Henry Fleming's The Red Badge Of Courage

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The Red Badge of Courage The Red Badge of Courage takes place during an unnamed battle during the Civil War. The location of the battle is also never mentioned. Although, the battle wasn’t told, it vividly described the war, and that made The Red Badge of Courage, historical fiction. The main character is Henry Fleming, a young boy who decides to join the army, and he is accompanied by Jim Conklin and Wilson. Fleming meets these soldiers in his regiment and becomes good friends with them. Together they go through the experiences of war and they each change in their own unique way. The main theme of this book is courage. Fleming joins the army to prove that he is courageous even in the most fearsome situations. Fleming changes throughout…show more content…
In the book Fleming is often with other soldiers but he is isolated till he is able to become a real soldier. The youth would have liked to have discovered another who suspected himself. A sympathetic comparison of mental notes would have been a joy to him (14). This is stated when Fleming is pondering about battle for the first time. He is the only soldier that seems to be frightened of battle and he seeks companions that have the same beliefs. When Fleming encounters a real battle, he runs from his first battle and spent time isolated. He encountered injured soldiers, and felt isolated because he was not harmed. Although no one questioned the unharmed soldier, Fleming felt guilty and felt that he betrayed his fellow soldiers. Until Fleming returns to battle with is fellow soldiers, he feels isolated. When he begins to fight alongside his friends, for a purpose he loses the feeling of being isolated. There were a few problems with The Red Badge of Courage. The dialect of the soldiers was very hard to understand. Also in the dialogue they used old terms that aren’t used today, such as hellwhoop which means at great speeds. They would also use very improper grammar and it would make it difficult to understand. An example of the dialect is “He’s up an’ gone, ain’t ‘e, an’ we might as well begin t’ look out fer ol’ number one” and “Well, he was reg’lar jim-dandy fer nerve, wa’n’t he (63).” This was used to show the way soldiers talk, but…show more content…
The detail helped the reader imagine him/her watching the battles but it also had its down side. At times the soldiers would be marching and the detail of the grass and dirt would go on and on. Although this helped the reader imagine the setting, it was useless and this created moments where the reader would be extremely uninterested. This was not a problem that interrupted the book much because the book was extremely well written. Overall the ending of The Red Badge of Courage was happy because the main character survived and was able to learn a valuable lesson. While reading the story it was quite sad because it showed how many people died for no reason. Fleming’s regiment was at one point to be sacrificed to help defeat the enemy. This was a realistic military strategy. Although only following the Flemings story, it did concentrate on death but it didn’t make it a sad story. The story was more about Fleming overcoming his fear of
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