The Red Badge of Courage

Character List

The youth (Henry Fleming): the main character of the book. Fights with the 304th regiment, flees his first battle, fights courageously in his second. His musings, thoughts, and responses to war are the focus of the book; because of his changing minds and deeds, he matures as the book progresses.

The loud soldier or the friend (Wilson): begins the book headstrong and proud, but through battle gains a sense of tranquility. He takes close care of Henry when he returns to the regiment and fights bravely in battle the next day. His maturity is a clue for what will happen to Henry.

The tall soldier (Jim Conklin): one of Henry's friends. He converses and argues much with Wilson before any battle begins. During his journeys after deserting, Henry encounters Jim in a procession of wounded soldiers. He is there when Jim breathes his last.

The tattered soldier: one of the wounded soldiers. He tries to chat with Henry about the battle and about Henry's wounds. His questions make Henry so upset and guilty that he runs away from him, leaving the tattered man stumbling in a field.

The young lieutenant: the commander of Henry's regiment. He is shot in the hand in the first battle and in the arm in the second. He tries to get his men to fight and charge, even when they are stagnant and even when all he can do is curse.

Henry's mother: does not approve of her son's enlisting, but does not prevent him from going. She only tells him to do what he thinks is right, instead of telling him to be a hero.

The Red Badge of Courage (Tor Classics)
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Short Summary

As The Red Badge of Courage opens, members of a newly recruited regiment are debating a fresh rumor‹they are finally going to move out on the next day and engage the enemy. One young soldier, named Henry Fleming, does not engage in the debate and instead reflects on what will become of him when he get to battle. Will he run or will he stand and fight bravely. He enlisted because he wanted to be a hero, thinking of Greek epics. His own mother, however, was not interested in such ideas, and discouraged him from enlisting. When he finally did, she did not have an impassioned speech for him. She merely says that if he is ever in a situation where he will be killed or do something wrong, he should go with his feelings. With these words, Henry left his home and entered his army duty.

He had not seen his foes yet, save a conversation with one across a riverbank late one night. The veterans tell them of gray, mad, rampaging hordes; but he does not trust their tales very much. However, he does not care who he fights, just that he will not run away. He is panicked at the proposition. He talks with other soldiers‹the tall one (named Jim Conklin) and the loud one (named Wilson). Both believe in themselves enough to say that they will fight as hard as they can, but neither goes as far to say that they definitely will not run.

The regiment does not move out on the rumored day, but soon thereafter. They march through other Union armies, dressed in blue. Their youth shows, as their uniforms still seem so new they gleam. Soon after, though, the tall soldier kicks Henry awake. The regiment is gathered and the men run down wood roads. During this time, Henry's thoughts are mixed and various. He feels that he should have never enlisted and misses his home. The next moment, he feels the overwhelming need to see a battle taking place. After he does so, upon cresting a hill and looking at a skirmish down below, he watches in quiet fascination, but does not desire to participate. Then, after the men march more and he sees his first dead body, he begins to suspect that they are being led to their slaughter, to be sacrificed to a red war god. He wants to tell his mates, but is afraid of their jibes and scoffing in return.

Soon, the regiment is facing an actual conflict. Wilson, the loud soldier, is so certain he will die that he gives Henry a packet of letters to send to his family. As they line up to fight, rumors fly again about the state of their army. Smoke and noise from guns rise around them. Bullets and shells whistle towards them. A regiment in front, already engaging the enemy, is beaten and flees the battleground. The youth imagines that they were beaten by a monster. He resolves to get a view of this monster, even if he very well may flee himself. The regiment is soon engaged. They work feverishly, firing and reloading. The smoke chokes them and makes their eyes red. Henry feels full of rage. Men fall occasionally around him. Soon, the enemy retreats. The men relax. Henry feels satisfied that he has overcome the trials of war.

However, the men have not rested for long when the Rebels attack again. They fight fiercely once more. Henry feels different this time. He feels that the monster of war, a red and green dragon, will come through the gray smoke and swallow him. After a few men around him flee, the youth's own fear gets the better of him. He drops his weapon and runs from the battle. As he goes through the forest and past cannons, he is sure that the dragon is pursuing him and that these others fighting against it are fools, going like lemmings to their death. However, as he finally stops by an officer, he finds that his regiment won the battle. He is thunderstruck. He realizes that he has done something very wrong, though he tries to justify it to himself that it was through superior powers of observation. He imagines the insults he will have to bear when returning to camp and attempts to get as far away from them and the monster of war as possible. He walks into a forest. The noises of the conflict gradually become fainter. He feels more at peace, that his actions are more in congress with nature. However, as he goes, he encounters a corpse, with a faded uniform. The glassy-eyed stare grabs him for a moment in fear. Then the youth slowly turns away, creeping from the body; then he turns and runs away as fast as he can.

He goes through the forest and into the open. He finds a road and walking upon it a procession of wounded soldiers. They are suffering and moaning as they limp down the road. A tattered soldier, wounded twice, tries to talk to Henry about the battle and where the youth has been shot. These questions bring his embarrassment and guilt out. He tries to run away in the crowd. He eventually runs into Jim Conklin, the tall soldier, wounded and near death. Henry tries to help him, but his friend is too close to death. The tattered man comes up to assist as well, but Jim runs off into the fields, where he staggers and falls over dead. The tattered man tries to talk more with Henry, telling him stories of men he knows in the army and how he became wounded. Again, the man asks Henry where his wounds are located. The youth tells him to not bother him, and slips away from the man, leaving him blubbering and wondering about in the field.

As he continues on, Henry eventually encounters a retreating band of carts and horses. This makes him feel temporarily good; if the whole army is retreating, his flight will not be so suspicious. However, soon a column of troops comes up the road. Henry looks at these men as brave, and he soon gets the will to fight. However, more thoughts come into his head. He considers that he is low and guilty. His comrades will see him as a worm. These thoughts make him thirst and ache. He tries to justify his flight in his head, but his emotions betray him. He wishes he were dead.

Soon, the column comes running out of the grove into which they marched. All is chaos and pandemonium. Henry is shocked to see that these heroic figures have been so quickly turned into scampering animals. He tries to stop one to ask him what happened, but only blubbers his words. The man hits him on the head with his rifle. Henry is dazed and injured. He wonders in the dark until a kind man helps him find his regiment.

