Symbolism In The Red Badge Of Courage
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane In the beginning of the The Red Badge of Courage, Henry Fleming is a young man under the impression that he is destined for greatness, glory, and valor through the art of war. However, he begins to worry that maybe when the time comes to be brave, his courage will falter. Throughout the story this young, ambitious lad turns into an old, seasoned veteran that has seen the horrors of war. He doesn't change literally through age, of course. His mindset, his morals, and his psychological state as a whole and what change “‘Ma, I’m going to enlist.’ ‘Henry, don’t be a fool’ his mother had replied” (Crane 5). Seemingly, his mother had always been opposed to the idea of him joining the military. Natural as
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To further reinforce this theory, he finds a long dead soldier that he believes symbolizes what would've happened to him, had he stayed. He also came across a squirrel, and (with a surprisingly scientific mentality for the time) decided to throw a pine cone at the squirrel! (Crane 53). He decides that since the squirrel ran away from his pine cone, running away was a perfectly natural reaction to danger. Once he returns, he learns that the fews remaining soldiers won the fight which spawns a seething hatred to some of his fellows. Throughout the story he continues this illusion that he is a brave soldier by lying about the injury he received from a soldier knocking on his head with the butt of his gun (Crane 80) and said (very unconvincingly) that it was a bullet wound from the last battle. By the time the third battle comes around, Henry has grown into a seasoned veteran and (in my opinion) that he decided to suck it up and be a man. He proves his value and actually does something that none of the other men would do. Because of all he’d seen in battle and out of battle, such as the horror of death and war in it and well… the horror of death and war out of it, Henry was able to find what he was looking for and conquer his fears of being inferior. Through psychological trials he was able to be who he wanted to be in the end. Overall he changed, in basic terms from seeking
To further reinforce this theory, he finds a long dead soldier that he believes symbolizes what would've happened to him, had he stayed. He also came across a squirrel, and (with a surprisingly scientific mentality for the time) decided to throw a pine cone at the squirrel! (Crane 53). He decides that since the squirrel ran away from his pine cone, running away was a perfectly natural reaction to danger. Once he returns, he learns that the fews remaining soldiers won the fight which spawns a seething hatred to some of his fellows. Throughout the story he continues this illusion that he is a brave soldier by lying about the injury he received from a soldier knocking on his head with the butt of his gun (Crane 80) and said (very unconvincingly) that it was a bullet wound from the last battle. By the time the third battle comes around, Henry has grown into a seasoned veteran and (in my opinion) that he decided to suck it up and be a man. He proves his value and actually does something that none of the other men would do. Because of all he’d seen in battle and out of battle, such as the horror of death and war in it and well… the horror of death and war out of it, Henry was able to find what he was looking for and conquer his fears of being inferior. Through psychological trials he was able to be who he wanted to be in the end. Overall he changed, in basic terms from seeking