The Red Badge of Courage, A Psychological Perspective
By Matthew Cox

The Red Badge of Courage is Stephen Crane’s famous war classic. The protagonist is Henry Fleming, a young private in the Union’s 304th Regiment. After seeing his first battle, Fleming flees because he is scared. Later on, he feels guilty about abandoning his comrades. Henry later meets a dying soldier who is proud of the wounds that he gets. The trooper dies and this leaves Henry feeling guilty. Later on, Fleming witnesses his regiment retreating while fighting Confederate soldiers. He gets a head wound and recovers. This makes him braver and he fights
courageously. Later on, Henry becomes the flag bearer and leads the Union forces in battle. Stephen Crane writes the book as a psychological realist tale. He uses visual imagery and impressionist writing for emotional effect. The writer also probes the character’s feelings as the change in the book. The Red Badge of Courage shows how a young soldier goes from being a coward to a brave fighter.

Stephen Crane’s classic novel, the Red Badge of Courage, is set during the Civil War (Sparknotes). A Northern regiment rests along a riverbank for weeks. Jim Conklin, a soldier, tells a rumor that the troops will move soon. New recruit Henry Fleming in the 204 Regiment worries about his bravery. His fear is running from battle. Crane writes that young Fleming joins the army because he is fascinated by armed conflict. However, the recruit is disappointed because the army is waiting to engage the enemy.
When the Union army is ordered to march, they walk for several tiring days. Soon, they come to a battle field and hear the sound of battle. The Confederate forces fire from a strategic position. Henry caught in with his comrades and could not run even if he wants to. The Northern soldiers fire mechanically, like parts of a machine. Union troops defeat the Confederates. However, they become overconfident and camp on the battlefield. Henry lazily takes a nap. However, the Grays take the Blues by surprise with a counter attack. Henry panics and runs from the battle line. While escaping, Fleming tells himself that he does the right thing and that his regiment will not win. His fellow troops are fools for staying in a no-win situation. The private later overhears a general say that the Northern forces hold back the Confederate soldiers. He rationalizes that he is right to save himself. While walking through the forest, he sees a decaying soldier corpse. This scares him as he walks away.

Although the Northern troops are weakened, they push back the Southern soldiers. After a while, Henry joins a group of wounded soldiers walking down the road. The young private becomes jealous and believes that a wound like this is “a red badge of courage (Sparknotes).” Visible wounds are signs of bravery. He meets a man in ragged clothes who is shot twice and speaks highly of the way that his regiment did not retreat. This soldier asks Henry several times where he is shot. Fleming gets upset and goes to another part of the marching column. Soon, Henry meets a wounded soldier with a pained expression on his face. It is Jim Conklin. Henry agrees to nurse him back to health. However, the wounded man runs into the bushes where Fleming and the ragged man see him die.

Both men walk through the forest. Henry hears the loud noise of fighting in the background. As the ragged man’s health worsens, he keeps asking where Fleming is wounded. The solider gets tired of this and leaves the dying solder in the woods to die. Henry wanders and comes to the battle field. He watches Union and Confederate troops fight each other. The young soldier tries to stop the fleeing troops to find out what happened. However, one of the men hits Henry in the head with a gun, opening a wound. Another combatant helps Fleming back to the regiment’s camp. Henry is reunited with his friends. A comrade named Wilson takes care of Fleming, thinking he is shot.

The Northern Regiment goes back to the battlefield the nest day. Henry fights with all of his courage while thinking of Jim Conklin. This lets him vent his rage against Confederate troops. The commanding lieutenant is impressed and says that the North could win the war in a week with ten-thousand Henry Flemings. Both Fleming and Wilson overhear an officer say that the regiment fights “like mule drivers (Sparknotes).” This insults the two soldiers who want to prove the officer wrong. The 304th Regiment charges the enemy and the color bearer falls. Henry takes the flag and runs courageously at the opposing side. However, the surge fails and the lieutenant tells the colonel that his men fight like “mud diggers (Sparknotes).” This makes Henry angrier. Another soldier tells Fleming and Wilson that the superior officers consider them to be the best fighters in the regiment.
As the Union army is sent into other battles, Henry is made the flag carrier. In one battle, the regiment charges confederate troops hidden behind a fence. After a heated battle, the Blues defeat the Grays. Wilson picks up the flag and captures four prisoners. When he and fellow soldiers go back to their position, Henry thinks back on the way he changes with the war. Although he feels satisfied about helping the regiment win, Fleming is ashamed about fleeing from the earlier battles. The ragged man that he left in the woods also haunts him. This passes as the young soldier puts his bad feelings aside. Henry realizes that he made it through the “red sickness” of battle (Sparknotes). This lets him move forward to a peaceful feeling as his pasts the test of manhood.

Scholars and critics recognize Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage as his most popular book (enotes). Crane did not witness the war because he is born after it. Most of his influences come from war stories written by Leo Tolstoy and accounts from Civil War veterans. Despite Crane’s interest in the war he writes the story to protest the horrors of battle. Literary experts note how psychologically accurate the book is in depicting the characters’ response to conflict. It blends naturalism, impressionism, and symbolism. Crane brakes from other conventions of realistic writing by treating humans as amoral in an opportunistic society.

When the book is published in 1895 many people did not like his writing style. Crane uses the common vernacular and slang of people and soldiers in the 1860’s. The story uses impressionistic writing by telling one small part at a time. Mixing psychology and realism changes the way novels are written. For example, when Henry sees fighting for the first time, he feels courage anxiety, self confidence, fear, and zeal at the same time. These emotions seem very sophisticated in someone who does not have much real world experience. Although Henry has a low rank, his views help readers connect to the experiences of the average soldier in the war. The individual does not matter because people on both sides of the conflict fought as if they are parts of two giant war machines. Stephen uses colorful images to show the events in the book. For example, he describes a battle as sounding like a “crimson roar” or war as a “red animal (enotes).” Crane uses other colors including “fairy blue” to describe the sky (enotes). The work is lost for twenty years. Poets and novelists including Amy Lowell and Sherwood Anderson see his innovation of new ideas, subject matter, and literary forms.

The Red Badge of Courage shows how a young soldier goes from being a coward to a brave fighter. Henry Fleming, the protagonist, is a young soldier in the Union’s 304th Regiment. The private runs away during his first battle with Confederate forces. He later feels bad about leaving his fellow soldiers. Fleming learns from a wounded and dying soldier the meaning of bravery. Henry later sees his battalion escaping from Southern reinforcements. While catching up with the Northern soldiers, he gets a head wound. A friend helps him to recover. This strengthens Fleming’s courage who fights harder. Soon, Henry becomes the flag carrier and leads the troops into battle. The author writes the tale with psychological realism. Crane uses realistic images and impressionist literary techniques to appeal to the reader’s emotions. He also reveals how Fleming changes in the book.


Works Cited

“The Red Badge of Courage.” Enotes. 2008 21 March 2008
http://www.enotes.com/red-badge

“The Red Badge of Courage.” Sparknotes. 2006. 21 March 2008.

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/redbadge/summary.html