A Critical Study Of Symbolism In Stephen Crane's The Red Badge Of Courage

Stephen Crane is one of the most gifted and influential American writers of the late nineteenth century. The Red Badge of Courage, his masterwork, published in book form in 1895, has been widely acknowledged as a classic in American literary history. Since its publication, there have been numerous and diverse criticisms on the novel. Traditionally, The Red Badge of Courage was simply and roughly labeled as a realistic or naturalistic work. However, since 1950, contemporary critics have tended to regard it as a symbolic work. Many articles have been written to analyze the novel from symbolic approaches. In most cases, symbolism is considered to be a technique used by Crane to convey its religious theme. But actually, Crane adopts symbolism primarily to express more effectively his naturalistic thoughts. It remains an issue worth furthering study.This thesis attempts to make a detailed analysis of the system of symbols in The Red Badge of Courage to show that symbolism is used by Crane to better convey his naturalistic ideas so that a better understanding and appreciation of the work can be achieved. It consists of four chapters all together. In the first chapter, a brief introduction to Crane's life and works as well as comments of different periods upon The Red Badge of Courage is offered. In the second one, there are a concise summary of the theory of symbolism and a full account of the characteristics of The Red Badge of Courage as a symbolic novel. The third chapter analyzes the system of symbols in the novel. It is made up of three parts: part one focuses on the sun, the central symbol to suggest the indifference and hostility of Nature or Universe to man; part two examines the color imagery, animal imagery and machine imagery which imply the brutality, confusion, and meaninglessness of war; and the last part makes a study of the anonymity of the characters and proves it indicates man's insignificance. Chapter Four draws the conclusion that symbolism successfully helps Crane express vividly such great and important themes in so short a novel. Crane's symbolic style distinguishes him as a pioneer modernistic writer who has exercised a great influencervon many later writers.