Red Badge of Courage: Summary and Character Analysis
Uploaded by adeepjuneja on Mar 15, 1999
Stephen Crane has written many remarkable poems, short stories, and novels throughout his short life (He lived only to the age of 29). The Red Badge of Courage is a tale of war, life, responsibility, and duty. It has been considered the first "great modern novel of war"(Alfred Kazin). It traces the effects of war on Henry Fleming, a Union soldier, through his dreams of battle, his enlistment, and his experience through serveral battles of the Civil War.
Henry, "the youth", was a young man who lived on a farm with his mother. He dreamed about what fighting in a war would be like, and dreamed of being a hero. He dreamed of the battles of war, and of what it would be like to fight in those glorious battles. His mother was a wise, caring woman who had strong convictions about not wanting Henry to goto war. She is a very hardworking woman, and loves her son a great deal. She gave him hundreds of reasons why he was needed on the farm and not in the war. Henry knew his mother would not want him to enlist, but it was his decision to make. He dreamed of the battles of war, and of what it would be like to fight in those glorious battles. He didn't want to stay on the farm with nothing to do, so he made his final decision to enlist.
After enlisting he finds himself in a similar situation, with nothing to do. While there he becomes friends with two other soldiers, John Wilson, "the loud soldier / "the friend" and Jim Conklin, "the tall soldier". Wilson was a loud spoken and obnoxious soldier who becomes one of Henry's best friends. Jim was a tall soldier and was a childhood friend of Henry's. He was always calm and matter-of-fact like. He also loves pork sandwiches as that is all he eats. Wilson was as excited about going to war as Henry, while Jim was confident about the success of the new regiment. Wilson is acts very confident, and boasts of how well he will fight. After a few days of marching, Henry realizes that they have been wandering about aimlessly in circles. They continue to march wothout purpose, direction, and fighting. During this time Henry starts to think diffrently about war, amore close experienced way. He starts to lose some of his ideals of...