There, no harsh words await him. Wilson and another soldier bandage his wound, which Henry claims is from a bullet. The others do not seem to care that much, just that he gets attention and rest, which he does. When he awakes, he finds that his friend, Wilson, is not so much the loud soldier he once was. He takes special care of Henry, is reflective, and breaks up fights around him. The youth notices this change from irritation to tranquility. However, he feels that he has a weapon against his friend‹the packet of letters he gave in haste at the beginning of the battle the day before. Fearful of being discovered as a coward, he imagines that with this packet he can ward off any shame that questioning from Wilson would give him. However, Wilson sheepishly asks for the packet before Henry can do anything. While he maintains a haughty air, the youth can say no barbs against his friend as he hands the envelope back to him.

The regiment today moves from one embankment to another, always taking cover and seeing some of battle, but not actually participating in it. The youth is now talkative, perhaps overly so. He tries to show his pride, and is silenced for it; for he knows that he in fact fled battle yesterday and was not shot. A sarcastic soldier cuts him down and later his lieutenant tells him to stop talking and start fighting. The regiment does this soon enough. They are attacked by the Rebels and repel them. This battle, Henry fights as if he were crazed, shooting at them long after the battle is finished. This makes some of the men look at him with curiosity. Henry regards himself as a barbarian.

Soon, Wilson and Henry take an opportunity to get water for the regiment. After they search for a stream unsuccessfully, they encounter a general and his staff in a road. In the midst of the conversation, they hear that their regiment of "mule drivers" is going to charge the enemy, with perhaps many casualties. They return to their fellow soldiers with this news, but do not tell them that the general doubted that they will survive.

The charge begins soon. It takes the regiment a minute, but they are soon running with haste at the enemy. Many are shot in the process. Henry now feels that he sees things clearly. He and the other men go into a frenzy. But eventually, they stop. The lieutenant yells, screams, and curses at them to continue. Wilson breaks the spell by firing his rifle. Others soon follow his lead. Soon, Henry sees the flag of his army, which revives him. As his color sergeant is soon shot, he leaps for the flag, along with Wilson, to hold it for himself. The battle rages on, with Henry holding the flag aloft. The men dig in slightly, as their numbers diminish. Henry is full of rage. He is thinking little, only feeling his anger. The lieutenant and Henry are both trying to get the men to continue. Soon, the officer sees that the men in gray are trying to advance onto their position. Automatically, the regiment fires into them, causing the enemy to retreat. Satisfied, they go back to their lines.

When they return, they are greeted with jeers from the veterans and reprimands from the higher officers. They stopped short of an impressive charge, they learn. The men, who had been so proud of themselves, find that their efforts are not seen as sufficient, let alone brave. Soon, though, Wilson and Henry here a story through one of their fellow soldiers that a colonel and lieutenant were discussing their particular prowess in battle. This fills their hearts with pride.

Soon, the battle is on again. The men in blue charge the men in gray once more. Again, the regiment finds itself in open territory, peppered by bullets. Henry is intent on standing upright, keeping the flag strong, though the men around him are still falling. Then the order comes to charge. The men to not shirk; they fix bayonets and wildly charge toward the gray smoke of the enemy's guns. On the other side, the youth knows, are the men who made this. He must see them. As they approach the enemy lines, the opposing flag comes into view. Wilson leaps at it and grabs it from the hands of the just-shot color sergeant. There are four prisoners of war, all looking very young and very human in their own faces. The men in blue are victorious.

Henry, upon walking away with the regiment, first feels pride in his accomplishments of battle. Then he remembers his flight and his treatment of the tattered man, and guilt riles up in him again. He is concerned his mate will see it. However, he eventually lets this go. He now sees his previous thoughts on war and battle as silly and is happy to find himself doing so. He has made it through the trials of battle, from the red and the black, and is changed into a man. The gold (instead of the yellow) of the sun streams through the clouds as he marches with his regiment.

Biography of Stephen Crane (1871-1900)

Stephen Crane was the youngest of fourteen children. His father was a strict Methodist minister, who died in 1880, leaving his devout, strong mother to raise the rest of the family. Crane lasted through preparatory school, but spent less than two years in college, excelling at Syracuse in baseball and partying far more than academics. After leaving school, he went to live in New York, doing freelance writing and working on his first book Maggie, A Girl of the Streets. His times in New York City were split between his apartment in the Bowery slum in Manhattan and well-off family in the nearby town of Port Jervis. Crane published Maggie, a study of an innocent slum girl and her downfall in a world of prostitution and abuse, in 1893 at his own expense. It was especially scandalous for the times, and sold few copies. It did attract the attention of other critics and writers, most notably William Dean Howells, who helped Crane receive backing for his next project, The Red Badge of Courage.

Published in 1895, The Red Badge was quite different from Maggie in style and approach, and brought Crane international fame and quite a bit of money. Rather than plod through moral tropes, the book is subtle and imagistic, while still being firmly entrenched in the realism of the late 1890's in America. Crane's rich portrayal of Henry Fleming's growth through the trials and terrors of a Civil War battle betray the fact that he himself had not yet seen any fighting or battles when he wrote the book. Many veterans of the Civil War (only thirty years had gone by since its end) praised the book for capturing the feelings and pictures of actual combat.

Bolstered by the success of The Red Badge and his book of poetry The Black Riders, Crane became subsumed with ideas of war. He was hired to go to Cuba as a journalist to report on the rebellion there against the Spanish. On the way to the island, Crane was in a shipwreck, from which he was originally reported dead. He rowed to shore in a dinghy, along with three other men, having to swim to shore and drop his money in the sea to prevent from drowning. This experience directly led to his most famous short story "The Open Boat" (1897).

For various reasons, Crane stopped writing novels during this time and moved primarily to short stories?probably because they could sell in magazines better but also because he was constantly moving. When staying in Jacksonville, Florida, he met the owner of a brothel, Cora Taylor. She accompanied him to Greece as he reported on the Greco-Turkish War for New York newspapers; and stayed with him until the end of his life. At this point, rumors abounded about Crane, few of them good. There was talk of drug addiction, rampant promiscuity, and even Satanism, none of them true. Crane was disgusted with them and eventually relocated to England.

