[.ca] The Red Badge of Courage (ISBN 1853260843)

The reality of war:
The Red Badge Of Courage is a well written piece of literature by Stephan Crane which tells the story of a young British soldier during the civil war. Henry Fleming, the young British soldier, struggles with his feelings of guilt and cowardliness for running away from the battle. The book is about Henry's journey for justification towards his actions, and how soldiers do often struggle with this idea of fight and die or run and live. Stephan Crane wants to show the reader the true side of war, which is anything but good. The young protagonist wishes to obtain his "red badge of courage", which essentially is a war wound, as he feels that is true only way he would ever have honor. As Henry struggles with disappointment for running away, he gradually gains the courage he desperately needs and wants to rejoin his battalion. Henry does finally achieve redemption, as he rejoins his battalion and comrades and courageously fights and helps defeat the enemy in one of the battles. At the end the author clearly shows the growth of Henry Fleming and has him return home no longer a young inexperienced soldier but an honorable man.

Soldiering on:
This is one truly well-crafted book. Crane presented the psychological aspects of war to his readers with precise detail and clarity. Before being sent into battle for the first time, most people would wonder if they had enough courage to fight. Henry Fleming constantly struggled with this idea. My favorite part of the book was when Henry threw a pinecone at a squirrel to see if it would take the hit, or run away. After the squirrel ran from the pinecone, he felt justified for running away from the battle. Although the Civil War was the bloodiest battle in American history, Crane presented the mental struggles more than the physical ones. The Red Badge of Courage expressed many different emotions such as pride, honor, and courage. I strongly recommend this book because of its vivid depiction of the American Civil War. Every young adult should read this book, so they have a better understanding of war. Would also recommend Catch 22, Of Mice and Men, The Bark of the Dogwood, To Kill a Mockingbird.

Impressive accomplishment:
For a man who wrote the book in his early twenties, never went to war, and died at the age of 28, Crane did an impressive job of recreating the average soldier's experience in the Civil War. I have only just recently begun to read on the Civil War and its personalities, starting with Selby Foote's "Civil War Narrative," with "Battle Cry of Freedom," and "The Last Full Measure" (about the Minnesota First Volunteers). From that meager background however, I found Crane's work phenomenal. The unrealistic view of war expressed by the protagonist, his urgent desire to join in the effort to "gain in the glory" before it was all over, his fear that he would not measure up when the time came, even his disgust over the conditions of camp life and the apparent ineptitudes of his superiors were as though they had been harvested from the diaries of the Civil War veterans used as resources by modern historians. I had read the Red Badge of Courage in high school as part of American Literature, but decided to read it again as part of my review of Civil War literature. In school we tended to focus on the narrative as a craft, looking at color words, meaning of words in context, creation of character, etc. Certainly in this perspective, the work is exemplray. One of the more vivid passages describes the youth in the presence of a corpse of a fellow soldier in an arbored area after he has fled the battle field. The tight, concise style and careful choice of words carries the main character from braggadocio to cowardice, from flight to fearless valour, from novice to veteran in under 200 pages. Unforgettable.

Another Bad Review:
I am not an impatient reader. I'm one of the few people who has read all three volumes of "The Gulag Archipelago." I even managed to complete the dreadful "Turn of the Screw." But I cannot finish this book. "The Red Badge of Courage" is the most put-downable book I have ever attempted to read.

A Great Peice of History:
The Red Badge of Courage is a great novel putting you in the heart of the civil war. They way he writes the character's dialoged is hard to understand at first but it sound like what they would say in the 1860's. The book is about a boy looking to become a man, but haves troubles along the way like running from his first battle. If you like action, suspense and drama than this book is for you.