Stephen Crane’s presentation of war in The Red Badge of Courage was a revolutionary breakthrough marking a turning point in the way war novels were written. Before The Red Badge of Courage, traditional war narratives were, for the majority, written detached from the reader and devoid of emotion, with a primary purpose to just state strategic war principles. Despite their brilliance, the average reader could not really understand them without having a military background. By writing The Red Badge of Courage
In a poem describing The Red Badge of Courage, Crane wrote, “Tell the brave deeds of war. Then they recounted tales - there were stern stands and bitter runs for glory. Ah, I think there were braver deeds.” In the first four lines, Crane speaks Romantically of the brave deeds of war, but in the last line he speaks Naturalistically of them. Stephen Crane saw the world in both a Naturalistic and a Romantic way, and this shows in his writing. In both The Red Badge of Courage and The Veteran, Crane toys
11) The Red Badge of Courage is filled with creative symbolism and contrasting characters. Three characters have a large significance in the novel. Wilson, the “loud soldier,” Jim Conklin, the “tall soldier,” and the “tattered soldier” create different scenarios that expose the main character’s thoughts and values. The story is told through the mind of Henry who is referred to as the “young soldier” because of his naive actions and his romantic thoughts of death in the war. Henry is not experienced
Stephen Crane’s The Red Bad of Courage witnesses a dynamic transformation in the protagonist Henry Fleming, who is often referred to as “the youth” or “the young soldier” in the book. However, another major character, “the loud soldier”- Wilson, too, alongside Fleming, undergoes drastic changes in his attitude. Thus, Wilson’s role in the novel becomes irreplaceable: thanks to the author’s depiction of Wilson, Fleming’s growth in personality is displayed more evidently. Crane opens the book with