After reporting on the Spanish-American War and Theodore Roosevelt's famed Rough Riders, Crane returned home to England. He then drove himself deeply into debt by throwing huge, expensive parties, reportedly at Cora Taylor's insistence. While he could now count Joseph Conrad, H. G. Wells, and other authors in his circle, most people sponged off of Crane and his lavishness. He worked on a novel about the Greek War and continued writing short stories and poetry, at this point to pay off his large debts. The stress of this life, compounded by an almost blatant disregard for his own health, led to his contracting tuberculosis. He died while in Baden, Germany, trying to recover from this illness. He was not yet 29 years old.

Chapter 1 Summary:

As The Red Badge of Courage opens, we do not know precisely where we are or whom we are watching. As the fog clears gradually, we see a part of the Union army upon a riverbank. Rumors are flying among the troops about their own movement. One soldier, named Jim but always referred to by his tall height, tells his comrades that he has heard, through several sources, that they will be on the move on the next day. Arguments break out between the soldiers whether this rumor is true.

The attention then shifts to another private named Henry. The narrator rarely refers to him by his first name, rather as "the youth" or "the young soldier." He sits in his tent and thinks about the possibility of finally going into battle. He had before joining the army dreamed of grand battles that "thrilled him with their sweep and fire"; and he seems to desire a "Greeklike" or "Homeric" struggle. His mother had discouraged him from joining, saying "'Henry, don't you be a fool.'" He enlists anyway, and upon learning so his mother only cries two tears and says, "The Lord's will be done, Henry."

However, when Henry finally leaves, his mother does not try to convince him to be a hero, as he expected. Instead of an impassioned, beautiful scene, his mother gives him some simple advice. She tells him to be careful and not try to beat the entire rebel army himself and not to fall in with a bad group of soldiers. Then she adds: "I don't know what else to tell yeh, Henry, excepting that yeh must never do no shirking, child, on my account. If so be a time comes when yeh have to be kilt or do a mean thing, why, Henry, don't think of anything Œcept what's rightŠ."

He leaves his mother, who cries softly as he goes, and joins his comrades on the way to Washington. Along the way, they are fed at every station, treated almost like heroes just for joining the fight. Then they train and drill often. Yet they have not fought in battle. Henry does not know what to think of battle. He is sure it will not be a Greeklike struggle. The veterans he meet claim that the rebels are starving and tattered, but these same veterans taunt the new recruits, so Henry is unsure whether to trust them either.

Most of all, Henry is concerned that he will run when he finally faces a conflict. He wants to be a hero, but his fears nag at him, making him doubt his own courage and mettle as he lies in his tent. Jim, the tall soldier, and another soldier, "the loud soldier," both come in Henry's tent, still arguing about the rumor. Jim offers both of them evidence that they are about to move out‹the cavalry have moved out. Henry nervously asks Jim how he thinks their regiment will do and gets the vague answer that they will do well, probably. Henry then asks if he thinks any of them will run when faced with a fight. Jim is confident that they will fight, because they are from good stock; however, there is no way to tell‹they have not been under fire yet. Henry finally asks Jim if he would run from the battle. Jim speculates that he might, especially if a whole group began to run. "But if everybody was a-standing and a-fighting, why, I'd stand and fight," he adds. These words comfort Henry as the first chapter ends.

Chapter 1 Analysis:

Stephen Crane begins a new course of realism in The Red Badge of Courage. Many critics point to him as one of the first American authors of a modern style, and The Red Badge as a fine example of this. The novel is built on a coming-of-age theme, and many of its descriptive elements, such as its concentration on nature and character's actions, are in the realist style, most popularized in America by William Dean Howells and Frank Norris. However, Crane's style in this book has some slight differences from earlier styles. The narrator does not name the characters. In the first chapter, we discover the names of Henry and Jim only through their dialogue with other characters. The narrator only refers to them by descriptors‹"the tall soldier" in Jim's case and, most importantly, "the young soldier" in Henry's case.

Calling Henry "the youth" is the most important indicator that this novel is about his maturity. In this first chapter, he is unproven even to himself. Before enlisting, Henry's thoughts of war and battle are those of valiant struggles for life and death; the possibility of cowardice does not arise in his initial thoughts of battle. However, his mother's speech leaves much more room for interpreting his own future struggles. Rather than give him the advice of the Spartans of ancient Greece to "return carrying your shield or on top of it" (meaning either victorious or killed in combat, not having dropped it fleeing), his mother tells him that, when faced with a situation of kill or be killed, he has to do what he thinks is right, and only that. This is a critical moment in the plot of the book. Henry's actions when facing battle are unknown, even to him. His convictions were strong enough to join the army. Yet these were not because of patriotism or a will to simply fight; the narrator shows Henry to be fantasizing of heroic deeds instead. His mother's farewell speech shows that no one, not even Henry or the narrator, is sure what he will do when faced with battle. Even Jim's answers, while they calm Henry's fears, still are so vague that they do not lead to any concrete predictions for their future actions in battle.

Yet Crane has written into this novel a way to tell certain characteristics even without explicit direction from the narrator‹the use of color metaphors. The title itself is a color metaphor. "The red badge of courage" could refer to an actual award given for heroism; yet it surely refers to a wound from battle. The "red badge" shows your valiancy by proving you were bold and brave enough to fight until wounded. However, as we see in the first chapter with the mother's speech, this courage is not guaranteed. Indeed, every man killed in battle would have a red badge, and still be dead.

Crane uses color metaphors to imply certain meanings throughout the book. An example of this in the first chapter is Henry's mother's discouragement is described as throwing a "yellow light upon the color of his ambitions." The use of yellow here is deliberate; it refers to cowardice or "being yellow." Henry somehow sees denying his heroic dreams as necessarily falling to cowardice, as this metaphor shows.

As the first chapter ends, we have been introduced to the characters, but also shown that they are even uncertain of whom they are and how they will act. Developments come in later chapters.

