Book Analysis - Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage

     The Red Badge of Courage, written by Stephen Crane and first published in 1895, is a striking example of an author’s ability to transport the reader to another time and place. Through his pen, we are able to share in the experiences of his character.
     The story takes place during the American Civil War. Stephen Crane provides us with insight into the inner thoughts of the main character, Henry Fleming as his courage is placed under fire. We can feel his fear and self-doubt. As he is placed within the fight of a real battle is he able to stand with the veterans for will he run away.
     In this first battle in which this main character faces, the author gives such a wonderfully realistic feel to the emotion that takes hold of this very young soldier. The author doesn’t simply describe the scene around the soldier but paints a picture as the boy himself is able to understand the carnage surrounding him.
     Stephen Crane used accounts described by veterans of the American Civil War to capture war at its most basic level, that which takes place within every soldier. Below is a short segment that highlights the author’s realism at work.


 "Perspiration streamed down the youth's face, which was soiled like that of a weeping urchin. He frequently, with a nervous movement, wiped his eyes with his coat sleeve. His mouth was still a little ways ope.
     He got the one glance at the foe-swarming field in front of him, and instantly ceased to debate the question of his piece being loaded. Before he was ready to begin--before he had announced to himself that he was about to fight--he threw the obedient well-balanced rifle into position and fired a first wild shot. Directly he was working at his weapon like an automatic affair.     He suddenly lost concern for himself, and forgot to look at a menacing fate. He became not a man but a member. He felt that something of which he was a part--a regiment, an army, a cause, or a country--was in crisis. He was welded into a common personality which was dominated by a single desire. For some moments he could not flee no more than a little finger can commit a revolution from a hand.
     If he had thought the regiment was about to be annihilated perhaps he could have amputated himself from it. But its noise gave him assurance. The regiment was like a firework that, once ignited, proceeds superior to circumstances until its blazing vitality fades. It wheezed and banged with a mighty power. He pictured the ground before it as strewn with the discomfited.
     There was a consciousness always of the presence of his comrades about him. He felt the subtle battle brotherhood more potent even than the cause for which they were fighting. It was a mysterious fraternity born of the smoke and danger of death."
Stephen Crane - The Red Badge of Courage