Red Badge Of Courage :: essays research papers

heat content     In Stephen Cranes novel "The Red Badge of heroism", we examine the episodes of war through the eyes of the main character, Henry Fleming. Because the give is rather vague about many details, we dont know how old Henry is, what he looks like, or where he comes from. We do know that Henry is from somewhere in in the buff York and that he was raised by his mother. Although some mint argue that throughout the novel Henry matures and becomes a better person, facts from the sustain show just the opposite. Henry is a conceited , smug youth man who sees himself as a martyr and a hero when in fact he is a coward.      Henry begins his journey by write up for the Union army. While this may seem like a brave step, Henry takes it for the wrong reasons. He is unsure of the Union cause, and without really understanding what he was fighting for, Henry saw visions of himself as a hero. Henrys thoughts of war are rather distort ed He had read signs of marches, sieges, conflicts, and he had longed to see it all. His busy mind had drawn for him large pictures, extravagant in color, lurid with breathless deeds(Crane, 3). This simply shows that Henry had romanticized the was to something of a glorious seek in his head. Even when his mother tries to give him rational advice, Henry sit down disappointed, expecting a speech on heroism and pride.     When Henry and his regiment (the 304th New York) finally integrate into camp life, he begins to question himself. His regiment had been nonoperational for a long epoch and Hauptman 2Henry becomes bored and unhappy. For time he begins to question his bravery and he feels rather insecure. In the regiments for the first time battle, Henry fights well. His admiration for himself reaches a disgusting level He felt up that he was a fine fellow. He saw himself even with those ideals that he had considered far beyond him. He smiled in deep gratificat ion (Crane, 30). In this passage one can see Henry beginning to wrongly view himself as a hero.      At the beginning of the 304th New York regiments entropy battle, Henry notices that two other soldiers are running in apprehension of the fight. He suddenly becomes rather scared and flees the battle as well. He tries to rationalize his actions to himself by saying Death about to thrust him amidst the shoulder blades was far more dreadful than death about