Chapter 2 Summary:

Upon rising the next day, the soldiers discover that the rumor is not true and they are not moving out, as Jim Conklin, the tall soldier, had said. For Henry Fleming, this is not a relief. His dilemma of whether or not he will run in battle is still present. Without a battle to test it, he has no idea if he will be courageous or cowardly. He begins to compare himself with other soldiers in and attempt to get some confidence. He asks several soldiers, in unquoted dialogue, certain questions trying to see if they have similar doubts and fears as he does; and he gets little confirmation of his anxieties in reply. His own feelings about his comrades are ambivalent. Sometimes he thinks them heroes. Sometimes he feels that they are all secretly scared.

One morning, he finds himself in the ranks. His regiment is on the move. The early morning is full of colors‹the men's uniforms glow purple, red eyes peer from across the river, and the sun slowly rises yellow in the east. The soldiers return to the validity of the rumors they heard the day before, especially when they turn a hill and find they are no longer along the river. Jim, the tall soldier, praises his powers of perception; others argue with him. Henry takes no part in these discussions. He is still despondent and sad. He keeps to himself, his feelings still ambivalent.

The rest of the soldiers seem to be rather jolly. A certain fat soldier attempts to steal a horse from a house. Its owner, a young woman, comes out to save it. The rest of the regiment jeers and yells at the fat soldier. He is beaten away from the horse and flees back into the soldiers, peppered with catcalls from his fellow troops.

At night, the men pitch camp. Henry Fleming lies in the grass, thinking. He wishes more than anything to be back at home, with its barn and fields. He remembers his milk cows, which caused him so much grief previously, with a bit of joy and nostalgia. He tells himself that he is not fit to be a soldier, and he feels quite different from those soldiers around him whom still seem happy and carefree.

The loud soldier, who we learn is named Wilson, come up to Henry, spouting exciting, confident statements about the upcoming battle. "We'll lick Œem good!" he repeats. His joy at the upcoming battle irritates Henry, who says, bitterly, that Wilson must think he will do great things. Wilson replies that he does not know if he will do great things, but he will fight "like thunder." Henry then challenges Wilson, saying that he may well run when the battle comes, and that he is not the bravest person in the world. Wilson replies coolly that he never said he was, just that he will give his share of the fighting. Then he tells Henry he talks "as if you thought you was Napoleon Bonaparte." Henry goes in his tent and hears the sound of card games outside. Exhausted from his ruminating, he falls asleep.

Chapter 2 Analysis:

This chapter of The Red Badge of Courage is dominated by Henry's mixed feelings about the upcoming battle. He goes back and forth in thoughts about himself and his fellow soldiers. One moment, he feels that he and they will both fight like brave heroes. The next, he is sure that he is not meant to be a soldier and neither are his companions. If they seem upbeat and happy, they are hiding a deep fear.

It does not matter at this point which one of these interpretations about the men is correct. It is Henry himself who is most important and who the novel follows closely. Because of this, his own feelings of fear and bravery and (above all) uncertainty dominate and tint the perception of all things in this chapter.

For instance, returning to the color metaphors, when they arise, they come grouped together. The best example of this is the description of the regiment moving out for the first time. Their uniforms are not the blue of melancholy and deep thought; they are purple. In the next sentence, "red eyes" of the enemy peer at them from across the river. In the east, the yellow of the sun appears, silhouetting a colonel on a horse, making him appear solid black.

These colors can be interpreted as having certain meanings. Eyes that are red seem more violent and potentially harmful. The yellow may still represent cowardice; but the color is from the sun, a far more courageous and proud symbol. The black of the colonel can be any number of things‹fear of the unknown, a death symbol, a figure of authority like a judge. Most important though is not the particular meanings of these color metaphors but that they appear so rapidly one right after another. They mirror Henry's ambivalence. All these emotions, represented by distinct colors, are embedded in this one scene of the regiment moving out.

Later that night, most of the colors are gone, washed out by darkness. Still, Henry broods. His conversation with Wilson does not help his mood much. What it does reveal is, despite outward appearances, Wilson seems to have made a certain peace with the unknown. He knows not what will happen exactly, just that he will try his best. His words to Henry echo his mother's farewell speech and Jim Conklin's responses to his questions.

The color that does appear in small splashes in this scene is red, the red of the fires. This suggests what we are soon to discover‹that a battle is eminent.

Chapter 3 Summary:

The regiment marches for another two days, picking up their pace on the last day. The men become tired, hot, and cranky. They begin to leave some of their supplies behind, trying to lighten their load. They move more fleet and quickly, like veterans. Yet they still do not have the look of veterans. Their uniforms are too bright and new.

One morning, however, Henry, the youth, is kicked awake by the tall soldier, Jim. The men are suddenly running in fog. They hear the distant sounds of firing. Regiments and other men become gradually visible, as the sun rises and the fog begins to melt away. The regiment eventually climbs a hill. As they get to its crest, Henry expects to see a battle scene.

Below a skirmish is in progress. There are lines of fighters spread across the field, and a flag flutters. The skirmishers melt into the scene only to appear later on. Henry is engrossed, trying to observe everything. His own regiment is still in a woody area. They eventually pass the body of a dead soldier. His uniform is yellow-brown and his shoe soles are paper-thin. This enraptures Henry too, wanting to walk around and around the body and stare at it.

Henry continues to think as the regiment marches. He feels threatened by the landscape. He sees it as full of fierce-eyed enemies. All of a sudden, he is full of distrust of his commanders. He is sure they have led the men into a trap. He must get out; he must be the sole eyes and ears aware of this danger.

The overall mood of the troops is now very serious. They are facing a true test of their mettle very soon, and it affects them in different ways. Primarily, though, the untried men are quiet and absorbed, waiting to face war finally. They are ordered to dig in. Then they are ordered to pull back.

The soldiers become annoyed, asking why they were marched this much if they are not going to face the enemy. They are then moved to another position, then another. The anticipation starts to irk Henry, who wants to return to camp or go in a battle, one or the other. The men eat their lunches and talk about their irritation. The loud soldier, Wilson, and the tall soldier, Jim, argue more about whether or not they are truly eager to fight.

In the afternoon, the regiment goes over the land they took, the same land Henry looked at that morning. It no longer threatens the youth; he feels familiar with it. However, he keeps changing his mind about the upcoming battle. He begins to think that it is just better to be killed directly and end his troubles. Out of the corner of his eye, death seems like rest and appreciation, much better than the present circumstances.

