Comments On The Characterization In The Red Badge Of Courage

Stephen Crane is one of the most talented and influential American novelists at the end of the 19th century. Although his creative life lasts no more than seven or eight years, his works are keen probe into the human code of conduct. Crane's most enduring work, the short novel The Red Badge of Courage was published in 1895. Though initially not well received in the United States, The Red Badge of Courage was a massive success in England. The attention of the English critics caused many Americans to view the novel with renewed enthusiasm, catapulting the young Crane into international literary prominence.Based loosely on the events of the Civil War battle of Chancellorsvill (May 2 to May 6, 1863)—though neither the battle, the war, nor the armies are named in the book. The Red Badge shatters American preconceptions about what a war novel could be. In the decades before Crane's novel, most fictions about the Civil War were heavily idealistic, portraying the conflict as a great clash of opposed ideals. Whereas previous writers has taken a large, epic view, Crane focuses on the individual psychology of a single soldier, Private Henry Fleming, during his first experiences of battle. The Red Badge probes a state of mind and analyzes the gradual transformation of this psychological state under the incessant pinpricks and bombardments of life.Crane is said never to have seen a battle; but his The Red Badge is made up of the account of one. The success of the story, however, is due, not merely to what Crane knows of battle-fields, but to what he knows of the human heart. In writing this novel, Crane wants to puncture some overgrown pieties about American idealism in fighting the Civil War.The Red Badge was a novel of great influence at that time. Even now, its popularity is attested by the fact that it remains in print and its translations are still read all over the world. Seen as an episode of the American Civil War, The Red Badge...