Red Badge of CouragePhysical and emotional pain is what the tattered solider illustrates in the book. The tattered solider pain
comes from all of the horrible things associated with war.
Him going crazy brings emotional pain and the physical pain
is brought on by the endurances of war. “There was a
tattered man, fouled with dust, blood and powder stain from
hair to shoes, who trudged quietly at the youths side”. The
tattered solider also characterizes the toughness people can
endear. Even through the harshness of war people will find
something inside of them, overcome it and not let it bother
them. The tattered solider goes out and lives through the
tough endurance’s of war but he finds something inside of
him to live through it.
The perfect solider is what Jim Conklin brings to
the book. Jim never complains about war and fights as good
as the next man. Many of the people look up to Jim because
he is so strong willed. The regiments almost look up to Jim
in a spiritual way finding peace inside of them when they
think of him. It is a tragedy when Jim dies because of all
of the moral inspiration he gave the regiment. True to his
character Jim dies a quiet and peaceful death not
distributing any of the regiment.
Wilson represents the two sides of human nature. In
the beginning of the book Wilson is a mean tough guy that no
one liked. This outward act of being tuff is just a cover
of the true nature of Wilson. It is natural for people to
cover their true nature in front of new faces. Towards the
end of the book Wilson starts to care about Henry. hen Henry
is injured and he doesn’t try and fight the other men
anymore. True to human nature once times start getting more
difficult and Wilson becomes more comfortable with his
surroundings he transcends into the calm compassionate
person he really is.
All of the characters in the Red Badge of Courage
represent some aspect of man either physically or
emotionally. This connection between the characters and the
reader make the book true to life and more believable. Since
the characters feel so real, physically and emotionally, the
reader has an easier time relating to them.