As gray smoke rises above the regiment, Wilson lays his hand on Henry's shoulder and says that, with a trembling lip, that this will be his first and last battle. He just has a feeling about it. He gives Henry a packet of letters to send to his family and then, crying slightly, turns away.

Chapter 3 Analysis:

The images of landscape and color are brought to bear in a very wide fashion in this chapter. After more marching and chatting, Henry and the regiment find themselves on a hill overlooking a battle. Their view is from afar. They do not get to experience it as direct participants and are therefore detached from the actual experience of battle (as we are to find in later chapters, this experience looks and feels quite different from this first view).

Henry's feelings remain ambivalent and shifting. He almost always has some opinion or thought about battle, but they change often. In this chapter, they change at least three times, from fear and dread upon seeing the battle, to anticipation of an actual fight, to frustration when the men are being withdrawn. The colors of this chapter do follow the previous pattern of relating to Henry's shifting feelings. Gold, orange, and red colors flash in this chapter.

Yet, there is an important shift of colors in this chapter towards gray and silver. These two colors have particular historical references to the Civil War. Silver refers to the metal of the troops' rifles, bayonets, and swords. More important, gray was the color of the uniform of the Rebel army. Much like the blue of the Union army uniforms often relates to Henry's melancholy and brooding, the gray refers to the southerners' uniforms, but symbolizes the unknown of battle. The blue Union soldiers, who have been thinking about the implications of battle for days, are now faced with the enemy, both in the metaphor of the "blood-swollen god" of war and the Rebel army. The gray of smoke and fog symbolizes this unknown; and in this chapter, Henry gets closer and closer to it. He believes it to be red, but all he can see now is gray.

Henry's manner begins to become more outward in this chapter as well. This will come to bear later in the book, but he starts to act less and less in his head. This is not through his doing. Wilson gives him his packet without comment of any intelligible sort from Henry. This shows a shift in Henry's interactions. The battle is getting closer and closer. It will finally stop to exist only as postulations in Henry Fleming's head.

Chapter Four Summary:

The new regiment is now halted just inside a grove of trees, facing out into a field covered in smoke. They talk about rumors and reports from battles, who has lost what and moved where. As always, there is a disagreement about what has actually happened, this time to a Union battery. There is talk about brave, stubborn soldiers.

Then the noise and altercation in the field in front of them grows louder, and the new troops grow silent. The Union troops in the field of smoke begin to run. A shell screams overhead the new regiment, landing in the grove and throwing up a shower of pine needles. Bullets begin to fly towards them as well. The lieutenant of the youth's company is then shot in the hand. He curses as if he had hit his finger with a hammer, which sounds quite funny to the rest of the troops. Curiously, the lieutenant holds his wound away from his uniform so as not to stain it.

Then the Union troops in the field begin to run away. The battle flag falls. The veteran regiments flanking the new troops catcall and jeer the fleeing men. Henry Fleming's regiment is dumbstruck with horror; before they fight, they have just witnessed a regiment's defeat. The officers try to get the running men to stop, using their swords, fists, and cursing to keep them back. They rage with fury at the retreating regiment. The commander of that brigade gallops about on his horse, weeping. He looks like "a man who has come from bed to go to a fire." The fleeing troops pay no attention to any of these officers as they run.

This makes Henry sure he will run. Seeing the "mad current" of retreat swallow up the men's conscience, he is sure that he too will be driven wild and panic with battle. Yet, at the chapter ends, Henry resolves that now is the time he must see the "monster" that made them run, regardless if he runs himself.

Chapter 4 Analysis:

The men still talk and gossip at the beginning of this chapter. They dig in at the edge of a forest facing an open field. A regiment in front of them is already engaging the enemy.

Henry and his regiment do not see the battle clearly; they see it in a haze. This shows their lack of knowledge. The haze and gray colors represent the unknown of battle. Bullets and cannon shells come screeching out of this haze. When one of these shells hits the lieutenant of Henry's company, note that he has no desire to play up his wounds. He holds the wound away from him, not wanting to get blood on his uniform, not wanting red to mingle with the blue. This stands in marked contrast to some of Henry's musings. Redness to this officer is not a badge. He got his wound almost by accident. He does not want to show others proof of this wound‹it is not an authentic "badge" from battle.

As the men watch the haze more, men start to run out of it. The defeated regiment runs through the young troops. The "blue line" only watches them go. The officers try to stop their flight, but the other troops only watch. They are still "blue" and considering an outside action. War, though so close to them, has still not touched them. Though Henry can observe what "the struggle in the smoke" has done to other men (made them wild and flow like a flood), he can still only think about this. He is resolved to view this beast of battle, and only that he might run. He still does not know. He will find out in the next chapter.

Red Badge of Courage
In the Red Badge of Courage, the main character of this work is Henry Fleming. The character is attractive because he shows a powerful capacity of ambition, which often allows him to view thing in the world with a false reality. A common sign of most inexperience children, which provide an interesting characteristic for the type of setting this novel, is placed in. In addition, the fact that in midst of this terrible setting he never backed down under the pressure surrounding him and confronts his fear. The character is unattractive for the reason why he is ambitious. The fact that a boy would want to engage in warfare sometimes scares the reader into examining what is the mental development of this character for he won’t aim for something a little more prestigious instead of risking his life for the glory of war. The character is believable for observes the world without reasonable logic which is about a primary trait of human because no

. . .

In the Red Badge of Courage, the resolution implied is the bloodshed has ended with no other success, but that Henry has made the transition from a boy to a man and now he can look at his heroic deeds, put his sins in perspective, and not feel too proud about one or too guilty about the other. In conclusion, the main challenge of Henry is adjust to the hardships of army life and confront his fear head on. ” The significance of these passages shows the transition of Henry which took place during the action of the novel. Crane emphasizes the boyish questions and awkward conversationd even during tense, death-filled moments. Through Henry’s perceptions, the reader lives not only the infantry’s actions, but its individual thoughts and feelings. The examples are “ The red sun was pasted in the sky like a wafer,” “Strings of expletives he swung lash-like over the backs of his men,” “… his tongue lay dead in the tomb of his mouth,” and “The bugles called to each other like brazen gamecocks. He adapted naturalism, impressionism, symbolism, and realism and uses poetic techniques. one in their good state of mind would have a perception of war as a glamorous thing. Crane undercuts stereotypical wartime glory by detailing boredom, hardship, panic , and unheroic scenes of the soldiers terrified of dying amid the chaos and confusion of advance and retreat, kill or be killed. In accordingly, the character stands by his misconception and confronts his own death. ”

I would recommend this book to another person because of several factors that set this novel apart from other tales of war. The fact that Henry has strong ambitions to battle never truly reveal how he would perform under the pressures of a real line of fire. You can see from the inflection of the quote how emotion about the army changed from eagerness to doubt of why he was risking his life.

