Customer Reviews

The Red Badge of Courage (Simon & Schuster Enriched Classic)

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Mark LA-7

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane is a very interesting and well-written novel that I enjoyed reading. It is about a boy's physical and mental journey during the Civil War. The boy, Henry Fleming, starts out as a cowardly child who wants to join the war and turns into a courageous man. There are many things that happen to him that cause this change.

The book begins with Henry already in the army reminiscing about enlisting against his mother's will. After he does, she supports him, even though she did not agree with his decision. Henry, along with the other men in his regiment, is anxious for his first battle. He and the others are talking about if they would run away from a fight. Henry is unsure of his ability to fight the battle and not run away. He fights well for the beginning of his first battle, but when his regiment returns to the fight, he runs away. Scared, he meets many things that eventually make him decide to go back to the fight.

Over the course of the rest of the book, Henry sees many things that begin to make him stronger and more courageous. Throughout his journey, other soldiers help Henry. As he interacts with them, you can see the development and change of his character. The rest of his journey consists not only of physical, but also mental battles. Though the story takes place in the Civil War, most of the book is about the main character fighting himself.

One conflict in this story is the internal conflict Henry has throughout the book. He is constantly fighting himself over what he should do because for most of the book he is frightened. This is resolved as he gains courage and confidence. You should be able to see this at the end of the story.

I liked this book because it was very descriptive and its story was exciting. It had some themes that were very well portrayed in the book, such as courage. The plot was very interesting and the characters were described very well.

I read this book in school as a kid and I recently picked it up and read it again. It is a short work and only takes a few hours to read through. The style is definitely of the 19th century and you need to read it slowly and carefully to understand the nuances of the description and inner dialogs. Taking the time to do so is vastly rewarding-this is truly a great psycho-historical novel.

The setting is never explicitly stated by the author but historians agree it was during the disastrous Union campaign in Virginia during the battle of Chancellorsville. The protagonist is a young boy who joined the Union Army against his mother's will and he is intoxicated with visions of the nobility of the soldier's life. The novel admirably describes the boredom that the youth feels as he awaits his first battle, camped across the river (the Potomac) from the confederate Army and constantly moving around, marching and drilling, waiting and imagining his first battle where he hopes to become a hero.

When his regiment finally moves to the front line and comes under fire the boy drops his weapon and runs from the battle field scared out of his wits. He is not the only who acts cowardly but he rationalizes within his mind that the situation was hopeless and he is saving himself for the good of the army. So begins the inner conflict which drives the story line. While returning to the battlefield the youth encounters a huge group of Union Army soldiers running scared from the battle lines and confronts one of them, mired in self-contradiction and receives a minor head wound. This becomes his Red Badge of Courage as he later rejoins his unit and lies about his wounds, stating he'd received them from the enemy in battle.

On the second day of battle the boy becomes a war hero when he returns to the front and fights with a savage intensity. The author's description of the battle field and the blood and gore are realistic, especially within the historical context of the novel which is only a few decades removed from the conflict. The boy fights with courage and his regiment fights admirably but is driven back. As they retreat they are accused of being cowards as a group. They reply with curses and urges to join in fist-a-cuffs with their fellow soldiers who are mocking them. They are later chastised by the general to which they utter curses under their collective breaths.

During the battle, the boy becomes the flag bearer, wrestling the flag away from the original flag bearer who dies on the battle field with a death grip on the pole. He loses his fear which is replaced by an animal like savagery. Death becomes trivial, seconds seem like hours and the battlefield is covered with a smoky and deadly haze. The flag becomes the symbol of the boys patriotism but also causes him to be a bystander in the fight where he sees the conflict from a detached point of view. All the while the author paints the mental landscape of the heavy contradictions and inner turmoil that haunt the protagonist, who flips back in forth between coward and hero.

The men constantly cuss the generals and their plight, feeling they gave it hell but were powerless in front of fate. This is one of the central themes. The courage the boy gains is almost an insane one-completely detached from the death and destruction going on around him as he advances carrying the Union flag. The novel ends with the Union army retreating back across the river as the boy, now a war hero, continues to struggle with his inner turmoils and almost savage animal nature, wanting to forget and return to his old life, though his innocence is forever lost.

