Red Badge Of Courage Thesis
J. Hunter Koch
Andrea Gillespie
English II
11 March 2015
The Truthful and Dreadful Realities of War
Does the topic "war" truly generate images of honor and fame? In most wars a winner who achieves his goal and a loser who fails his intended goal always exist. Yet, numerous people in battles generally lose extremely integral elements of life including their own physical lives, relationships with the home front, and future corporal and mental health capabilities. In fact, the Union Army won the Civil War and still suffered more casualties than the Confederate Army (Levy 86). Following the war during the Reconstruction Era, radical discrimination of African Americans largely ensued, and the weak Southern economy with massive crop destruction influentially affected the lives of the tenant farmers negatively (91). In the novel Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane not only depicted war as a dehumanizing force that physically and mentally influenced the soldiers to act non-emotionally and fearfully but also painted a realistic, gory mosaic of bloody carcasses. …show more content…
Before witnessing a dying soldier, Henry analyzed the war as "an immerse and terrible machine" that "fascinated him...produced corpses" (Crane 56). Receiving an accidental wound from a fellow soldier, "the youth" assimilated the scene of the regiment's horses and "splintered parts of war machines" that "overturned wagons" (80). Prior to the 304th regiment's excellent defense, Henry and Wilson stated that this machine had degraded greatly because of the smoke-like combat conditions and the yells that existed in the distance (123). At the plot's conclusion, Henry compared himself to a sheep because he had participated as a part of the regiment's killing force like everyone else did (146). Therefore, the North machine served as a fighting unit that destroyed many lives and altered Henry's previous reasonings about potential
Andrea Gillespie
English II
11 March 2015
The Truthful and Dreadful Realities of War
Does the topic "war" truly generate images of honor and fame? In most wars a winner who achieves his goal and a loser who fails his intended goal always exist. Yet, numerous people in battles generally lose extremely integral elements of life including their own physical lives, relationships with the home front, and future corporal and mental health capabilities. In fact, the Union Army won the Civil War and still suffered more casualties than the Confederate Army (Levy 86). Following the war during the Reconstruction Era, radical discrimination of African Americans largely ensued, and the weak Southern economy with massive crop destruction influentially affected the lives of the tenant farmers negatively (91). In the novel Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane not only depicted war as a dehumanizing force that physically and mentally influenced the soldiers to act non-emotionally and fearfully but also painted a realistic, gory mosaic of bloody carcasses. …show more content…
Before witnessing a dying soldier, Henry analyzed the war as "an immerse and terrible machine" that "fascinated him...produced corpses" (Crane 56). Receiving an accidental wound from a fellow soldier, "the youth" assimilated the scene of the regiment's horses and "splintered parts of war machines" that "overturned wagons" (80). Prior to the 304th regiment's excellent defense, Henry and Wilson stated that this machine had degraded greatly because of the smoke-like combat conditions and the yells that existed in the distance (123). At the plot's conclusion, Henry compared himself to a sheep because he had participated as a part of the regiment's killing force like everyone else did (146). Therefore, the North machine served as a fighting unit that destroyed many lives and altered Henry's previous reasonings about potential