Color Symbolism
In The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen
Crane uses color symbolism throughout his
novel to describe details of war. Within the
title itself is color symbolism. With a theme
of bravery during times of war, the author
refers to the color red as blood. Men give up
limbs and body parts in battle and receive
courage, respect, and honor. This partial
loss of oneself is what gives a soldier red
badge demonstrative of courage.
Naturalism- Humans having no control over their
destiny. All is left to fate or destiny. Ex. Outcome
of battles as the soldiers go to fight.
Realism- Representation of reality to the middle
class or common people. Ex. Henry grasp that war is
not some fantasy of heroism but that men actually
get shot and die.
Romanticism- Emphasis on emotion, passion, and
the natural world. Ex. The idea that war is some
glorious scene where men show bravery.
Impressionism- Scenes are not depicted by what
really happened but rather the feelings or emotions
felt from the actions. Ex. Henry’s thoughts and
feelings about fleeing from battle.
Early Life of Stephen Crane
Stephen Crane was born in Newark, New
Jersey, and is the fourteenth child of Methodist
minister Jonathon and Mary Crane. Stephen
taught himself to read at the age of three and
wrote letters to his grandmother. He wrote his
first poem at the age of six and his first short
story at the age of thirteen. At the age of twentytwo he published his first novel, “Maggie, Girl of
the Streets”. The story centers around a beautiful
girl who grows up in the slums where her parents
are both alcoholics and suffers from an abusive
childhood. She becomes homeless and is rejected
by her family and turns to prostitution. At
twenty-four he wrote “The Red Badge of Courage”.
The Gettysburg Address
The Gettysburg Address by Abraham
Lincoln is a speech to honor the men who
have given their lives for the purpose of
creating a unified nation where all men
are treated equally. Repetition and
parallel structure with “we” creates a
patriotic tone and a mood of coming
together and working as one. In The
Red Badge of Courage, Henry struggles
with a man vs. self conflict in which he
is not sure whether or not to run away
from battle. He is afraid to die, but then
grows to want “a red badge of courage”
as a symbol of bravery.
The painting reveals the reality of
war and the life and death that are
closely related to each other. Wounded
men are being tended to while the
uninjured soldiers fight for their lives
and off to the side is a pile of dead men.
The flag flying high represents the
spirits of the soldiers in their side of the
battle.
Comparison of
Corpse Scenes
In The Lord of the Flies, the corpse
discovered by the boys is covered with
grass, vines, and has other
naturalistic features to it. It is as if
the body is returning back to the soil
of the Earth as the divine law of
nature. In The Red Badge of Courage,
the dead body is grotesque with an
expression of severe agony. Henry
knows the man died from one of the
tragedies of battle, but the boys do not
know how the man of the corpse died.
Gone With the Wind
Gone With the Wind by Margaret
Mitchell is a novel about the Civil War like
the Red Badge of Courage. Gone With the
Wind takes place in the South with the rich
cotton plantations. The plot centers about a
man and a woman in love, but the man
must go to war as a soldier. All the fertile
land full of crops gets destroyed by the end
of the Civil War. In The Red Badge of
Courage all the fighting takes place in the
North and story stays focused on the War
and Henry’s thoughts about his first
battle.
This poster tries to rally men’s attention by
portraying war against the South as morally
the right thing to do. Also shown is a school
that only adds to the ethical tactic of
pressuring men to do what is right. Depicted
in the back corner is a large army of men.
This is a rhetorical strategy of pathos using
bandwagon to influence men that everyone is
joining the army so they should too.
The Battle of Fredericksburg was initiated
by the Union in an attempt to attack
Richmond, the capital of the Confederates. On
the Union side, the generals in charge had
miscommunications resulting in chaos and
was crushed by Southern forces. Confederate
snipers hid among buildings while their troops
were protected by a stone wall. The Union was
forced to retreat which inured the Northern
pride.
The Emancipation
Proclamation
The turning point in the Civil War was
when President Abraham Lincoln signed
the Emancipation Proclamation. This
historical document granted freedom to
all slaves including those who lived in
the South. Passing this law established
which side had won the war, and was the
beginning of rebuilding a nation where
“all men are created equally”. Lincoln
hoped that the Confederate states could be
convinced to join with the Union.
Abraham Lincoln,
Martin Luther King Jr.,
and Mahatma Gandhi
Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther
King Jr., and Mahatma Gandhi are
all public figures known for fighting
for the independence of a race.
Lincoln and King fought for the
freedom of slaves of African
Americans while Gandhi fought for
the equal treatment of the Indian
race. All of these men fought and
accomplished their goals of equal
treatment for all men of all races.
Point of View
The Red Badge of Courage is
told in third person omniscient point
of view. Although the novel is about the
Civil War, the author, Stephen Crane,
was never a soldier himself or even was
active in battle. Unlike most war
novels, the perspective comes from a
young soldier who struggles with
himself of whether or not to run away
from battle. The story shows a fearful
side of war unlike the typical heroic
side.