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RED BADGE OF COURAGE
The Red Badge of Courage has many different kinds of themes, motifs and symbols, but the one that stood out to me the most was courage. After all, the book’s title is The Red Badge of COURAGE! So im writing on how Henry faces many battles in his mind and how his view on certain things are different from the begging of the book to the end.
At the begging of the novel Henry’s view of courage is traditional and romantic. He thought that he would come back from a huge war in shining armor riding a big black horse and would be the hero of the war. Henry was looking for the praise of his peers more than any internal measure of his bravery.
The first battle Henry fought gave him a boost of courage and an innocent mindset of war. He fought very well for his first time, but soon after that he came to realize the truth about himself and the real world.
Throughout the book Henry battles with his inner self more than anything. At the begging of the book Henry’s determination was high because he didn’t know what war was like yet. Then, in the middle of the book Henry was so discouraged that he almost dropped out of the war. But that all changed in the end. “He saw his vivid error, and he was afraid that it would stand before him all his life. He took no share in chatter of his comrades, nor did he look at them or know them, save when he felt sudden suspicion that they were seeing his thoughts and scrutinizing each detail of the scene with the tattered solider. Yet gradually he mustered force to put the sin at distance. And at last his eyes seemed to open to some new ways. He found that he could look back upon the brass and bombast of his earlier gospels and see them truly. He was gleeful when he discovered that he now despised them with the conviction came a store of assurance. He felt quiet manhood, non-assertive but the sturdy and strong blood. He knew that he would no more quail before his guides where ever they should...