Cranes naturalistic concept of the insignificance of the individual / Individualism and Conformity in The Red Badge of courage Stephen

Crane's pieces are written with the intent to establish individualism as an unfavorable quality. He establishes that group goals are more important than that of the individual and creates groups to which each character should conform. Crane supplies models for the individual to comply to and elucidates that adherence to the group would bring reward but deviation from said groups would be detrimental. Henry, in Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage, is created as a child in search of self worth and assurance. Crane establishes Henry as an individual by giving him the ability to think for himself but creates situations that stifle his individualism in order for him to stay within the group. Henry does the one thing that men ought not. He thinks. In his thoughts he sees past the glory and valor that comes with enlisting and comes to question what could happen to him on the battlefield. He acknowledges the presence of death. The realization causes Henry to question whether he will have to courage to stay and fight or whether he will run. Crane creates Henry as an individual in a mass society. He injects him into the army with aspirations of attaining a sense of identity. Crane establishes Henry as "the youth" to make it apparent that he was not like the other men of the 304th regiment. Henry stands out among the men and "muse seriously upon the radical differences between himself and those men who were dodging imp like around the tree". Not only Henry's eye catches his obvious detachment from the group. Upon seeing Henry, Wilson responds "What you doing here?" extending Henry's exclusivity and insinuating that he is out of place. Henry "continually tries to measure himself by his comrades". Consequently, he attempts to quill his lack of confidence by seeking out others from whom he can find confidence. This search leads him to Jim Conklin. Jim states that his actions would be dictated by the surroundings "but if everyone was a-standing and a-fighting, why, I'd stand and fight". Jim's claim gave Henry confidence. "He now was in a measure reassured". Though confident, Henry still lacks assurance. His fear of the consequences of battle makes him feel strange in the presence of men who talked excitedly of the prospected combat. In an attempt to counter this indecisiveness Henry's seeks the assurance of others. This confusion about his intrepidity leads him to question others. How do you know you won't run when the time comes?' asked the youth of the loud soldier. run?' said the loud one; run?--of course not!' He laughed". Finding no persons identify with his feelings of confusion leaves Henry with an extreme sense of solitude. "He felt alone in space". He feels disassociated from others "He was a mental outcast ill from the monotony of his suffering". Henry's failure to discover persons with any mite of resemblance to his viewpoints leads to paranoia. "The youth ensured himself that at any moment the army might be suddenly and fearfully assaulted". His fear was manifested as he awoke to the find himself retreating with the rest of his infantry. Crane had constructed a situation in which Henry's individuality could not be utilized. "Henry ran with his comrades, strenuously trying to think, but all he knew was that if he fell down those coming behind would tread upon him. All his faculties seemed to be needed to guide him over and past obstructions. He felt carried along by a mob". Henry was no longer a person, he became like the other men of his regiment: indistinct. In the wake of danger, Henry realizes that rejection of the group is impossible. He attempts to follow Crane's naturalistic instructions within the novel, conforming to the actions and ideas of the rest of the regiment around him. He accepts the underlying law that that adherence to the group would bring reward but deviation from said groups would be detrimental. With this acceptance, Henry "suddenly lost concern for him and became not a man but a member. He was welded into a common personality which was dominated by a single desire" Henry runs not because of cowardice or insightful individualism. He does so because of a direct reaction to the group's actions. In his yearning to be a part of them, he mimics them. Henry became afraid because they were afraid. Henry seeks to find something to measure himself to, in the absence of his fellow soldiers, who had won the battle without him. He finds this in the squirrel. After seeing the squirrel scurry away at the advance of his rock, he justifies his departure from the group by alleging that it was nature's will. The youth felt triumphant at this exhibition. There was the law, he said. Nature had given him a sign. Henry mingles into a regiment returning from battle but again feels like an outcast. He comes to realize that he is the only one among them that is not injured. Crane thereupon creates a situation that allows Henry to be assimilated into the group.

Henry is once again consumed by a retreating infantry. And upon questioning a soldier he is "crushed upon the head" with a rifle. Crane had given Henry a red badge of courage. He could now return to the ranks of his regiment acclimatized. Crane utilizes the general to make Henry stay within the group. After overhearing that his infantry can be spared, Henry finally acknowledges that his actions alone will not have any deep impact on the war. Henry fights valiantly within the group, driven by a collective feeling of patriotism and insignificance. "[Henry] ran like a madman to reach the woods before a bullet could discover him. He ducked his head low, like a football player. In his haste his eyes almost closed, and the scene was a wild blur. Pulsating saliva stood at the corners of his mouth. Within him, as he hurled himself forward, was born a love, a despairing fondness for this flag which was near him". Henry stayed within the group and, in another battle, attained victory. Crane's hindering of Henry's individualism had allowed him to stay within the regiment, and eventually receive reward. In sacrificing his own individualism he had grown from the youth he once was.

