One of the most prominent themes in The Red Badge of Courage is the realities of war. Early in the book, Henry romanticizes war and sees battle as a “Greeklike struggle,” which accurately depicts how many soldiers during the first few months of the American Civil War viewed battles. However, like Henry, these men quickly realized the brutality and misery of army life and fighting. Many men began to question their place in the world.

Throughout the novel, Crane refers to people by their characteristics and the armies by their colors not by their names. This suggests that the world cares very little for the individual. This is most telling when Henry flees into the woods and sees the corpses of a “man in blue” covered in ants and slowly decaying. This scene forces Henry to really reevaluate his position in the natural world. Henry concerns himself so much with attaining individual glory that this realization shakes him to his core and alters how he perceives war. The violence depicted by Crane in the latter half of the novel reinforces the theme that the natural world is indifferent to the plight of the individual.

Although The Red Badge of Courage is a war novel, it focuses mainly on the internal experience of the main character rather than the exterior war around him. The protagonist, Henry Fleming, enlists in the American Civil War for the Union Army but flees from his first battle for fear of his own life. At first, he feels a great sense of unity and strength from the amount of men who are in his regiment, but during his first combat experience he flees because he thinks about his own individual safety. Henry enlisted in this war because he wanted to be a part of something bigger and more important than himself. His decision to flee left him feeling cowardly, humiliated, and even jealous of the men who held their ranks and received battle wounds in the fight. After fleeing, he runs into a group of wounded soldiers, one of whom is described as “tattered” asks Henry where he is injured. Henry avoids the question but this makes him feel even more guilty about leaving his comrades mid battle. Henry leaves these men and finds a group of soldiers retreating. During this retreat, Henry is accidentally hit on the head with a rifle and injured. Eventually, he finds his way back to his regiment expecting to be shamed. However, the soldiers think his injury is from a bullet graze and so they treat his wound instead of calling him a deserter. This gives him a second chance and in his final battle he proves himself to be a valuable soldier. He takes on the role of the flag-bearer after his Sergeant dies. Henry faces his fears and becomes a hero when he leads a charge against the Confederates while completely unarmed. The Confederates retreat and Henry’s newfound bravery makes him a hero. This story is about Henry’s trials and tribulations that allowed him to develop into a hero.

The Red Badge of Courage is a war novel written by American author Stephen Crane. The story follows Henry Fleming, a young private of the Union Army, who flees from the battlefield during the Civil War. Overwhelmed with a feeling of shame, he searches for a “red badge of courage,” like a wound during battle, to counteract his cowardly actions. When his regiment engages the enemy again, he becomes the standard-bearer and carries a flag.

In the first chapter of the novel, Crane illustrates Henry’s initial fear of participating in battle. It also establishes that the predicament he’s in is less a matter of war than of knowing himself and his own worth. Until that point in time, Henry had been a youth of comfortable assumptions. He believed that war was meant to create heroes. He also believed that men, when transformed into soldiers, are guaranteed a kind of honor that grants them social and historical prestige. The purpose of The Red Badge of Courage is not to convey a message such as the transformation from an average man to a brave soldier. Crane’s goal is to chart Henry’s psychological growth as he learns more about himself and tests out different types of behaviors, some of them courageous, some cowardly. The Red Badge of Courage challenges Henry’s most basic assumptions: the courage that he finally discovers crucially depends on rewriting his own laws of life in order to understand the world in an entirely new way and know his place in it.

Red Badge of Courage follows the story of a soldier on the Union side during the Civil War.  The novel focuses on the main character, Henry Fleming, and his constant strive to become a hero in the eyes of his fellow soldiers.  As we follow Henry throughout the story we learn that, initially, he is a coward.  He is always found running away from battle, letting various men die on his watch because he is unable to stand the trials of battle.  Again and again, he runs away from his problems, leaving the reader upset with the actions that Henry takes in the face of adversity, but eventually we see a change in Henry.  This occurs when Henry sees Jim Conklin die due to his wounds, causing him to feel a whirlwind of emotions.  It is at this moment where Henry sees how much of a coward he has been and, instead of running away, he decides to fight with a fury he has never seen in himself before.  He turns into the soldier and hero he had strived to be from the beginning, someone who fights without fear and protects his own men.

