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= The_Red_Badge_of_Courage =
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Introduction
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'The Red Badge of Courage' is an 1895 war novel by American author
Stephen Crane. The novel was published on 3 October 1895. Taking place
during the American Civil War, the story is about a young private of
the Union Army, Henry Fleming, who flees from the field of battle.
Overcome with shame, he longs for a wound, a "red badge of courage",
to counteract his cowardice. When his regiment once again faces the
enemy, Henry acts as flag-bearer, carrying the regimental colors.
Although Crane was born after the war, and had not at the time
experienced battle first-hand, the novel is known for its realism and
naturalism. He began writing what would become his second novel in
1894, using various contemporary and written accounts (such as those
published previously by 'Century Magazine') as inspiration. It is
believed that he based the fictional battle on that of
Chancellorsville; he may also have interviewed veterans of the 124th
New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, commonly known as the Orange
Blossoms. Initially shortened and serialized in newspapers in December
1894, the novel was published in full in October 1895. A longer
version of the work, based on Crane's original manuscript, was
published in 1982.
The novel is known for its distinctive style, which includes realistic
battle sequences as well as the repeated use of color imagery, and
ironic tone. Separating itself from a traditional war narrative,
Crane's story reflects the inner experience of its protagonist (a
soldier fleeing from combat) rather than the external world around
him. Also notable for its use of what Crane called a "psychological
portrayal of fear", the novel's allegorical and symbolic qualities are
often debated by critics. Several of the themes that the story
explores are maturation, heroism, cowardice, and the indifference of
nature. 'The Red Badge of Courage' garnered widespread acclaim, what
H. G. Wells called "an orgy of praise", shortly after its publication,
making Crane an instant celebrity at the age of twenty-four. The novel
and its author did have their initial detractors, however, including
author and veteran Ambrose Bierce. Adapted several times for the
screen, the novel became a bestseller. Never out of print, it is
Crane's most important work and a major American text.
Background
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Stephen Crane published his first novel, 'Maggie: A Girl of the
Streets', in March 1893 at the age of 21. 'Maggie' was not a success,
either financially or critically. Most critics thought the
unsentimental Bowery tale crude or vulgar, and Crane chose to publish
the work privately after it was repeatedly rejected for publication.
Crane found inspiration for his next novel while spending hours
lounging in a friend's studio in the early summer of 1893. There, he
became fascinated with issues of 'Century Magazine' that were largely
devoted to famous battles and military leaders from the Civil War.
Frustrated with the dryly written stories, Crane stated, "I wonder
that some of those fellows don't tell how they 'felt' in those scraps.
They spout enough of what they 'did', but they're as emotionless as
rocks." Returning to these magazines during subsequent visits to the
studio, he decided to write a war novel. He later stated that he "had
been unconsciously working the detail of the story out through most of
his boyhood" and had imagined "war stories ever since he was out of
knickerbockers."
At the time, Crane was intermittently employed as a freelance writer,
contributing articles to various New York City newspapers. He began
writing what would become 'The Red Badge of Courage' in June 1893,
while living with his older brother Edmund in Lake View, New Jersey.
Crane conceived the story from the point of view of a young private
who is at first filled with boyish dreams of the glory of war, only to
become disillusioned by war's reality. He took the private's surname,
"Fleming," from his sister-in-law's maiden name. He would later relate
that the first paragraphs came to him with "every word in place, every
comma, every period fixed." Working mostly nights, he wrote from
around midnight until four or five in the morning. Because he could
not afford a typewriter, he carefully wrote in ink on legal-sized
paper, occasionally crossing through or overlying a word. If he
changed something, he would rewrite the whole page. He later moved to
New York City, where he completed the novel in April 1894
.
Publication history
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The title of Crane's original, 55,000-word manuscript was "Private
Fleming/His various battles", but in order to create the sense of a
less traditional Civil War narrative, he ultimately changed the title
to 'The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War'.