This is a very short novel but there is a lot going on. Although the author wasn't in the civil war, he interviewed many veterans and tried to make it as realistic as possible. He did a great job depicting the horrors and confusion of war, contrasting it constantly with the sublime. The true achievement and what makes this a great American novel is the incredible way in which the author describes the inner conflict going on in young Henry's head, as his youth is forever lost on the battlefield. There is a good reason why this is often required reading for historical fiction-a great read for all ages-especially sobering for those who would glorify war.

The story centers on a Henry Fleming, the protagonist, who matures from the inexperienced soldier, to the more quiet mature man. Initially, Fleming believes war to be glorious and honorable -the perfect test for courage, and thus enlists for the Union army. However, after fleeing from his first battle, Fleming realizes his own cowardice. He encounters a tattered man, whom he abandons eventually and even witnesses his friend's death. Walking further, he notices a regiment after fighting, each having gone through the battle experience, and Fleming both admires and envies them. Guilty from avoiding fighting, Fleming arrives back at his camp with a gash in his head he receives accidentally from another Union soldier. As he is cared for among the other soldiers, his wound mistaken for a battle scar and ironically earns a reputation. In later battles, Fleming even becomes the flag bearer and leads his regiment in battles. Finally understanding that war is not all glory, he matures into the experienced veteran.

With a relatively simple plot to follow, Crane explores more in depth with Fleming's thoughts throughout the novel. From the initial desire for recognition to the final reverence of war, Crane masterfully details Fleming's emotions. Although Crane did not introduce, in detail, other characters, his focus on one character -Fleming - allows him to portray the thoughts of only one. This style is Impressionism, where Crane writes in third person limited perspective, following only the thoughts of one character. Through this character, Crane's own opinion about war shines through Fleming's discovery and realization about war.

With the animalistic imagery and descriptions with color, Crane's style perfectly matches Fleming's emotions at all times. In battle, Fleming is described as barbaric, a beast fighting for its survival. Crane uses this comparison to show his own opinion on war -that war only brings out the worst in men. Also, the usage of color to describe Fleming's current emotion is also prevalent throughout the story. For example, while Fleming is in battle, he is overcome with a "red rage" to destroy his opponent. While rage already demonstrates a fierce fury, red only emphasizes its passionate nature. The colors add on to the detail and intensity of each description, vitalizing each aspect of setting.

Although Crane never clearly defines the setting, other than that of a battlefield, the story is assumed to be set during the Civil War, and Fleming contributes to the Union Army. Crane himself had never fought in a battle, nor ever witnessed one, yet his amazing descriptions of the war scenery almost proves otherwise. Without ever experiencing a soldier's familiarity in an army, Crane is still able to capture the emotions of a young soldier so well. For this, Crane's style has often been commended.

Overall, The Red Badge of Courage depicts the story of a man, eager to participate in battles to prove his bravery and earn a reputation. Upon actually encountering warfare, however, the man learns his insignificance in the world, and a soldier's actual purpose -to defend his beliefs and country. Killing is not the actual courage but willing to die for the protection of others is the true courage. Crane develops Fleming's character gradually, and the reader fully experiences Fleming's transformation from innocence to the experienced.

Stephen Crane's classic story of battlefield atonement has become a staple of American literary education, probably because it portrays a young protagonist's inner struggle, as opposed to a more tangible plot development. Young readers accustomed to reading solely about a protagonist's physical actions, will find that describing a protagonist's thoughts requires a higher level of literary skill.

As popular as it is, though, The Red Badge of Courage is written in an archaic form of English (first published in 1895) which has a rough, unsophisticated edge. It may be that this style enhances the realism, as relayed by a young farmer describing a battlefield populated with fellow yokels.

As Henry Fleming approaches the fighting, he wonders if he has the raw courage to face mortality at close range. The fact is that no one knows the answer to this question until hindsight reveals it. What he finds is that as long as his comrades fight, he is willing to fight alongside them, but as soon as some of them begin to desert in the face of the enemy, he scurries from the field of honor along with them.

The story of our yeoman protagonist coming to grips with his cowardice, and overcoming it in one fever-pitched hostile action after another is the source of the book's power. Only valorous actions can atone for his initial cowardice and the reader follows him as he turns the flank on that cowardice and defeats it. His war is an internal one, and his internal victory serves as a synecdoche for the Civil War's resolution. Armistice follows his personal triumph.

The Red Badge of Courage has served its noble purpose well, and we Americans are all descendants of the carnage which shaped our country, but here's a secret for some young reader to exploit... This novel is not the quintessential wartime psychological thriller which the dust jacket claims; its shortcomings make it a certainty that a more eloquent, more soul-searing novel of wartime salvation will ultimately displace it.

