Red Badge of CourageRed Badge of Courage
Stephen Crane’s literary technique has
long been a matter of great interest, analysis, and speculation. In The
Red Badge of Courage Crane takes us into the life of a young man named
Henry Fleming, who wants to enlist in the United States Army and fight
in the war against the South. By using irony, similes, and symbols, to
name a few, Crane “paints” a vivid picture of what life was like for the
fragile Henry Fleming. He opens our eyes to the vast reasons of separation
for Fleming, and why he lived his life so independently. The precarious,
vulnerable, and insecure Henry Fleming was isolated from more than just
his family and his regiment; he was isolated from himself.
As the narrative, The Red Badge of Courage,
opens, Henry and his mother are engaged in a quarrel about Henry leaving
to join the Army. By going against his mother’s wishes and disobeying her,
he isolates himself from his family. This isolation is imperative to the
way Henry lives his life during his time in the Army. Moral support is
something that a family, especially a mother, provides for a child, but
because Henry has disassociated himself from his mother, he neglects to
receive this. This moral support is needed during the hard times of battle,
but when Henry looks for this support, he realizes that he’s pushed it
away, far out of his life, and that it is almost imperceptible. Thus revealing
the first isolation in Henry Fleming’s life.
During war, a soldier’s most important
support system is his/her regiment. This is a support system that Henry
has, then loses throughout this time period in his life. All through the
war Henry questions his courage and bravery. He wonders if he will turn
and run when death is looking him in the eyes, or if he will decide to
stay and do what he came to do; prove that he is a man and can handle even
death itself. During battle several soldiers are wounded earning their”red badge of courage” and Henry’s confident, Jim Conklin, dies. Here is
where Henry’s second isolation, the isolation from his regiment, occurs.
The soldiers in the regiment feel a certain pride and respectability from
earning their “red badge.” Henry didn’t earn this sense of pride and respectability
because of the abandonment of his fellow soldiers. He felt that his assumption
was clearly rectified- he was a coward. Henry Fleming seemed to become
the virtuoso of separation, individualism, and isolation. The tension is
eased after he mistakenly “earns” his “red badge” from a friend.
The internal fears that haunt Henry are
mostly created by himself. He is apprehensive of the reaction he will have
towards any stimulus thrown out at him, therefore creating a fear that
separates and isolates him from not only the rest of his regiment and his
family, but himself as well. He is afraid to face reality and see what
really makes up Henry Fleming. Throughout the majority of this narrative
Henry is torn between the boy he is and the man he wants to be. The man
emerges through a brief handshake with the “cheerful soldier.” This handshake
is the turning point for the value Henry places on himself. The handshake
shared between the “cheerful soldier” and Henry, swings him back into the
warm community of men. These men, Henry’s regiment, can be looked at as
the saving grace of Henry’s self-confidence.
Regardless of the isolation from his family,
the isolation from his regiment, and the isolation from himself, Henry
matures over the course of the narrative. He becomes unified with his fellow
comrades and his regiment, puts the dispute with his mother aside, and
faces his fears and doubts. Stephen Crane, author of The Red Badge of Courage
summarizes this gradual and significant process with this vivid sentence:
“Over the river a golden ray of sun came through the hosts of leaden rain
clouds.” This sentence, the last sentence in the novel, hits the reader
the hardest. It points out that becoming what we want to become, like it
did Henry, takes time and continuous effort.