In early 1894, Crane submitted the manuscript to S. S. McClure, who
held on to it for six months without publication. Frustrated, the
author asked for the manuscript to be returned, after which he gave it
to Irving Bacheller in October. An abbreviated version of Crane's
story was first serialized in 'The Philadelphia Press' in December
1894. This version of the story, which was culled to 18,000 words by
an editor specifically for the serialization, was reprinted in
newspapers across America, establishing Crane's fame. Crane biographer
John Berryman wrote that the story was published in at least 200 small
city dailies and approximately 550 weekly papers. In October 1895, a
version, which was 5,000 words shorter than the original manuscript,
was printed in book form by D. Appleton & Company. This version of
the novel differed greatly from Crane's original manuscript; the
deletions were thought by some scholars to be due to demands by an
Appleton employee who was afraid of public disapproval of the novel's
content. Parts of the original manuscript removed from the 1895
version include all of the twelfth chapter, as well as the endings to
chapters seven, ten and fifteen.
Crane's contract with Appleton allowed him to receive a flat ten
percent royalty of all copies sold. However, the contract also
stipulated that he was not to receive royalties from the books sold in
Great Britain, where they were released by Heinemann in early 1896 as
part of its Pioneer Series. In 1982, W. W. Norton & Company
published a version of the novel based on Crane's original 1894
manuscript of 55,000 words. Edited by Henry Binder, this version is
questioned by those who believe Crane made the original edits for the
1895 Appleton edition of his own accord. Since its initial
publication, the novel has never gone out of print.
Plot summary
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On a cold day, the fictional 304th New York Infantry Regiment awaits
battle beside a river. Private Henry Fleming, a young teenaged
recruit, remembers his romantic reasons for enlisting as well as his
mother's resulting protests, wonders whether he will remain brave in
the face of fear or turn and run back. He is comforted by one of his
friends from home, Jim Conklin, who admits that he would run from
battle if his fellow soldiers also fled. During the regiment's first
battle, Confederate soldiers charge, but are repelled. The enemy
quickly regroups and attacks again, this time forcing some of the
unprepared Union soldiers to flee. Fearing the battle is a lost cause,
Henry deserts his regiment. It is not until after he reaches the rear
of the army that he overhears a general announcing the Union's
victory.
Ashamed, Henry escapes into a nearby forest, where he discovers a
decaying body in a peaceful clearing. In his distress, he hurriedly
leaves the clearing and stumbles upon a group of injured men returning
from battle. One member of the group, a "tattered soldier", asks Henry
where he is wounded, but the youth dodges the question. Among the
group is Conklin, who has been shot in the side and is suffering
delirium from blood loss. Jim eventually dies of his injury, defiantly
resisting aid from his friend, and an enraged and helpless Henry runs
from the wounded soldiers. He next comes upon a retreating column that
is in disarray. In the panic, a man hits Henry on the head with his
rifle, wounding him. Exhausted, hungry, thirsty, and now wounded,
Henry decides to return to his regiment regardless of his shame. When
he arrives at camp, the other soldiers believe his injury resulted
from a grazing bullet during battle. The other men care for the youth,
dressing his wound.
The next morning Henry goes into battle for the third time. His
regiment encounters an isolated Confederate unit, and in the ensuing
fight Henry proves to be a capable soldier, comforted by the belief
that his previous cowardice had not been noticed, as he "had performed
his mistakes in the dark, so he was still a man". Afterward, while
looking for a stream from which to obtain water with a friend, he
discovers from his commanding officer that his regiment has a
lackluster reputation. The officer speaks casually about sacrificing
the 304th because they are nothing more than "mule drivers" and "mud
diggers". With no other regiments to spare, the general orders his men
forward.
