The Red Badge of Courage

In the first chapter, Henry's mother wisely advises her son that war is realistically not the same as the glorified versions of "war ardor" and "patriotism" to which Henry succumbs; she tells her...

Once upon a time the young narrator Henry had regarded battles as "bloody marks on the pages of the past". Though he'd dreamed of battles all his life and had always been utterly fascinated by...

The red badge of courage refers to the wounds that the soldiers suffered in war. These wounds were viewed as courage Eva courageous acts because it meant that they stayed and fought against the...

As with most young men, Henry Fleming wants to prove his manhood. And what better way to do that than seek glory on the field of battle? Neither Henry nor any of the other young men of his platoon...

The first impression the author gives us of Henry Fleming is that of a youth who is totally untried. As the soldiers around him give their various opinions about when they will see battle, Henry...

CLIMAX In Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage, the climax is reached in Chapter XX as the main character, Henry Fleming, overcomes his fear and with Wilson leads the 304th Regiment of the...

Most of Henry's qualities in The Red Badge of Courage would serve positively with soldiers today. In the early chapters, Henry suffered from a fear of the unknown: how he would react once he was...

Naturalism is a view that man is often controlled by forces he cannot control. There are many examples of this view in "The Red Badge of Courage", but several incidents are often used to support...

I think the two things the youth fears are the possibility that he will not be able to conduct himself honorably under battle conditions, and the feeling that he is the only one that feels this...

Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage is a story of war. It deals heavily with loss, but the novel also finds a sense of recovery by the end. Let's look at how that works. The story's...

It's early days in the conflict and so the men of Henry's regiment have not yet experienced the real horrors of war. They're still young and naïve, chomping at the bit to prove their manhood and...

Being a Civil War enthusiast and historian, I recognize Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage as one of the finest fictional novels about the conflict. Its combination of realism and...

One of reasons Crane does not name all his characers is because a primary theme of "The Red Badge of Courage" is the anonymity of war, or how the individual is lost in the machinery of...

Crane first injects cows into the narrative, beginning with Henry's mother milking one as he tells her of his decision to enlist in the army, and then bringing them in again, in chapter three, when...

HENRY FLEMING (The Quiet Soldier). In the beginning of the novel, Henry questions his own courage and wonders how he will react when he is in combat for the first time. Will he run or will he...

Part of Stephen Crane's stylistic methods in The Red Badge of Courage is his use of symbolism and imagery. In Chapter 2, for instance, Crane writes of the "red eyes across the river," the fires of...

The answer to this question can be found at the end of Chapter 5, which charts the end of the first battle Henry has participated in and his feelings about it. What characterises this battle above...

The officers know that a ferocious battle is about to begin, and one of them says to the other, "It'll be hell t'pay stoppin' them...what troops can you spare?" The second officer...

In the novel, The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, nature is a force, an impersonal force which does not choose. When Henry thinks that "Nature was not quite ready to kill him", he means it...

The Red Badge of Courage conveys a negative tone through most of the novella, but it does shift throughout the various chapters. It begins ominous, and wherever a battle scene is described, a tone...

ROMANTICISM. The romance of war leads Henry to enlist in the first place, as it did many soldiers during the Civil War. The supposed glory that would be found in battle was a lure to many young...

The Red Badge of Courage uses a third-person limited omniscient narrative. The story is told largely through Henry's eyes and thoughts: we see what he sees and experience battle the way he...

That depends on when you are referring to Henry's deeds in battle. Early in the book, Henry is so scared that he runs away from battle and then uses a logical argument to explain why he is so much...

Even as Henry's story begins we sense a personal conflict within him as to the nature of war and the reality of it. He thinks of battles as "things of the past," yet everywhere around him there is...

I particularly like the descriptions of the first battle (encompassing Chapters 4-6) of Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage, where The Youth gets his first taste of action before skedaddling...

One of the solidiers attempts to steal a horse from a civilian. Soon after the regiment begins its march to parts unknown, the mood of the men changes. Happy to be moving at last, the men are in...

At the beginning of The Red Badge of Courage, there is a rumor that the army is on the move after a long period in camp. As the soldiers are arguing about the truth of this intelligence, one of the...

Color is also a very important symbol in the story. Red is associated not just with courage, as in the titular reference to battle scars, but with war in general. Red is, of course, the color of...

The Tattered Soldier expresses the same attitudes about the glory of war and the courage of fighting men that Henry had in the the beginning of the story. He recalls with "humble...

While The Red Badge of Courage has more than one theme, or message, that Stephen Crane proposes through his narrative, the Naturalistic theme seems the most salient. That is, Crane portrays Nature...

Henry's regiment had successfully withstood the first attack by the Confederates, and the raw recruits celebrated what they perceived to be a victory in their first action. So it was all over...

The answer to your question is in chapter 2:The youth called in a savage voice after his comrade: “Well, you needn't git mad about it!” But the other continued on his way and made no reply.He felt...

Up to this point in the novel, the youth has been obsessed with the question of whether or not he would run or stay and fight in battle. During his first encounter with the enemy, the youth is able...

After Henry is injured, he tries desperately to deal with the pain and confusion. To calm his fears, he begins to think of his home and childhood.He remembers certain meals his mother cooked at...

As a Naturalist, Stephen Crane broke with the Romantic tradition and refused to idealize war. In "The Red Badge of Courage" the officers are not arranged as though they are in a painting, gallant...

In the confusion of battle, the youth is separated from his regiment, then is caught among the chaotic ranks of another regiment which is fleeing from their own recent defeat under fire. The youth...

I have reviewed the entire novel and can find no evidence of any character named Dave in The Red Badge of Courage. Henry shows bursts of anger throughout the novel toward both the enemy and his own...

Although Henry battles his fear of the unknown during the first Confederate attack, he stands his ground with the rest of his comrades and celebrates this short, initial victory. He is relieved to...

I have not read The Red Badge of Courage in many years, I do, however, remember enjoying the book as a required reading as a Junior in high school. Wow! That was a long time ago!

Harry, also known in the story as "the youth", is part of the 304th New York regiment that includes the "tall soldier" Jim Conklin and the "loud soldier" Wilson. The 304th regiment is first...

You are definitely right to identify the weather at the close of this tremendous tale as a symbol. It is vitally important to consider what has just happened. Henry has just experienced a kind of...

This reading is about Henry's feelings and his state of mind before going into battle, his first war experiences, and when he flees from the battle. This is Henry's first real experience off the...

The "red badge" symbolizing courage is a soldier being wounded in the line of battle. It's a sign of honor and bravery, but Henry's badge is earned accidentally, not from courageously...

Needless to say, many soldiers turned and ran during the various attacks and counterattacks in Stephen Crane's Civil War novel, The Red Badge of Courage. Both of the main characters, Henry and...

The very title of the novel, The Red Badge of Courage is an allusion. This is a reference to a battle wound, and it is significant in that Henry feels guilty that he chooses to flee the battle and...

Like many other young men of the period--in both the North and the South--Henry got caught up in the possible glory to be won on the battlefield. It would be a great adventure and he would serve...