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.
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April 9th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
I have to say, I completely agree with you. I like how you point out the fact that Stephen Crane uses realism and a very evident manner, by making the reality of war convincing and believable. When Henry has to finally face death, I think you did an excellent job by pointing out his feelings he feels are raw and real feelings. Before he envied those who were wounded or killed during battle, because he felt they were heroic. Yes, they were were heroic, but he realizes that being a hero doesn’t have to mean sacrificing yourself for some higher cause. I believe the word “hero” has become over used to the point the meaning of hero has become construed. The ideal we think of when we instantly hear the term “hero” is someone being brave, winning a battle; someone wearing tights a cape and rescuing a “damsel in distress.” I believe a hero is far simpler than that. A hero can be someone who feels a certain emotion, over comes a struggle they were afraid to deal with, or holding on to one’s beliefs or ideals (such as faith or dreams) and doesn’t allow anything to jeopardize that. Good job! =]