In the final battle, Henry acts as the flag-bearer after the color
sergeant falls. A line of Confederates, hidden behind a fence beyond a
clearing, shoots with impunity at Henry's regiment, which is
ill-covered in the tree-line. Facing withering fire if they stay and
disgrace if they retreat, the officers order a charge. Unarmed, Henry
leads the men while entirely escaping injury. Most of the Confederates
run before the regiment arrives, and four of the remaining men are
taken prisoner. The novel closes with the following passage:
Historical accuracy and inspiration
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Although Crane once wrote in a letter, "You can tell nothing ...
unless you are in that condition yourself," he wrote 'The Red Badge of
Courage' without any experience of war. He would, however, later serve
as a war correspondent during the Greco-Turkish and Spanish-American
Wars. Nevertheless, the realistic portrayal of the battlefield in 'The
Red Badge of Courage' has often misled readers into thinking that
Crane (despite being born six years after the end of the Civil War)
was himself a veteran. While trying to explain his ability to write
about battle realistically, Crane stated: "Of course, I have never
been in a battle, but I believe that I got my sense of the rage of
conflict on the football field, or else fighting is a hereditary
instinct, and I wrote intuitively; for the Cranes were a family of
fighters in the old days".
Crane drew from a variety of sources in order to realistically depict
battle. 'Century' "Battles and Leaders" series served as direct
inspiration for the novel, and one story in particular (Warren Lee
Goss's "Recollections of a Private") contains many parallels to
Crane's work. Thomas Beer wrote in his problematic 1923 biography that
Crane was challenged by a friend to write 'The Red Badge of Courage'
after having announced that he could do better than Émile Zola's 'La
Débâcle'. This anecdote, however, has not been substantiated. The
metaphor of the "red badge of courage" itself may have been inspired
by true events; historian Cecil D. Eby, Jr. noted that Union officer
Philip Kearny insisted his troops wear bright red unit insignia
patches, which became known as marks of valor and bravery. While the
304th New York Volunteer Infantry is fictional, many strategies and
occurrences in the novel echo actual events during the Civil War.
Details concerning specific campaigns during the war, especially
regarding battle formations and actions during the Battle of
Chancellorsville, have been noted by critics.
It is believed that Crane listened to war stories in the town square
of Port Jervis, New York (where his family at times resided) told by
members of the 124th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, commonly
known as the Orange Blossoms. The Orange Blossoms first saw battle at
Chancellorsville, which is believed by local historians to have been
the inspiration for the battle depicted in 'The Red Badge of Courage'.
Furthermore, there was a Private James Conklin who served in the 124th
New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and Crane's short story "The
Veteran", which was published in 'McClure's Magazine' the year after
'The Red Badge of Courage', depicts an elderly Henry Fleming who
specifically identifies his first combat experience as having occurred
at Chancellorsville.
Style and genre
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'The Red Badge of Courage' has a distinctive style, which is often
described as naturalistic, realistic, impressionistic or a mixture of
the three. Told in a third-person limited point of view, the novel
reflects the inner-experience of Henry Fleming, a young soldier who
flees from combat, rather than upon the external world around him.
'The Red Badge of Courage' is notable in its vivid descriptions and
well-cadenced prose, both of which help create suspense within the
story. Critics in particular have pointed to the repeated use of color
imagery throughout the novel, both literal and figurative, as proof of
the novel's use of Impressionism. Blue and gray uniforms are
mentioned, as are yellow and orange sunlight, and green forests, while
men's faces grow red with rage or courage, and gray with death. Crane
also uses animalistic imagery to comment upon people, nature, and war
itself. For example, the novel begins by portraying the army as a
living entity that is "stretched out on the hills, resting."
While the novel takes place during a series of battles, 'The Red Badge
of Courage' is not a traditional Civil War narrative. Focusing on the
complex internal struggle of its main character, rather than on the
war itself, Crane's novel often divides readers as to whether the
story is intended to be either for or against war. By avoiding
political, military, and geographic details, the story becomes
divorced from its historical context. Notably lacking are the dates in
which the action takes place, and the name of the battle; these
omissions effectively shift attention away from historical patterns in
order to concentrate on the emotional violence of battle in general.
The writer alluded to as much in a letter, in which he stated he
wished to depict war through "a psychological portrayal of fear."
Writing more than thirty years after the novel's debut, author Joseph
Conrad agreed that the novel's main struggle was internal rather than
external, and that Fleming "stands before the unknown. He would like
to prove to himself by some reasoning process that he will not 'run
from the battle'. And in his unblooded regiment he can find no help.