THEME OF COWARDICE AND COURAGE IN THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane, chronicles Union soldier Henry Flemings war experiences during the Civil War. Apparently the two major themes of this novel are courage and cowardice. These two themes dominates the whole novel coming one after one or sometimes being placed side by side. Henry enters the army with naive dreams of being a war hero, but his illusions of grandeur are quickly dashed when he wrestles with his reservations about battle. Throughout the first half of the novel, Henry grapples with his own shortcomings, wondering if he will be able to stand resolutely against the Confederate soldiers or if he will flee like a coward during battle. But the last half of the novel shows Henrys overlapping of cowardice by gradually developed courage. The Red Badge of Courage serves vivid descriptor of the horrors of battle during the Civil War and a psychological account of a cowardly soldiers quest to stand firm against the brutality of combat. The theme cowardice first appears in the novel at the first chapter when Henry thinks whether he will run away from the battle or not. He feels a serious inner conflict. He feels an obligation to wrestle with the question. Panic grows in his mind. And he cowardly starts to think that he might run from the battle field. After this beginning cowardice gradually starts to hold the full control of Henrys mind. At a moment he asked jim if someone will run from the war. Then he cowardly thinks of staying in home. He wishes to make the endless round from the house to the barn, from the barn to the field. He feels that his condition at home is happier than the condition in the war. His cowardice reaches at the highest point when he tells himself that he is not formed for a soldier. He sees visions of thousand tongued fear that babble at his back and cause him to flee. The first time Henry's cowardice is totally revealed is in chapter ten and when he gets his chance to go into battle he flees. He at first thinks the war is boring but he soon learns that war is very frightening. When Henry flees he also shows insecurity when he tries to make up an excuse for why he wasn't with the rest of the regiment. Actually in this chapter, there is a seen a collective cowardice. Here Henry acts not as an individual but as a member of a fleeing group. Here is also a major fact for Henrys cowardice. The war and showing courage in a war, both are related with ones patriotism. Patriotism is absent from Henrys own conflict. Henrys matters of interest are focused solely on his own shortcomings as a soldier. His heart is not in this business and instead of execute orders he flees from battle because of his own selfish whims. Instead of focusing on outward battles between conflicting armies, The Red Badge of Courage focuses primarily on Henrys inner conflicts between his fear and showing fearlessness in the right time. The other Theme courage is predominating in the novel. Given the novels title, it is no surprise that couragedefining it, desiring it, and, ultimately, achieving itis the most salient element of the narrative. As the novel opens, Henrys understanding of courage is traditional and romantic. He assumes that, like a war hero of ancient Greece, he will return from battle either with his shield or on it. Henrys understanding of courage has more to do with the praise of his peers than any internal measure of his bravery. Within the novels first chapter, Henry recalls his mothers advice, which runs counter to his own notions. She cares little whether Henry earns himself a praiseworthy name; instead, she instructs him to meet his responsibilities honestly and squarely, even if it means sacrificing his own life. The gap that exists between

