Masculinity and Courage in Red Badge of Courage and The Things They Carried
This essay compares Stephen Crane's Red Badge of Courage and Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" as explorations of masculinity, courage, and patriarchal gender norms in wartime. Through the protagonists Henry Fleming and Lieutenant Cross, both authors reveal the psychological toll of normative masculinity and the false reality constructed by war. The essay argues that the female figures in each work — Fleming's mother and Cross's girlfriend Martha — embody an alternative, feminist courage rooted in love and peace. Using symbolism, character development, and parallel narrative structures, Crane and O'Brien expose the social and psychological dysfunction embedded in patriarchal constructs of heroism and valor.
- Introduction: War, Courage, and Masculine Identity: Thesis: both authors critique patriarchal masculinity through war
- Women as Symbols of an Alternative Courage: Fleming's mother and Martha embody peace-based courage
- War as False Reality and the Disillusionment of Soldiers: War's romanticized image collapses under battlefield reality
- Coming of Age and the Evolution of Self-Perception: Both soldiers mature through doubt and moral awakening
- Masks, Shame, and the Hidden Cost of Masculinity: Men hide emotions behind composure to avoid ridicule
- Conclusion: Patriarchy, Symbolism, and the Superior Courage: Women's conscience guides men toward truer courage
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper sustains a clear comparative thesis throughout, returning consistently to the claim that both authors expose patriarchal masculinity as psychologically and socially dysfunctional.
- It uses direct quotations from both primary texts as evidence, grounding interpretive claims in specific passages rather than generalizations.
- The parallel structure — pairing Fleming with Cross, and Fleming's mother with Martha — gives the argument coherent symmetry and makes the comparison easy to follow.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper employs a sustained thematic comparison across two works of different genres (novel and short story), using a feminist critical lens to reinterpret what "courage" means in each text. This technique shows how a single conceptual framework can be applied across different literary forms and historical settings to yield consistent analytical insights.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a thesis-driven introduction establishing shared themes. It then develops its argument across four body sections, each addressing a distinct thematic angle: the female figures as symbols of alternative courage, war's false reality and soldier disillusionment, the coming-of-age dimension, and the social performance of masculinity through masks and shame. A brief conclusion synthesizes the argument. Citations follow MLA format using the Works Cited convention.
Introduction: War, Courage, and Masculine Identity
The Red Badge of Courage and The Things They Carried both use the experience of war to highlight changes in the characters' self-perception and perception of the world. In both stories, the protagonists struggle with societal expectations and especially with normative masculinity, which is intimately linked with the experience of being in battle. Courage is a central theme in both stories and becomes an elusive ideal for protagonists Lieutenant Cross and Henry Fleming. In O'Brien's title story "The Things They Carried," courage is shown to be every bit as false and fleeting as it is for Fleming in Red Badge of Courage. O'Brien and Crane rely heavily on symbolism to reveal the inner experiences of young men in battle. The authors deftly show how women represent an alternative to the patriarchal construct of perpetual war, and how men actively choose to maintain the façade of masculine power through violence and death. Stephen Crane, through the novel format in Red Badge of Courage, and Tim O'Brien, through the short story format in The Things They Carried, demonstrate how the construct of masculinity and other elements of patriarchy prove to be psychologically and socially dysfunctional.
Women as Symbols of an Alternative Courage
In both Red Badge of Courage and "The Things They Carried," the protagonists struggle with the dichotomy between different brands of masculine courage. The women in their lives represent a courage that is qualitatively different from that espoused in the experience of war. For Fleming, the young protagonist in Red Badge of Courage, his mother embodies love, peace, sanity, and the courage to say no to war in favor of embracing a world that does not resort to violence as a means of solving problems. Courage just as well means the fortitude to walk away from norms of masculinity expressed through violence, and the courage to instead embrace a world of peace and love. The young man knows this to be true even prior to enlisting, but he has been too thoroughly socialized to resist the calling to assert his masculinity. His mother's voice remains in his head throughout the novel, and Fleming can easily see the shallowness of war. The world of the mother is juxtaposed against the stage of battle during the Civil War. He knows his mother is the one who carries the "ethical motive" and recalls that she called him a "fool" for enlisting (Crane, Chapter 1).
Similarly, in "The Things They Carried," protagonist Lieutenant Cross thinks about a girlfriend at home named Martha, who represents the same qualities of feminist courage as Fleming's mother. Martha continually reminds Cross of the importance of love, but as he becomes more entrenched in the war and immersed in the identity of being a soldier, Cross finds that Martha and the reality she represents seem "not quite real" (O'Brien 16). Through the poignant symbol of the literal "things they carried," O'Brien shows that emotional and physical burdens weigh down upon the soul of the soldier. Martha reminds him of the importance of carrying that which truly matters, such as love and self-respect. Interestingly, her photograph is one of the things he carries — it is small but meaningful, and yet he comes to hate himself for loving her and believes that his emotions are cowardly. "He felt shame. He hated himself. He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war" (O'Brien 16).
War as False Reality and the Disillusionment of Soldiers
War becomes an alternate, albeit false, reality, as soldiers must continually reaffirm their commitment to the regiment in order to avoid death. Both authors demonstrate the false reality of war by contrasting the worlds of Fleming's mother and Martha with the world of the battlefield. Death surrounds Fleming and Cross, causing them to dissociate emotionally. Cross considers desertion; Fleming actually attempts it and momentarily succeeds, only to return to the scene of battle. Running from the war is established as a quintessential sign of cowardice, and yet both soldiers understand that standing up for universal ethical values like peace requires far more courage than standing in the line of battle.
The state of being a warrior has been idealized, romanticized, and fictionalized. Fleming even compares himself to the heroes of ancient Greek mythology, mentioning the "Homeric" traits of soldiers, and reflects on the perceived "glory" of war and the "ecstasy of excitement" at the prospect of victory. O'Brien's hero feels similarly, although both men become completely disillusioned by what they actually witness on the killing fields. Their female counterparts had already illuminated this truth for them before they embarked on their respective bellicose journeys.
Conclusion: Patriarchy, Symbolism, and the Superior Courage
Red Badge of Courage and The Things They Carried demonstrate the irrationality of patriarchy and masculine gender norms through rich symbolism and character development. Courage is presented as the bastion of masculinity, and yet the soldiers know that killing and being killed are often more cowardly acts than the ability to stand up for peace and love. The women in these stories remain in the background as the conscience of the male protagonists, quietly but powerfully encouraging their psychological growth and awakening.
Works Cited
Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage. 2008 eBook. Project Gutenberg,
O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. Houghton Mifflin, 1990.
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