Stephen Crane\'s the Red Badge of Courage

Red Badge

Stephen Crane's Red Badge of Courage offers remarkable psychological insight into the experience of war. With vivid detail sparing nothing, Crane shows the reader the brutality of war. More importantly Crane shows how one soldier confronts his own mortality and fear. Although Red Badge of Courage takes place during the Civil War and the setting is striking, the novel centers on psychological conflict far more than social or political conflict.

What is most remarkable about Red Badge of Courage is that the author omits mentioning the political issues behind the war. The novel is not about the Civil War; it is about one man's character development. Although Henry fights for the Union, the author almost completely avoids any discussion about the political, economic, and social conditions that led up to the war and which surrounded it. The author keeps the political tone neutral, to allow all readers to see that Henry represents the universal human experience and response to death.

Henry Fleming is relatively self-aware. He knows he was not born a warrior and might shirk from the responsibility of battle. Indeed, when he is faced with his first real potential for death, he reacts as an animal might -- with flight rather than fight. This formative experience during the war traumatizes Henry almost as much as witnessing the rampant bloodshed and death all around him. Henry does not share the bellicose nature of many of his fellow soldiers, who do not seem to contemplate death in as serious a way as Henry. Not besieged by existential angst, Henry's fellow soldiers fight willingly and without much thought.

Henry is different. He "continually tried to measure himself by his comrades," and falls short (Crane, Chapter 2). The normative soldier is one who is ready to die at any moment; Henry remains interested in his self-preservation more than in the collective goals of the regiment. Whereas "young Hasbrouck, he makes a good off'cer. He ain't afraid 'a nothin'," Henry makes a relatively poor officer because he is afraid of everything (Crane, Chapter 4).

However, Red Badge of Courage is about character development. Crane offers insight into role that self-determination plays in the process of character building. If Henry were a soldier who fought with the ranks, he would not make a strong hero because he would only be blindly following orders. Any soldier can blindly follow orders, but Henry is an individualist. His character is uniquely modern and reveals a distinct shift in cultural norms that was taking place during the late 19th century. It was the Industrial Age, and a time during which the ideas of individualism and self-determination were more salient than ever before.

Because Henry is not innately a good soldier, his character development and evolution are all the more powerful. Henry is a conflicted hero, because he acts against the soldier's code of honor, morals, and duty. This makes Red Badge of Courage ahead of its time in the sense that it adds a postmodern dimension to what was a modern novel. Yet Red Badge of Courage does not end on an ironic or postmodern note. The message is one of character development and personal will. He ultimately calls upon an inner reserve of courage that transcends his fear of death. It is not in the cause of the Union that Henry finds his courage; it is in the cause of helping his fellow human beings and showing honor, respect, and dignity.