The Red Badge of Courage

The Red Badge of Courage, written by Stephen Crane, has the makings of your ordinary war novel. It’s graphic in depiction and precise in wartime detail. We experience every ounce of emotional pain and intensity for the young characters, especially through the story’s vivid imagery of battle. Crane describes the American Civil War from a journalistic angle as if he were in the midst of action and reenacting history.

Stephen Crane is known for using a unique writing style. Some of his most notable works are The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky and The Blue Hotel. He incorporates themes of personal crisis and irony, which The Red Badge of Courage has plenty of. Readers will find that metaphors are not want makes Crane’s 1895 story a unique war novel.  

            The essence of Crane’s novel isn’t to imagine the tumultuous Civil War alone. The focus is on character development, and in doing so, provide a philosophical narrative into the life of one soldier. This particular young man, Henry Fleming, is a typical teenage rebel in his own right. He joins the 304th New York Regiment against his mother’s wishes, believing that war will make him a brave man. As an eighteen year old army boy, Fleming aspires to be a prodigal warrior like his storybook heroes. Fighting for one’s country can be noble, but it tests the mental state of young Henry, making him feel more cowardly than heroic.

Beneath Henry’s confident exterior is a boy living in fear. This underlying theme implies that battle can trial the mind of men. It may even imply that society’s perspective of war as patriotic is contrary to Crane’s notion that it is un-naturalistic. Another philosophical narrative is that men who fight in unison could also easily falter, which is an effective ironic twist in Crane’s world.

 Henry’s friend Jim Conklin approaches him with a plan to retreat from battle if others did. This idea becomes a reality when Confederate soldiers overpower Henry’s regiment leaving Union forces to flee – all including Henry. Crane writes, “He now conceded it to be impossible that he should ever become a hero. He was a craven loon. Those pictures of glory were piteous things. He groaned from his heart and went staggering off.” (Chapter 11) Henry shows embarrassment when victory is proclaimed by the Union commander. He discovers a dead body in the woods and returns to camp only to find Jim dead as well.

             Crane’s weakness spot of the story is providing little evidence that Henry changed for the better. Although Henry returns to battle, and even takes the role as flag bearer, one might ponder whether he learns a viable lesson. At the beginning of the novel, what’s clear is that Henry has a dismal view on heroism and romanticized outlook on war from books. His drive to achieve a heroic label might be read as possessing a foolish drive. Sometimes his dream of becoming brave turns into a thrill seeking excursion, and the patriotic symbolism and philosophy of war do not motivate him. By deviling into the path of character irony, Crane never expresses any possible epiphany Henry might have had.

            Red Badge was initially critically acclaimed by writers nationwide.  General Alexander C. McClurg's was one of the only negative critics of Crane’s novel at that time. He asserted that Crane’s novel was an effort to mock the philosophy of American patriotism among soldiers. Patrick K. Dooley of Salem Press wrote a more thorough assessment of Red Badge’s philosophical interpretations. One was the notion that the novel incited religious symbolism, which Robert W. Stallman famously brought to attention.

As a seminal commentator, Stallman characterized Jim Conklin as a Christ-like figure (somewhat of a paradox). In a commentary piece of the story’s philosophical undertones, Dooley writes, “Stallman argues that the novel's central theme is redemption and asserts, in support of his reading, that the iconic sentence at the end of Chapter 9 –"the red sun was pasted in the sky as a wafer" – refers to the communion wafer of the Holy Eucharist. http://salempress.com/Store/samples/critical_insights/red_badge_commentary.htm

            Whether Crane intended to tie war into philosophical religious points is debatable. The reader will analyze the story’s messages themselves, but it should not take away from the fact that Red Badge is one of the most enduring novels in American history. It has withstood the test of time and remains a strong narrative about the philosophy of war and courage.