The style of writing is naturalistic, Crane present nature as all-important; in contrast to nature, man is just another animal and of little significance. It’s was never clearly stated what daunted to Henry undergo this change, but I drew the conclusion that it was the reality of real-time war the propelled this change in his characte

Red Badge of Courage
Henry Fleming enlists as a youth with heroic fantasies of battle lingering in his mind and walks off the “place of blood and wrath” three days later a serene veteran of battle. He came from hot plowshares seeking a Homeric Iliad, timid and anxious about his potential and what others think of him. He ponders a great dilemma: will he run from battle? He is reassured after asking the tall soldier his question. His friend tells him that he would do what the rest of the regiment was doing. Henry is not an individual yet, he is a fragment of a mass of men. Henry feels as though running from the backlash of the first skirmish he fought was a great debacle, and he is further tormented when the tattered soldier asks him how he got his feigned wound. He is haunted by pangs of guilt. As he participates in more battles, the opposition grows more and more human, as opposed to the monsters he envisioned them to be earlier. He sees them as human when he experiences his first surge of fierce, animalian anger. Henry’s epiphany occurs in the following “battle”. He discards the expectations of his peers and declares his individuality and courage by seizing the flag from the dead color sergeant and waving it before the regiment. He risks death as the

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Henry found his in the dignity he wished to uphold for himself and his regiment, and Holden in a pitiful realization that he is powerless to change the world. In The Red Badge of Courage, a narrator tells Henry’s tale. During battle several soldiers are wounded earning their "red badge of courage" and Henry's confident, Jim Conklin, dies. The path from youth to maturity can be prodigious in its complexity and length, but Salinger and Crane have each provided an account of this nature that occurred over only three days. Both characters seem to have promising futures ahead of them. The seizing of the flag is Henry’s ultimate rite of passage. He wonders if he will turn and run when death is looking him in the eyes, or if he will decide to stay and do what he came to do; prove that he is a man and can handle even death itself. Henry Fleming seemed to become the virtuoso of separation, individualism, and isolation. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden himself describes the events. He discards the terrified and cautious youth he enlisted as and becomes a mature, courageous adult.

The rise to adulthood is a common theme explored by authors. He felt that his assumption was clearly rectified- he was a coward. " This handshake is the turning point for the value Henry places on himself. Here is where Henry's second isolation, the isolation from his regiment, occurs. As Tolstoy said, “everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

Chapter 5 Summary:

The waiting makes Henry think of his home and all its images. Suddenly, someone cries, "Here they come!" Beyond the smoke, a brown swarm of men begins running down the hill. A general comes up on his horse, yelling to a colonel that the men have to hold them back. Henry sees the colonel regarding his men with resentment after the general gallops away.

The captain of Henry's company coaxes the troops to reserve their fire and not shoot wildly. Henry sweats out of pure nervousness. The fight is about to begin. Before he himself is ready or even consciously decides, he lowers his rifle and fires the first shot of the battle. Henry then loses concern for himself, and becomes "not a man but a member." Whatever he was part of, it was in a critical state; and he was part of its desire. What it did then was blast loudly. The noise of the firing reassures Henry in a certain way.

The furious haste and noise make the atmosphere even more confusing‹sweat blisters, his eyes are hot, and the blasts burn in his ears. He is not fighting the enemy men so much as the swirling battle phantoms that surround him. He hears men speak around him as if he were sleeping.

No one has a heroic pose. They are moving as fast as they can, reloading and then firing almost at random in the smoke in front of them. The lieutenant of the company encounters a soldier fleeing in terror and beats him back into the ranks. Men occasionally drop from being hit.

Eventually the firing recedes, and the men begin to rejoice. They have driven back the enemy. They attempt to recollect themselves. It takes Henry some moment to come back to his senses. He realizes the grime and smoke makes him choke. He looks at the men still standing and simply enjoys being able to look around. On the ground there lay a few contorted bodies. A battery still throws shells over the troops towards the enemy. Henry looks around and takes in the whole scene, moving horses, wounded men, and flags. Henry feels these flags look like beautiful birds that have lasted a storm. Then he looks and notices the beautiful blue of the sky.

Chapter 5 Analysis:

Finally, Henry sees a battle in this chapter. The enemy troops come rushing out of the grayness and smoke in front of his regiment. His doubts still live on in his head, until he actually begins to fire. The change from Henry's head to Henry's communal action, first suggested by Wilson's package in chapter three, comes out fully here. Henry is no longer aware of himself as a person. He acts instead as a member of some greater force.

However, the narrator does not describe exactly what this body is. Rather than one particular thing, he gives a list: regiment, army, cause, and country. It does not matter what exactly it is. He just feels the panic of self-preservation. Yet, it is important that the "self" is a group or collective of some sort. Up until now, most of what we have followed has been Henry's thoughts. He has largely lived in his own head. Now, he is not the only person he is concerned of. There are greater organisms that he is a part of, and he fights for their preservation as much as his.

Interestingly, this means that the troops in Henry's regiment, who have been looking at so much smoke and gray, must create it themselves. The smoke that clouds their vision is as more from their own rifles as the enemy's. While he fights more against "swirling battle phantoms" than other men, Henry is creating the smoke of battle and the smoke of uncertainty himself, along with the other troops. The organism he is a part of, which we cannot describe exactly, is also covered with the same smoke of mystery and unknowing. Henry only knows how to act, not how to think.

This is apparent when Henry finally stops fighting. He fired and reloaded with a furious, mechanical speed. Only when the battle is over does he realize how the smoke chokes him. He sees the cannon shoot behind him, the corpses on the ground, and the blue of the sky. The world has become a picture again, not a world of action. However, something is changed. "Blue" here does not stand for the men's uniform or Henry's brooding; it is that of a blue sky, of optimism and tranquility. It is this peacefulness of Nature that Henry feels as the chapter closes.

