“The Veteran,” written by American novelist, short story writer, and poet Stephen Crane, is considered the sequel to the author’s 1895 novel, The Red Badge of Courage. The story was published in 1896 in Mclure’s Magazine. It follows the main protagonist of The Red Badge of Courage, Henry Fleming, now living as an aged war veteran in his hometown.

While the story can be read and understood as a standalone piece, reading it in relation to The Red Badge of Courage gives it greater depth. For example, Henry Fleming confirms that his first battle took place at Chancellorsville—a fact that was not disclosed in the novel. Perhaps because Crane wanted to render the themes of the novel universal, he refrained from disclosing too many facts and details. But in “The Veteran,” Crane fills in some of the relevant details, allowing for a more concrete rendering.

Because “The Veteran”—and, by extension, The Red Badge of Courage—challenges our romantic assumptions of war, it is popular to assume that it is a work of realism. However, the two works actually adhere more strongly to principles of naturalism. This is seen in the manner in which nature is portrayed as a potent, almost mystical force that is indifferent to human affairs. While disillusioned young men such as Henry Fleming try to find their courage and masculinity on the battlefield, it is gradually revealed that the strongest forces of all are the unerring laws of nature.

The Red Badge of Courage ends with the fearful eighteen-year-old Private Henry Fleming maturing into a veteran who has seen and understood the horrors of war. As someone who was once enchanted with the superficial promise of military glory and fame, Henry instead turns to the beauty of nature in the novel’s last passage.

It rained. The procession of weary soldiers became a bedraggled train, despondent and muttering, marching with churning effort in a trough of liquid brown mud under a low, wretched sky. Yet the youth smiled, for he saw that the world was a world for him, though many discovered it to be made of oaths and walking sticks. He had rid himself of the red sickness of battle. The sultry nightmare was in the past. He had been an animal blistered and sweating in the heat and pain of war. He turned now with a lover’s thirst to images of tranquil skies, fresh meadows, cool brooks, an existence of soft and eternal peace. Over the river a golden ray of sun came through the hosts of leaden rain clouds.

It is made unclear, however, if this moment of growth is permanent or merely a transient epiphany. “The Veteran” answers this question.

Consider the passage in which Henry recounts his memories of his military service. Although his humility and humorous self-aggrandizement can be interpreted as virtues, this attitude may appear hypocritical when considered in relation to The Red Badge of Courage. Even when he has witnessed firsthand the evils of war, he still refuses to denounce it. In fact, he even at one point glorifies Jim Conklin—his comrade and the tall, Christ-like figure who dies from a bullet wound in The Red Badge of Courage. In the novel, Jim Conklin is meant to serve as a cautionary tale for those who so glorify and romanticize war. Henry Fleming’s assertion that Jim was “born to fight” decades after the latter’s death is a disservice to his memory. His cowardice from The Red Badge of Courage is replaced in “The Veteran” with a specious self-acceptance. While he appears to have matured into a...