He is alone with the problem of courage." Crane's realistic portrayal
of the psychological struck a chord with reviewers; as one
contemporary critic wrote for 'The New York Press': "At times the
description is so vivid as to be almost suffocating. The reader is
right down in the midst of it where patriotism is dissolved into its
elements and where only a dozen men can be seen, firing blindly and
grotesquely into the smoke. This is war from a new point of view."
With its heavy use of irony, symbolism and metaphor, the novel also
lends itself to less straightforward readings. As with many of Crane's
fictional works, the novel's dialogue often uses distinctive local
dialects, contributing to its apparent historicity; for example, Jim
Conklin muses at the beginning of the novel: "I s'pose we must go
reconnoiterin' 'round th' kentry jest t' keep 'em from gittin' too
clost, or t'develope'm, or something". The ironic tone increases in
severity as the novel progresses, especially in terms of the ironic
distance between the narrator and protagonist. The title of the work
itself is ironic; Henry wishes "that he, too, had a wound, a red badge
of courage", echoing a wish to have been wounded in battle. The wound
he does receive (from the rifle butt of a fleeing Union soldier),
however, is not a badge of courage but a badge of shame.
By substituting epithets for characters' names ("the youth", "the
tattered soldier"), Crane injects an allegorical quality into his
work, making his characters point to a specific characteristic of man.
There have been numerous interpretations concerning hidden meanings
within 'The Red Badge of Courage'. Beginning with Robert W. Stallman's
1968 Crane biography, several critics have explored the novel in terms
of Christian allegory. In particular, the death of Henry Fleming's
Christ-like friend, Jim Conklin, is noted for evidence of this
reading, as well as the concluding sentence of chapter nine, which
refers to the sun as "fierce wafer" in the sky. John Berryman was one
of the first critics to interpret the novel as a modern wasteland
through which the protagonist plays the role of an Everyman. Still
others read the novel as having a Naturalist structure, comparing the
work to those by Theodore Dreiser, Frank Norris and Jack London.
Themes
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As the title of the work suggests, the main theme of the novel deals
with Henry Fleming's attempt to prove himself a worthy soldier by
earning his "red badge of courage". The first twelve chapters, until
he receives his accidental wound, expose his cowardice. The following
chapters detail his growth and apparently resulting heroism. Before
the onset of battle, the novel's protagonist romanticized war; what
little he knew about battle he learned from books: "He had read of
marches, sieges, conflicts, and he had longed to see it all".
Therefore, when confronted by the harsh realities of war, Henry is
shocked, and his idealism falters. Finding solace in existential
thoughts, he internally fights to make sense of the senseless world in
which he finds himself. When he seems to come to terms with his
situation, he is yet again forced into the fears of battle, which
threaten to strip him of his enlightened identity. Joseph Hergesheimer
wrote in his introduction to the 1925 Knopf edition of the novel that,
at its heart, 'The Red Badge of Courage' was a "story of the birth, in
a boy, of a knowledge of himself and of self-command."
However, the text is ambiguous, making it questionable that Henry ever
matures. As critic Donald Gibson stated in 'The Red Badge of Courage:
Redefining the Hero', "the novel undercuts itself. It says there is no
answer to the questions it raises; yet it says the opposite.... It
says that Henry Fleming finally sees things as they are; it says he is
a deluded fool. It says that Henry does not see things as they are;
but no one else does either." Although Crane critic and biographer
Stallman wrote of Henry's "spiritual change" by the end of the story,
he also found this theme difficult to champion in light of the novel's
enigmatic ending. Although Henry "progresses upwards toward manhood
and moral triumph", as he begins to mature by taking leave of his
previous "romantic notions," "the education of the hero ends as it
began: in self deception." Critic William B. Dillingham also noted the
novel's heroism paradox, especially in terms of the introspective
Henry's lapse into unreasoning self-abandon in the second half of the
book. Dillingham stated that "in order to be courageous, a man in time
of physical strife must abandon the highest of his human facilities,
reason and imagination, and act instinctively, even animalistically."