The novel is more of a coming of age story than anything else.  We see the child-like cowardice of Henry in the beginning of the story, where he is constantly running away from all the issues in his life, to the change into manhood.  He is pushed into manhood and begins to fight head 0n, becoming a leader for his fellow soldiers, as he sets the example of having no fear in the field of battle.  Henry turns into a real soldier who can make a change in the war.

Throughout the novel nature is a constantly recurring theme. It is described in great detail, and always as a beautiful spectacle. Henry often spends time staring at different aspects of the woods which seems to calm him down. After he survived the first onslaught, Henry is relieved that his focus can shift towards appreciating the surrounding environment instead of focusing on fighting. The cracks of rifles and the explosions of artillery are also shown to be an interruption of the natural noises of the woods. Sounds of woodpeckers and insects are drowned out completely by the unnatural fighting taking place.

Red Badge of Courage is certainly anti-war. In providing a contrast between war and nature, Stephen Crane is pointing out the unnaturalness of war. In justifying his running away, Henry points out that it is instinct to run away from destruction. Henry specifically notes a squirrel fleeing before the colliding armies in order to protect itself, and suggests his running away was similarly justified. The question subtlety being asked here is whether or not war should be avoided at all costs. Destruction and death in such a large and organized fashion is a completely unnatural event. It is shown as an interruption in the natural order of the world. The question as to whether war is ever necessary or justified is complicated, but Stephen Crane seems to be arguing that it is not.

At the beginning of the book, Henry acts very much like an individual. Before enlisting in the army, he had to decide for himself whether or not he was going to join the conflict. His mother was opposed to Henry joining the war and tried to convince him to stay but after Henry joined, his mother told him to be good and stay away from bad people. Henry’s mother was afraid that he would lose his own identity and become just a part of the large Union army going to war. During Henry’s first taste of combat he felt uplifted by the countless amounts of men in his regiment and in the army as a whole. In this battle, Henry felt like he was a part of something greater than himself. In addition, he was amazed at the discipline of another regiment as they walked through a dense forest and managed to keep their ranks. Henry wished to be a part of something greater than himself and that was a main reason for why he enlisted but in his first battle he fled for fear of his own life. Following his cowardly actions, Henry was ashamed of himself and even felt envious of the men who stayed in their lines and received red badges of courage. On his own, and searching for his regiment, Henry wished he was able to forget about some of his individualistic values and to truly be apart of the army. In the last battle of the book, Henry charges through a field toward an enemy shooting at him. After his regiment’s Color Sargent is killed, Henry picks up the flag and carries it while helping to lead his regiment to victory. While the story followed only one man, it was really about an army, and more specifically, about how many individuals can work together and contribute something greater than any one person.

Stephen Crane’s Red Badge of Courage appears, at least in part, to be a story about boyhood ambition and what might be considered a naïve personal search for courage – a search for recognition as a “hero” in other people’s eyes.  We have read about several heroes so far during this term – Mary Rowlandson, Natty Bumppo, Eliza Harris, and Uncle Tom, just to name a few.  Henry Fleming, however, is a different kind of hero; he is struggling, it seems to me, to find the hero in himself who matches his perception or understanding of what a hero is supposed to be.  Others we have read about were less self-conscious and were not striving to become heroes or even contemplating what it means to be a hero – rather they were simply trying to live an honest life (fulfill the Puritan dilemma: trying to be moral/good person in an immoral/evil world) and heroism came their way.

Strangely, for a novel that was widely praised by Civil War veterans as an extraordinarily realistic representation of what life was like (i.e., boredom, fear, terror, and gore) for the ordinary Civil War soldier, perhaps the novel also suggests something about the US thirty years after Appomattox.  It was world of commerce, industrialization, bureaucracy, with but a smidgen of heroes to compare to the warriors, North and South, of the Civil War.  Henry Fleming’s heroism was an ideal rather than a reality – perhaps something else for the Leatherstocking to find unacceptable about progress.

