In The Red Badge of Courage, Henry Fleming often experiences feelings of isolation and loneliness. The woods and the smoke serve to separate the soldiers, greatly contributing to their panic during battles. Critic Robert Shulman, in American Literature, argued that Crane wanted to "test the possibilities and failures of community, an understandable interest since for him the solitary self has limited resources and God and nature are both inaccessible as sources of sustaining power." The war amplifies Fleming's sense of isolation as he confronts death repeatedly. He comes across a deceased Union soldier leaning against a tree and stares at the body until he imagines the eerie figure staring back at him. His friends, Jim Conklin and "the tattered man," both die, leaving him feeling sorrowful and bewildered.