Poems, and novels, and AP English. Oh My!

The Red Badge of Courage takes place during the Civil War,  one of the bloodiest and most deadly times in American History.  So there is no doubt in the reader’s mind, that Crane deals with death throughout the novel.

Crane’s most important technique is realism.  War is very real, and Crane pulls the reader inside this real world.  He doesn’t fabricate, he shows war and death how it is, no sugared coating.   The protagnoist Henry, seems to waver in his idea about death.  The narrator (third person limited) says,  “At times he regarded the wounded soldiers in an envious way.  He concieved persons with torn bodies to be peculiarly happy.  He wished that he, too, had a wound, a red badge of courage.   When it is just the thought of death, Henry seems calm, he sees it as a way to prove his courage, but when he is actually faced with it, he is filled with terror and flees.  He fled from battle, afraid of dying, he fled in terror from the corpse in the woods, believing death was contagious.

Henry sees death up close when his friend Jim Conklin dies right in front of him and his reaction is what the reader expects, “The youth turned, with sudden, livid rage, toward the battle field.  He shook his fist…the youth desired to screech out his grief.  He was stabbed, but his tongue lay dead in the tomb of his mouth.  He threw himself again upon the ground and began to brood.” (p.56)  Face to face with the death of his friend, Henry realizes death isn’t about glory, he shouldn’t feel envious of those who are dead, and feels angry and hurt that his friend his now gone.  Another view of death though is shown to the reader, from the tattered soldier,  “He’s up an’ gone, ain’t ‘e, an’ we might as well begin t’ look out fer ol’ number one.”  The tattered soldier didn’t know Jim, and didn’t care that he was dead, he just wanted to look out for himself.  This represents a real life situation, we all hear about death in the news all the time, but we really don’t seem to care, unless it effects us somehow.  We might feel a little sad for a few minutes, a moment of silence, but than we go on with our lives.  Henry’s reaction, is the reaction we would have if someone close to us died.  Crane presents to us  a real live situation, and real reactions.

The reader can have two reactions to the idea of death in this book.  They can be like Henry, and have death impact them, or they can be like the tattered soldier, who laughs it off, and says at least it wasn’t them.  These are real life ideas, war and death are very real, and Crane makes his novel very real, he makes it so that the reader can connect with what they are reading, he doesn’t censor, and shows real reactions to death.

The definition of a comrade is “a person who shares one’s interests or activities; a friend or companion. Often a fellow member of a group. The etymology of the word gives us a brief description,”politically or socially close, roommates or barrack mates, companion.” A comrade can be many different people. But usually when one says the word comrade, the image of a group of soldiers comes to mind. In the Red Badge of Courage, Henry Flemmings has many comrades at his side. Within the first few pages of the novel, Henry is already calling the men around him comrades. They live together, eat together, fight together, and experience together. A unit of soldiers is the perfect definition of the word comrade. Their lives almost depend on working as a unit, working as comrades.

The most obvious example of how the relationship between Henry and the other soldiers is one of comradeship, is how Henry is always worried that he is different than the others, that they will think wrongly of him. “The youth of this tale felt gratitude for these words of his comrade. He feared that all of the untried men possessed a great and correct confidence. He was now in a measure reassured. Henry has a lot of fear, and he seeks the opinion and experience of his comrades. They are his companions, and he feels reassured that they (sometimes) feel as he does. Its like how kids seek out their peers, we, like soldiers are comrades, and we seek level ground. “Meanwhile he continually tried to measure himself by his comrades” (p. 13). It is odd, but Henry trying to ease a confession out of his fellow soldiers is another example of comradeship. We try to drag out confessions from our friends. Does it not make you feel better when after you do something stupid (or think something stupid), that someone else has done (thought) the same? That is what Henry does, when he has self-doubt and has fear.

Jim Conklin, one of Henry’s comrades is shot, and dies in front of Henry. But Jim tries to run away from him, so that Henry won’t see him die, he repeatedly says “Leave me be”. This devestates Henry, “His face had been twisted into an expression of every agony he had imagined for his friend.” Jim tried to spare his friend the agony of watching him die, he wanted to protect him. But as his friend, Henry couldn’t leave him alone. Wilson, another comrade takes care of Henry when he returns to camp with his injury, “At the fireside the loud young soldier watched over his comrade’s wants with tenderness and care.” As a fellow soldier it can be considered his duty to help fellow soldier, but as a friend he does it with tenderness and care. Wilson was also the one that gave Henry the letter earlier, to give to his family in case he didn’t make it, you trust a friend with something like this.

Henry and his fellow soldiers are like comrades. They care about what each other think (especially Henry). They fight and live together. They argue, and reconcile, they trust. A comrade is a friend, they got your back (and in a time of war, surely Henry wants a lot of comrades).