Book List: "Red Badge of Courage"

The Red Badge of Courage was written by Stephen Crane in the late 1800's. It is about a young soldier fighting in the Civil War, similar to Rifles for Watie and other Civil War novels. It is, of course, a fictitious narrative, based on actual events and testimonies from Civil War soldiers.

Crane is very loquacious and poetic in his story-telling, going into detail on the main character's thoughts and emotions during his time as a soldier. The character goes from being a young, anxious soldier expecting glory, to a content veteran, happy to never go to war again. He pulls the character through excitement, restlessness, blind fighting, natural fear, shame, intense pride, and sadness throughout the book, and the character's emotions mimic a real situation well. They go up and down within the same paragraph, as though every line of dialogue, every bullet shot had some effect on the young man's internal struggles.


The way Crane tells this story is rather unique. He doesn't mention the main character's name, which is Henry Flemming, at all during the narration. The only way to find out his name is in passing through the dialogue. By not using the soldier's name the story might feel more relational, like this soldier could be anyone. But, perhaps Crane has lost a sense of fullness by avoiding naming the character himself. Henry Fleming feels like a shell of a character-- still three-dimensional because of the depth of emotions, but he has no inner personality. He goes through the events like the average soldier would, which is fine, but it doesn't give any specifics that make Henry Flemming a unique person. Sure, he has his heroic moments and his sinful moments, but so does every soldier on the battlefield. Of course, this was a good strategy on the author's part, but I'm not sure I enjoyed the effect that it had on the story.

The book also takes the reader on several goose-chases that, although interesting, may have been a waste of time. For instance, several pages are spent on telling the reader how Henry became lost in the forest after his first battle and was returned to his unit by a friendly soldier, thus covering up the fact that he had fled from the battle. Some sections like this one could have been cut in half, and still would have the same overall effect. After a while, you begin to think, "Why are we spending so much time following this injured soldier into the forest, disoriented and loosing blood? Will he be finding a secret entrance to Narnia or something?" By spending so many pages on these scenes, I think that Crane draws unnecessary attention away from the main plot of the book. Usually, an author that spends an inordinate amount of time chasing a string of extraneous emotions and events like this makes a promise to make those events significant to the story somehow. Maybe he finds wisdom from the soldier who saved him that he uses later on the prevent death, or he becomes lost completely with no aid, and through finding his own way back he undergoes an inner transformation, forming a new resolve that pushes him into heroism later in battle. But this didn't happen-- he went into the forest and came out several pages later with no significant changes, thus this scene was not directly needed for the story to take place. It should have been cut, along with several sequences of narration sprinkled into the story. For me, they didn't serve to add depth-- they just mislead and bore the reader, unless the scene bears a large amount of fruit in the end, which it didn't. William Strunk once said, "Omit needless words." This is a concept Crane could have applied to make his story focus and flow better.

Other than that, it was a great book! Stephen Crane is a very descriptive writer, and his depiction of emotions were extremely accurate. It didn't focus on battles and heroes, nor even why the men were fighting. The book could change just a few details and be placed in Ancient Rome, or World War I, or any other war in history, and would still be accurate to the thoughts and actions of soldiers. So far, it is my least favorite Civil War novel I've read, but I still don't doubt the fact that it is one of the greats. It was a brilliant work of literature that explores the internal turmoils on the battlefield. I am not particularly fond of war, or exploration of the hardships of soldiers, but this book is well-written and definitely the definition of a classic.