The indifference of the natural world is a reoccurring theme in
Crane's work. At the beginning of the novel, as the regiments advance
toward battle, the sky is described as being an innocuous "fairy
blue." In chapter seven, Henry notes the inexplicable tranquility of
nature, "a woman with a deep aversion to tragedy", even as the battle
rages on. Similarly, Heaven itself is indifferent to the slaughter he
encounters on the battlefield. The dichotomy between nature's
sweetness and war's destructiveness is further described in chapter
eighteen: "A cloud of dark smoke as from smoldering ruins went up
toward the sun now bright and gay in the blue, enameled sky." After
his desertion, however, Henry finds some comfort in the laws of
nature, which seem to briefly affirm his previous cowardice:
This landscape gave him assurance. A fair field holding life. It was
the religion of peace. It would die if its timid eyes were compelled
to see blood.... He threw a pine cone at a jovial squirrel, and he ran
with chattering fear. High in a treetop he stopped, and, poking his
head cautiously from behind a branch, looked down with an air of
trepidation. The youth felt triumphant at this exhibition. There was
the law, he said. Nature had given him a sign. The squirrel,
immediately upon recognizing danger, had taken to his legs without
ado. He did not stand stolidly baring his furry belly to the missile,
and die with an upward glance at the sympathetic heavens. On the
contrary, he had fled as fast as his legs could carry him.
Reception
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'The Red Badge of Courage' received generally positive reviews from
critics on its initial publication; in particular, it was said to be a
remarkably modern and original work. Appleton's 1895 publication went
through ten editions in the first year alone, making Crane an
overnight success at the age of twenty-four. H. G. Wells, a friend of
the author, later wrote that the novel was greeted by an "orgy of
praise" in England and the United States. An anonymous reviewer for
'The New York Press' wrote shortly after the novel's initial
publication that "One should be forever slow in charging an author
with genius, but it must be confessed that 'The Red Badge of Courage'
is open to the suspicion of having greater power and originality than
can be girdled by the name of talent." The reviewer for 'The New York
Times' was impressed by Crane's realistic portrayal of war, writing
that the book "strikes the reader as a statement of facts by a
veteran", a sentiment that was echoed by the reviewer for 'The
Critic', who called the novel "a true book; true to life, whether it
be taken as a literal transcript of a soldier's experiences in his
first battle, or... a great parable of the inner battle which every
man must fight."
The novel, however, did have its initial detractors. Some critics
found Crane's young age and inexperience troubling, rather than
impressive. For example, one reviewer wrote, "As Mr. Crane is too
young a man to write from experience, the frightful details of his
book must be the outcome of a very feverish imagination." Crane and
his work also received criticism from veterans of the war; one in
particular, Alexander C. McClurg, a brigadier general who served
through the Chickamauga and Chattanooga campaigns, wrote a lengthy
letter to 'The Dial' (which his publishing company owned) in April
1896, lambasting the novel as "a vicious satire upon American soldiers
and American armies." Author and veteran Ambrose Bierce, popular for
his Civil War-fiction, also expressed contempt for the novel and its
writer. When a reviewer for 'The New York Journal' referred to 'The
Red Badge of Courage' as a poor imitation of Bierce's work, Bierce
responded by congratulating them for exposing "the Crane freak". Some
reviewers also found fault with Crane's narrative style, grammar
mistakes, and apparent lack of traditional plot.
While it eventually became a bestseller in the United States, 'The Red
Badge of Courage' was more popular and sold more rapidly in England
when it was published in late 1895. Crane was delighted with his
novel's success overseas, writing to a friend: "I have only one pride
and that is that the English edition of 'The Red Badge of Courage' has
been received with great praise by the English reviewers. I am proud
of this simply because the remoter people would seem more just and
harder to win." Critic, veteran and Member of Parliament George
Wyndham called the novel a "masterpiece", applauding Crane's ability
to "stage the drama of man, so to speak, within the mind of one man,
and then admits you as to a theatre." Harold Frederic wrote in his own
review that "If there were in existence any books of a similar
character, one could start confidently by saying that it was the best
of its kind. But it has no fellows. It is a book outside of all
classification. So unlike anything else is it that the temptation
rises to deny that it is a book at all". Frederic, who would later
befriend Crane when the latter relocated to England in 1897,
juxtaposed the novel's treatment of war to those by Leo Tolstoy, Émile
Zola and Victor Hugo, all of whose works he believed to be
"positively... cold and ineffectual" when compared to 'The Red Badge
of Courage'.
