Monday, December 23, 2013

1 positive trait about Henry Flemming and 1 negative trait (The Red Badge of Courage) and how the author describes the setting?

One critical view of Stephen Crane's Red Badge
of Courage
 sees the novel as a bildungsroman in which
the main character, Henry Fleming reaches maturation as a man on the battlefields of the
Civil War.  In keeping with this motif, one negative trait of Henry's is his fleeing the
first squirmish with the enemy and his positive trait is Henry's acquisition of valor in
which he and his friend, Wilson, lead the regiment to
victory.


NEGATIVE TRAIT


In
Chapter III, Henry sees the battle flag in the distance jerking about madly.  His vision
of battle does not coincide with his romantic visions of Greek warriors from his
readings and Henry is taken aback by the chaos and panic of the battle in whose midst he
finds himself.  Panicking, Henry runs into the woods,groveling on the ground
and "careering through the bushes."


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He yelled then with fright and swung about.  For
a moment, in the great clamor, he was like a proverbial chicken.  He lost the direction
of safety.  Destruction threatened him from all
points....


He ran like a blind man....Since he had turned
his back upon the fight his fears had been wondrously magnified.  Death about to thrust
him between the should blades was far more dreadful than death about to smite him
between the eyes.



It is an
indifferent nature--"It seemed now that Nature had no ears"--The sun blazed, the insects
make comfortable rhythmical noises.  "A bird flew on lighthearted
wing."


POSITIVE TRAIT


In
contrast to the flag that Henry views in Chapter III, Henry later sees the flag and
feels



a
despairing fondness for this flag which was near him.  It was a creation of beauty and
involnerability.  It was a goddess, radiant, that bended its form with an imperious
gesture to him.  It was a woman, red and white, hating and loving, that called him with
the voice of his hopes.  Because no har could come to it he endowed it with
power.



Fortifying himself
with his romantic vision, Henry and Wilson with valor lead the 304th regiment to
victory. "The impetus of enthusiasm was theirs again....And they were men."  The
regiment even takes four Southerners prisoner.  Still holding the flag, Henry "nestles"
in the long grass with Wilson by his side, and they congratulate themselves.  At this
point, nature seems benevolent as the clouds part to emit the warmth and light of the
sun amid images of clover and flowers; however, in actuality, it is still indifferent to
the inner feelings of Henry or any of the soldiers.

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