Denis Brennan

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe is one of the most important works of literature in the American cannon, influencing both the people of the period it was written as well as modern readers. First published in 1852, the novel gives readers a contemporary account of the evils of slavery without any of the mythology created after the war to water down the evils of the institution. Throughout the events of the book, Tom becomes the property of three masters. The first two, the Mr. Shelby and the St. Clares might be good people, Stowe makes it clear that the institution that they practice is evil and that no amount of politeness or kindness can fully redeem them. Tom’s third master Simon Legree in contrast to Mr. Shelby and the St. Clares is incredibly cruel and demonstrates the full evil and brutality of slavery. Tom’s loving and forgiving nature acts as a contrast to Legree’s inhumanity and thus fully highlights the evils of slavery to the reader. It is also worth noting that almost all of the slaves ate portrayed with many positive aspects that paint that paint them in a positive light without causing them to lose any complexity as characters. Eliza for example exemplifies personal strength and bravery during personal tragedy.

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, there is a clear display of slavery. The slave owner clearly mistreats the slaves. I was surprised when I saw some white slave owners respecting their slaves possessed in the case with the Shelbys. Although slavery provided major economic benefit, the black people were still required to tend to their masters. They had to work extremely hard and receive the punishment from their master. Although some masters had some respect for the slaves, the majority received major punishment. In the case with Uncle Tom, he had two sides to him. The first part of him was  loyal and hardworking and the other he was a true Christian, who basically allowed the punishment from the masters. His first masters mistreated him and thought he was an animal and a horrible person.  His later masters were much more reasonable. Although the Shelbys were upset with the system and tried to end slavery, his family put him in an unfortunate situation where he was allowed death without trial. The white people obviously benefited from slavery, no matter the treatment to Uncle Tom. The black people had no real power and could not end this trouble on their own.

The Shelbys are a rough example of what the ideal slave holders were during this time. They tried their best to keep slave families together, treated their slaves relatively well (they described it as almost on a blood level, in the very beginning Mr. Shelby describing that they would just as soon sell his own children than the slave kids) and in general were patient and kind to their slaves. But, the novel shows that upholding certain ethics but still willingly participating in the Peculiar Institution that is slavery is impossible. Mr. Shelby breaks his own moral code by selling Tom and Harry. Despite his best efforts and beliefs that he is a good slave owner, and more importantly that he is above Haley, the slave trader, he still contributes to the system, and therefore can not live an ethical life like he believes he does. This is important because he is shown as an incredibly moderate slave holder, and is in the area of the most nonradical version of slavery according to Beecher,”Perhaps the mildest form of the system of slavery is to be seen in the State of Kentucky.” (Page 14.) Because he is not clean of the blood and dirt of slavery despite attempting to be kind and respectful to his slaves, it shows that there is no true way to participate in slavery and lead an ethical life. How could slavery be a positive good if even the most tolerant slave owners broke apart families and brought grief upon their life. The Shelbys are an example of there being no such thing as an ethical slave owner, as Mr. Shelby had to break his moral code to continue participating in the institution by selling Tom and Harry. Eventually, George frees his slaves after the death of his father, choosing morality over slavery.

St. Clare is possibly even more complicated as a character than Mr. Shelby because he seems to understand slavery to be an evil but is unwilling/unable to change. St. Clare is rather more concerned with what seems to be the easier route for him, make money off of slavery, don’t stir the pot. To further the complication of St. Clare’s morals versus actions is his cousin Ophelia, who is an example of anti-slavery versus abolitionism. When first introduced to her, Ophelia is anti-slavery, against the institution, but is not necessarily for the equality of blacks and whites. The cousins argue over the subject for a while, but are both changed by the death of Eva, pushing both to more progressive ideas, and St. Clare promising to free Tom.

The least moral slave holder encountered is Simon Legree who buys Tom after the death of St. Clare. He appears to have virtuality no morals and is a pretty uncomplicated character, seemingly having no redeeming qualities and appearing to be ruthless just because he can. He makes it his job to break Tom after he disobeys him by not punishing another slave, but is unsuccessful in his endeavors as Tom’s faith stays (though it did falter at times.) He orders for Tom to be killed in the end.

None of the slave holders could truly be ethical people while continuing to hold onto the title. For most of them, their main moral values are seen in their doubts and hypocrites towards the institution, and either have to give up participating in it completely or never truly live up to their own moral code.