Legacy
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Crane himself later wrote about the novel: "I don't think 'The Red
Badge' to be any great shakes but then the very theme of it gives it
an intensity that the writer can't reach every day." For the remainder
of Crane's short career (he died from tuberculosis at the age of 28),
'The Red Badge of Courage' served as the standard against which the
rest of his works were compared. Appleton republished the novel again
in 1917, shortly after the US entered World War I, reissuing it three
additional times that same year.
Since the resurgence of Crane's popularity in the 1920s, 'The Red
Badge of Courage' has been deemed a major American text and Crane's
most important work. While modern critics have noted Crane's
"anticipation of the modern spectacle of war", others, such as Crane
scholar Stanley Wertheim, believe the work to be "unquestionably the
most realistic novel about the American Civil War". Donald Gibson
called the novel "ahead of its time" because it did "not conform to
very many contemporary notions about what literature should be and
do." The novel has been anthologized numerous times, including in
Ernest Hemingway's 1942 collection 'Men at War: The Best War Stories
of All Time'. In the introduction, Hemingway wrote that the novel "is
one of the finest books of our literature, and I include it entire
because it is all as much of a piece as a great poem is." Robert W.
Stallman's introduction to the Modern Library's 1951 edition of 'The
Red Badge of Courage' contained one of the first modern assessments of
the novel. This novel is followed by other works by Crane, such as the
novella, 'Maggie: A Girl of the Streets'.
The novel has been adapted several times for the screen. A 1951 film
by the same name was directed by John Huston, starring Medal of Honor
recipient Audie Murphy as Henry Fleming. Written by Huston and Albert
Band, the film suffered from a troubled production history, went over
budget, and was cut down to only seventy minutes despite objections
from the director. A made-for-television movie was released in 1974,
starring Richard Thomas as Fleming, while the 2008 Czech film 'Tobruk'
was partly based on 'The Red Badge of Courage'.
The novel is also the inspiration for the title of the 'South Park'
episode "The Red Badge of Gayness", which revolves around a Civil War
re-enactment.
General and cited references
======================================================================
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* Grant, Susan-Mary and Peter J Parish. 2003. 'Legacy of Disunion: The
Enduring Significance of the American Civil War'. Baton Rouge:
Louisiana State University Press. .
* * .
* Habegger, Alfred. 1990. "Fighting Words: The Talk of Men at War in
The Red Badge." 'Critical Essays on Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of
Courage'. Ed. Donald Pizer. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co. .
* Horsford, Howard C. 1986. He Was a Man. 'New Essays on The Red Badge
of Courage'. Ed. Lee Clark Mitchell. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. .
* *
*
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*
*
*
*
*
*
* Monteiro, George. 2000. 'Stephen Crane's Blue Badge of Courage'.
Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. .
* Monteiro, George. 2009. 'Stephen Crane: The Contemporary Reviews'.
New York: Cambridge University Press. .
* Morris, Roy Jr. 2007. "On Whose Responsibility? The Historical and
Literary Underpinnings of 'The Red Badge of Courage'. 'Memory and
Myth: The Civil War in Fiction and Film from Uncle Tom's Cabin to Cold
Mountain'. Ed. David B. Sachsman. West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue
University Press. .
* Richardson, Mark. "The Mephistophelean Skepticism of Stephen Crane."
In [
https://boydellandbrewer.com/the-wings-of-atalanta-hb.html 'The
Wings of Atalanta: Essays Written Along the Color Line'] (pages
110-164). Rochester, New York: Camden House, 2019.
* Sears, Stephen W. 1996. 'Chancellorsville'. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin
Co. .
* Sorrentino, Paul. 2006. 'Student Companion to Stephen Crane'.
Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. .
* Stallman, Robert W. 1968. 'Stephen Crane: A Biography'. New York:
Braziller, Inc.
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