The Red Badge of Courage :: essays research papers

Chapter 1 AnalysisStephen Crane begins a new course of realism in The Red label of Courage. Many critics point to him as one of the first the Statesn authors of a modern style, and The Red Badge as a fine example of this. The brisk is built on a coming-of-age theme, and many of its descriptive elements, such as its concentration on nature and characters actions, are in the realist style, most popularized in America by William Dean Howells and Frank Norris. However, Cranes style in this book has some slight differences from earlier styles. The narrator does not name the characters. In the first chapter, we clutch the names of total heat and Jim only through their dialogue with other characters. The narrator only refers to them by descriptors"the tall soldier" in Jims case and, most importantly, "the puppyish soldier" in Henrys case. Calling Henry "the youth" is the most important indicator that this novel is about his maturity. In this first chapter, he i s unproven point to himself. Before enlisting, Henrys thoughts of war and battle are those of valiant struggles for life and death the possibility of cowardice does not arise in his initial thoughts of battle. However, his mothers speech leaves oft more room for interpreting his own future struggles. Rather than give him the advice of the Spartans of ancient Greece to "return carrying your shield or on top of it" (meaning either triumphal or killed in combat, not having dropped it fleeing), his mother tells him that, when faced with a situation of kill or be killed, he has to do what he thinks is right, and only that. This is a critical moment in the plot of the book. Henrys actions when facing battle are unknown, even to him. His convictions were strong enough to join the army. Yet these were not because of patriotism or a will to simply fight the narrator shows Henry to be fantasizing of heroic deeds instead. His mothers farewell speech shows that no one, not even Henry or the narrator, is sure what he will do when faced with battle. Even Jims answers, while they calm Henrys fears, still are so vague that they do not lead to any concrete predictions for their future actions in battle. Yet Crane has written into this novel a way to tell certain characteristics even without intelligible direction from the narratorthe use of color metaphors.