Chapter Six Summary:

As Henry becomes more and more aware, he is relieved. The trial has been passed and the difficulties of war have been vanquished. He feels good about himself. He and the other men exchange pleasantries about the weather and shake hands.

But this good feeling does not last for long‹the enemy attacks again. Masses of troops begin to swell out of the grove on the opposite side of the field. Shells from enemy cannon begin to explode in the grass and trees. The glow fades from the men's eyes. They complain about not having replacements; they groan about aching joints.

Henry is convinced that this is a mistake; and the advancing troops will stop, apologize, and turn around. He is wrong. The battle starts again as the Union troops open fire on the field. Henry, the youth, begins to quiver. He feels numb. He is convinced that his foes are machines of steel.

He stops firing to peer through the smoke. All he can see is faint views of the ground, covered with men, running like imps and yelling. He waits horrified, feeling as if he could shut his eyes and be eaten.

A man near him, who had been working on his rifle, suddenly stops and runs screaming. Others begin to run. Henry then yells with fright, swings about, and charges for the rear. He loses his rifle and cap, and his open coat sways in the breeze as he runs. He loses all direction of safety.

The lieutenant suddenly jumps, red-faced, in front of Henry, attempting to keep him there. He swings with his sword. Henry simply continues to run blindly. He falls a few times. As he runs, he sees others running along side him and hears running behind him. He is convinced the regiment is fleeing, chased by the crashing shells.

He continues to run up to the Union battery. Cannon shots go overhead as he speeds through them. The men working the guns seem calm and collected, unaware of their impending doom. They stand on a smoke-wreathed hill. Henry feels pity for the poor, unaware fools as he runs. He sees other troops running into battle. Henry is filled with wonder at these fools, speeding to feed the war god.

He runs so far he comes up to a hill where the general and his staff are standing on their horses. Henry considers telling him of the carnage and terror. He also considers thrashing him for his poor judgment and behavior. How could he stay still while such destruction was going on?

The general then calls on an assistant to direct a brigade to send a regiment to the center, where Henry was, for it is in danger of breaking. The assistant returns in a moment with news that the regiment has held. Henry's feeling that doom was eminent turned out not to be true. The general jostles excitedly on his horse.

Chapter 6 Analysis:

As Henry become more and more aware after the battle, he and his fellow soldiers experience a reprieve. They believe that the battle is over; their trials have passed. Yet, when the Rebel army comes again, they must get up and recreate the grayness and clouds of smoke again.

Henry loses himself again, but this time not in a way that leads him to fight. He feels that he is about to be eaten by "a red and green monster"‹the monster of war and death, which these two colors represent. As men around him begin to flee, Henry loses his nerve and runs in terror.

As he runs, he is no longer engaged in the battle at all. As soon as he turns, all the things he sees are not part of some whole that he is one of, as was in the previous chapter when the battle began. All the things he sees‹the lieutenant, the battery, the general‹are now not part of him. He assumes that he is above them all. It is Henry's superior observation and senses that lead him to flee the battle scene. All those who stay are fools who will soon be devoured by that same red and green monster that Henry fled. He even goes as far to feel that the general of the troops is a fool who knows not what he is doing. They are all machines or fools, not higher beings like he.

To match this, the images we get are mostly peripheral. This follows Henry's vision. He does not stop until he reaches the general. He has thoughts about the men and the battery, for example. Yet for the most part, he does not pay attention to them. Their images are fleeting, vague senses of men running. The most fleeting image, which we never actually see, is that red and green monster in pursuit of Henry. He is convinced he hears it behind him as he runs. However, he is wrong about impending doom. His regiment held their ground. He does not find this until he stops running, and his vision is still. His reaction to this discovery begins in the next chapter.

Chapter 7 Analysis:

Henry's reaction to finding his perceptions of impending doom were incorrect is a similar mix of emotions that we saw before. Though they are now more intense. He is no long postulating on what may one day happen. He has run from the battle. And he must now figure out how to interpret his own feelings.

At first he feels as if he has been caught committing a crime. He then looks towards the battlefield. Above the forest where he was fighting, he sees a yellow fog. This is an incredibly important metaphor. The color of cowardice, yellow, covers his view of the past battle and his actions. Though he moves almost instantly to thoughts of his superior intelligence justifying his running, he is in no way "sagacious" as he believes. He is still very young. He panicked during battle and ran. The yellow fog represents an overlying emotion to the battle and Henry's thoughts about it.

The reason his actions can be seen as cowardice is not because he ran trying to preserve himself. He ran because he was convinced that his regiment was about to be annihilated. Because this is not true, he must reorganize his own thoughts about what he just did. To do this, he walks into a different wood, trying to get away from the battle.

In the forest, the sounds of the battle grow quiet. His "return to Nature" is somewhat akin to Thoreau's in Walden. He attempts to take lessons from nature in some way. Yet, what he is doing is not learning from nature, but rather finding some kind of justification for his actions. When he muses on the squirrel running from his thrown pinecone and how it somehow explains his running from danger, he is only explaining a situation that has already happened. The interpretation is not valid. Nature is not a place of peace, as he believes. It can be, for the forest is quiet. Yet, his encounter with the corpse proves it is not. The uniform, which used to be the blue of the Union army, has faded to green, the same color as the dragon from which he fled during battle. In this place of peace, Henry meets that same green animal of death.

He is once again filled with horror. He runs from the green-colored corpse, but in a different way than when he fled the green monster of battle. He tries to perceive the corpse as he leaves. He first sneaks away backwards, watching the body to make sure it will not rise up again. When he finally turns and runs, he is not thinking of a metaphor, of the force of battle; he is thinking of the one corpse, with its flesh and eyes. He does imagine things that are not there, like the corpse's voice. Yet even one person by himself away from the battle must face some form of death. He could not get away from this, even though he tried.

Chapter 8 Summary:

Henry continues on through the forest. He hears loud crashes and roars through the darkening sky. It seems as if the world is being torn. Henry's mind is going in all directions at once. He feels that the two armies are going at each other in a panther-like fashion. He then runs, ironically, in the direction of the battle, more two witness the collision of the armies than to participate.