Henrys definition of courage and the alternative that his mother suggests fluctuates throughout The Red Badge of Courage, sometimes narrowing (when Henry fights well in his first battle) and sometimes growing wider. The second half of The Red Badge of Courage focuses on Henrys long-awaited acquisition of valor. The next day they went to battle where Henry and his regiments are placed by some woods and are to defend it. Henry fought so courageously that both of his commanders and fellow soldiers looked up to him. Later he heard the general talk poorly about their regiment. When they found out, they got angry and Henry got to command. Henry along with Wilson got the noncommissioned leader of his regiment by saving the flag when the color bearer was shot. Later they were told to retreat, but when the enemy attacks them. Henry defeated them and took their flag, which made him the hero. Crane uses Henry as a vehicle for examining humanitys inclinations to cowardice and eventual rise to courage. Throughout the novel, Henry struggles to preserve his manhood, his understanding of which parallels his understanding of courage. As the novel opens, Henrys understanding of courage is traditional and romantic. At the end of the novel, as the mature Henry marches victoriously from battle, a more subtle and complex understanding of courage emerges that is not simply a function of other peoples opinions, but it does incorporate egocentric concerns such as a soldiers regard for his reputation. REALISTIC TREATMENT OF WAR / PHYSICAL ACTUALITIES OF BATTLE IN THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE Although Crane once wrote in a letter that "You can tell nothing... unless you are in that condition yourself", he wrote The Red Badge of Courage without any previous experience of war. The harrowing and realistic portrayal of the battlefield in The Red Badge of Courage has often misled readers into thinking that Crane was himself a veteran. Stephen Crane was the first writer to realistically portray war, which had previously been promoted as full of glory and honor. Partly influenced by his experiences as a war correspondent during the Spanish-American War, Crane wrote The Red Badge of Courage to disillusion the masses who did not know of war's cruelty. In this novel, Crane uses imagery, color symbolism, and language to graphically depict the horror of war. When describing battles and retreats, Crane sometimes creates the feeling of scampering squirrels, or diving birds of prey. This helps to portray the soldiers and their actions more fully than a direct description because it causes the reader to associate them with the most common qualities of that animal; with this, the enemy becomes "flies sucking insolently at his blood. The repeated use of animal imagery is used to show the inhumanity of war, bringing out its savageness. Crane also uses imagery to describe the movements of the forces, sometimes as waves, with "sprays of light" to bring out an image of a powerful, brutal ocean. In addition, the image of a machine dominates descriptions of the army. Crane often brings the whole of Henry's regiment into one being, portraying the individual as an expendable part of the whole. This aspect of naturalism, that man is insignificant, adds to the impersonality and harshness of war by depicting battle as a mechanical, inhuman process. The recurring colors in the novel serve to bring out certain characteristics of war, from fear and danger to hope and purity. In the earlier parts of the book, red, yellow, and gray dominate, bringing out fear and foreboding especially. in the first paragraph of the novel, where a "river, amber-tinted" and a landscape that "changed from brown to green" bring out fear and foreboding concerning Henry's regiment, which will soon be exposed to the brutality of war. Throughout Henry's experiences with the war's unrelenting harshness, these kinds of descriptions occur frequently; Crane uses them to evoke fear, danger, and foreboding. As Henry progresses through the war, the dominating colors change to blue, purple, and gold. There are many descriptions of the Union soldiers as "the men in blue, "the blue whirl of men", or something of that nature, which are used to illustrate the soldiers' purity and strength as they move forward into battle. This color fades on some men's uniforms, especially those of the dead, representing the fading of the characteristic it brings out. There are also several places toward the end where Crane uses purple or gold to represent the hope and triumph of the Union soldiers. Crane's word selection also serves to show the brutality of war, bringing out man's powerlessness and the harsh inhumanity of battle. After emerging from the shocking savageness of battle, Henry "turned, with sudden, livid rage,

toward the battlefield. He shook his fist". Crane's phrasing effectively brings out Henry's passionate feelings, telling the reader that Henry is angry at his utter helplessness in the face of war, where he is subject to forces he cannot control. Crane does the same sort of thing when describing actions, manipulating verbs to give the reader an accurate, clear picture of the action. He also brings the artillery to life with his wording, often depicting their firing as "a mighty altercation" through his use of words describing arguments. Crane's diction provides effective, clear representations for the reader, capturing the essential qualities of events and people in metaphors and expressive verbs. Crane presents a stark contrast when Henry actually experiences battle. Instead of the "vague and bloody conflicts" which he longed to see, Henry encounters the "foul atmosphere" of war, with its choking smoke and deafening noise. The first round of fighting suffocates Henry and leaves him "reeling from exhaustion. Contrary to his romantic visions, he discovers that in real battle there is "a singular absence of heroic poses. Henry also discovers that being wounded is not something to be envied. He witnesses the "cursing, groaning, and wailing" of his fellow soldiers and then is wounded himself; he sinks "writhing to the ground" with "numbing pain. Death is also portrayed very realistically, with vivid descriptions of the "ghastly forms" which lay motionless, "twisted in fantastic contortions. Henry experiences the true horror of death as he watches in anguish while his friend Jim suffers and dies. Crane uses olfactory imageries to give an actual picture of a war. The shouting, crying, and howling of the skirmishers is described vividly. The intolerable sounds of guns and muskets give the novel perfection as a war novel. When the regiment of Henry remains far from the battle field, they hear sounds of firing from different sides. This description informs the reader that the war is going on and the sounds help them to realize the extremity of the battle. Crane also realistically portrays the condition of the soldiers in a battlefield. Obviously the horrifying and violent battles are the worst part of being a soldier. As a soldier one will witness the most grotesque circumstances and violence. In the war of The Red Badge of Courage some soldiers are fatally wounded. They are shot through the arms, legs and feet. One man had his ear shot off by a cannon ball, one was shot through the abdomen, and he cannot live. One had his leg taken off by a rifled cannon ball; one was struck by a cannon ball in the thigh, and he cannot live. To conclude, it can be said that the red badge of courage is a realistic account of combat. Every chapter of the novel conveys the physical actualities of a war. The novel brings out war's features of naturalism with man's insignificance, fear and foreboding, impersonality, and animal-like brutality. Crane describes every aspects of a war so perfectly that the red badge of courage can be called as a battlefield in the pages.