) causes...
[The entire page is 834 words long]
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