As he runs, the forest becomes silent and still. Henry feels that the fight he had fled from was not a struggle, but instead a small skirmish. He doubts that he has seen a real battle. He feels silly for having taken the situation so seriously. He was not carving his name in the tablet of history; it would not even garner a headline in a newspaper. However, he feels that is just fine, otherwise every soldier would run in battle to save himself.

The noises still describe a large battle. The brambles of the forest grab him as he runs. Eventually he sees long gray walls of the battle lines. He stands awestruck of the fight. He then proceeds along his way. The complexity of the fight fascinates him. He wants to go close and see it make corpses.

He climbs a fence. Five corpses lie on the other side in a road. He scampers away, afraid to disturb them. He soon encounters a procession of wounded soldiers making their way down the road. They are cursing and moaning. One with a wound in his foot hops and laughs hysterically. One swears he has been shot because of the general's mismanagement. Another sings nonsense lyrics to old nursery rhymes. They hang and move dragging their limbs. A wounded officer comes up, demanding that they make way. They do so with irritation, making short remarks as he passes by.

A tattered soldier, wounded in his head and arm, comes up to the youth. He wants to converse about the battle. Henry can barely say anything as the man babbles on. Soon the tattered man asks him where he has been hit. The question makes Henry panic. Embarrassed, he stutters to the man; then he bends his head away and picks at his uniform.

Chapter 8 Analysis:

"A crimson roar from the distance" breaks the tranquility of the forest. This color signifies war and conflict once again. Yet, what truly interrupts the peace, more than the fighting itself, is its gruesome outcomes. Henry had a glance of this in the previous chapter, when encountering the corpse in the forest. Soon he will see the effects of the war on the bodies of men.

He can see the gray of battle from where he stands. He is long away from the grayness; but upon the road, he soon sees men wounded from that battle from which he fled. They are bloodstained, with both new and old blood, looking red and black. Between battle and the dead are these men. They have the marks of war obviously upon them, and it turns them into walking specters. Henry has been imagining these ghosts of battle for a long time. Now he sees and interacts with them. They are so unlike the real living as soldiers that they do not defer quietly to an officer, and even insult him, something no real soldier would do.

One tattered soldier approaches him in all this. What is interesting about this man is the amount he speaks. Henry, so caught up in his own considerations, musings, and emotions, cannot think of a thing to say, even when asked direct questions. This man has facility of language, and uses it thoroughly. Henry has not yet mastered it, having fled from his battle. He cannot speak about it or his wounds, for he knows nothing about them. In this context, this tattered man is full of words. He knows both about battle and wound. Therefore, his direct questions cut Henry to the quick. They show his immaturity and cowardice, though they do so without malice. Henry cannot process these and, like before when faced with an unknown, runs away.

The Red Badge of Courage
By Stephen Crane

Four main characters (and one-sentence description of each)

Henry Fleming (the youth) - Henry, the main character of the novel, was at first very excited to go to war joining the army against his mother’s wishes, but he finds war frightening and he becomes a coward to later become a hero.

Jim Conklin (the tall soldier) - Jim was a close friend that Henry had met in the army where he gets shot and is nursed by Henry.

Wilson (the loud soldier) - Wilson was a friend of Henry in the army who was at first loud and obnoxious but proves helpful when Henry became wounded.

Henry’s mother - She shows up at the beginning of the book and tells Henry that she does not want him joining the army, but wishes him luck when he does anyway.

Two minor characters (and one-sentence description of each)

Tattered soldier - He pestered Henry at the camp before they set off to fight.

Cheery soldier - He helped Henry back to camp after Henry fled.

Three main settings (and one sentence description of each)

The forest - All of the fighting occurs in the forest where Henry learns about fear and valor.

The camp - This is the Union base where the army set up for the night.

One paragraph plot outline

The book starts out with a new regiment for the Union army waiting around for some fighting. Jim Conklin, a friend of the main character, Henry Fleming, hears some rumors about their next movements. He tells the other soldiers of the rumors telling them that they’re going to go around the enemy and attack them from behind. Sure enough, a few days later, they start marching and they attack. This is the first battle for the regiment so a few soldiers, including Henry Fleming, desert the regiment. After Henry deserts, he finds Jim and walks with him for a while before Jim dies. Henry wanders about a bit and gets in a fight with another lost soldier of the Union army who hits him across the head with the butt of his rifle causing Henry to bleed. By night, Henry, with the help of another soldier, finds his way back to his own regiment. Luckily, no one suspects Henry of deserting. Henry lies about the head wound being from the battle. During the night, Henry is cared for by a friend named Wilson. By morning, Henry is well rested and fights with his regiment several battles that day. Henry always stayed in the front and encouraged the other soldiers to fight harder showing much courage. He was complimented by the Colonel, but despite his victory, he still feels guilty about deserting his regiment the day before.

Two symbols and references

The red badge - The red badge, a blood stain, was a symbol of courage for other soldiers, however, for Henry, it becomes a sign of cowardice since he received his from a fight with another union soldier after deserting.

The flag - The flag carried during battle is a sign of an army’s place in the battle. It also displayed the courage of the person who had to carry it since the flag bearer must always stand at the front lines.

Two or three sentences on style

Crane’s style is short and simple. His sentences are not long or flowery. Although he does not use very many figurative devices, his writing is easy to understand making reading quick and easy.

One or two sentences on dominant philosophy

The dominant philosophy in this book was that Henry and his fellow soldiers were not in complete control of their actions during the heat of battle. They fought despite the risk of death not because of their love for their country but for adrenaline, while the soldiers who deserted did so not because of apathy for their country, but for the fear of the moment.

Four short quotations typical of the work. (Include speaker, occasion)

“He felt a quiet manhood, nonassertive, of sturdy and strong blood.” Henry becomes a man after fighting courageously in battle.

“The landscape gave him assurance... it was the religion of peace.” This is an example of imagery as Crane describes the area around the battlefield.

“There was a silence safe for the chanting chorus of the trees.” This is another example of imagery. Crane describes the atmosphere between shots on the battlefield.

“He, too, threw down his gun and fled. There was no shame in his face. He ran like a rabbit.” Crane describes the way Henry fled from battle. It was not thought out or decided upon, but a reflexive action.