This book was on my sister's 10th grade summer reading list. It arrived on time and she read it within a couple of days. We also ordered the movie so she could watch it.

I've always wanted to read this book and never could.I'm glad I finally did. Being a student of history, of war,society and the psychology of how they all intertwine as well as a lover of classic literature not appreciated too much today this title always haunted me and after seeing the movie by the same name starring the war hero, Audie Murphy, I felt it was time to go for it.It is a wonderful story of, well,courage and a young man who felt he had to make his mark.Unfortunately he,like many other young idealistic men of the time were more in love with the ideal rather than the deed to accomplish that goal.The mere thought of going to war, of serving in an army and achieving a purposeful result and to come back a hero or at least alive, was paramount. This story which takes place during the Civil War shows what a youth goes through when the call or urge to fight invades his mind, infiltrating it with tales of glory and heroics mainly to impress females and others in one's local hometown.Crane does a wonderful job of reporting this to the reader as if you or if he were right on the actual battlefield.Life in the camp with long periods of monotony followed by moments of sheer terror, to utilize a well worn phrase, is clearly and painstakingly transmitted into your brain.Your feel the heat,the perspiration, smell the gunpowder,gaze into the eyes of the dead and fear the enemy as they come at you with the attacking colors,pistol and rifle shots, cannon fodder and the audible, oft quoted "rebel yell" that the southern man was noted for and instilling a shiver of tingling fear among the opposing force.A union man, he found his courage was lacking and did what many did in the face of the enemy, he ran away, running right into another armed men who wacks him in the head with a rifle butt.After coming to, his head bleeding, he wraps it with a bandana.The blood seeping through gives him the "red badge of courage" and the chance to return with a sense of honor,falsifying his actions to his comrades not only to avoid the potential criminal act of desertion but to enhance his weakly stature with the older more experienced men of war.His own conscience was his enemy at this point and he comes to a conclusion,a revelation if you will, to fight and does so with great alacrity and new found courage.Essentially, having found himself, so to speak and no longer fearing death, the one true fear when one is a combatant in war, he raises the banner and charges forth despite the pleading of his fellows and under the watchful eye of his superiors.The success of the man, the battle and the author in conveying the true feeling of what a typical day in the life of a Union civil war recruit was like during the Civil War is truly wonderful to behold and to read.Sure,you can read the great sweeping story of the war itself by turning to Shelby Foote and his masterful opus,'The Civil War',or get a full picture of one the most remembered and talked about battles of that war, that being Gettysburg, by reading Michael Shaara's 'The Killer Angels' but for a thumbnail portrait of a couple of small encounters, of how a small,weak but strong willed man, perhaps somewhat grandious and full of self centered fantasy about what war was all about came of age then this is the book for you.Any fan of war or of the Civil War must read this wonderfully crafted story by Stephen Crane at least once.You won't regret it.My copy is an old Signet Classic edition edited by R.W. Stallman from 1960. It has four other great stories by Crane and complete notes to the text.I don't think it is available anymore but the version I picked to review will suffice just as well.Look into the eyes of death with this boy and feel the terror of battle, a state of being more readily and safely experienced from your armchair than in actuality.War, though many feel may be romantic is far from it from Cranes perspective though he does make it seem real enough in his story of the learning curve this man experiences, most likely the same one our own modern day warriors go through fighting in the battles of today in far away lands shedding their blood on soil that's not even their's to keep.

There are so many things that made me throw this book away after I was done with my essay; I could not understand most things they said, it was mostly gibberish. The plot was stale and non-developed, even though it wasn't a long book, it felt like a freakin' eternity. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS TO ANYONE WHO DOES NOT HAVE TO READ IT!!!

s advertised and Quick! Book it self is a good read, a little tough for youngsters but good to help them get going on vocab.

I LIKED THIS BOOK BECAUSE IT IS ABOUT THE CIVIL WAR AND HOW THE MEN FOUGHT IN THE TRENCHES. THIS BOOK SHOULD HAVE GIVEN MORE DETAIL ABOUT HOW IT FELT WHEN THE BULLETS AND CANNON FIRE INJURED THE SOLDIERS AND THE CIVILIANS, BUT OVER ALL THIS BOOK IS THE QUINTESSENTIAL BOOK ABOUT CIVIL WAR EXPERIENCE.

I got the Great Illustrated Classics version for kids; wasn't expecting a juvenile version. Read the fine print!