Red Badge of Courage Literary Analysis

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1 Red Badge of Courage: Literary Analysis In Stephen Crane’s Red Badge of Courage, on the surface, it appears to be about a young boy’s internal struggles when going off to war including: lack of courage, fear of being dishonored, and worst of all, being alone in his situation. As the book goes on, the motif of fear and courage show Henry’s process of maturing as well as emotional growth but also his final understanding of the true meaning of courage. Crane uses Henry as a way to convey his beliefs about war and how it is destroying the lives of our youths today. Toward the beginning of the story, Henry believes that being either wounded or killed in battle would be the only way to earn his “badge” and become accepted as a real soldier. Yet by the end of the novel, he matures and decides to redefine what he believes courage is because of the traumatic and courage-demanding scenes that tell the story in the Red Badge of Courage. Henry really shows off his immaturity when the story reads, “ times he regarded the wounded soldiers in an envious way. He conceived persons with torn bodies to be particularly happy. He wishes that he, too had a wound, a red badge of courage.” (100) This shows how simple-mindedly Henry perceives the war and that he is still caught up in his goal of becoming wounded or worse so that he can call himself “courageous”. This evidence also displays that he is fearful about actually going out onto the battlefield, and that he is striving to just gain respect from the other soldiers. Later on, Henry becomes very cowardice, the very opposite of what he is aiming for, when he leaves the wounded soldier behind. “‘Where-where yeh goin?’ The youth pointed 2 vaguely over there, he replied...The youth went on turning at a distance he saw a tattered man wandering helplessly in the field.” (114) As Henry retreats from saving the soldier, the

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