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.
This event occurs fairly early in the novel (Chapter 6) and is followed by an exploration of his guilt and shame about this desertion. The actual climax occurs in Chapter 12, when Henry receives a wound, his "red badge of courage." Ironically, this wound is inflicted by a fellow soldier who is frightened and fleeing from battle. When Henry tries to stop him to gain some information about what is going on in the battle, the soldier hits the Youth over the head with his rifle. From this point forward, however, things begin to sort out for Henry.
(21)- After repelling the enemy counterattack, Henry and the remainder of his regiment return to their lines where they are greeted with taunts and derogatory comments made by another regiment. Henry is angered by the comments, as are the lieutenant and the red-bearded officer. Henry looks back at the distance which the regiment covered in the charge, and he realizes, with surprise, that they really had not ventured very far from their line. He begins to think that the jeers of the greeting regiment are justified. However, as Henry reflects further on the charge, he feels quite happy and contented with his own personal performance during the battle.
There also seems to be a conflict going on within himself. After hearing the news of the approval Sergeant Mulcahy strips the shirt off of Trip exposing his scars on his back from previous floggings following this Trip pulls the rest of his shirt off with angst and a facial expression of pure disgust for what the Colonel is doing. A slow dismal soundtrack starts at this point directing the emotions for the scene. A number of close ups start here to show emotion and expression on the faces of the two men. Trip chooses to fixate on Colonel Shaw and show no emotion but one single tear as Colonel Robert show looks on with a stern but also questioning look on his face.
Henry had joined the military to earn a name amongst other men. Instead he would flee from a battle and cause his own injury. When Henry returned to camp and lied about the nature of his wound, he highly doubted neither his manhood nor his right to behave as pompously as a veteran. Henry’s lack of a true moral sense manifested itself in the emptiness of the honor and glory that he seeks. A great change occurs within him as he fought, he lost his sense of self.
This essay will explore this interpretation of Haig and the generals, but in order to provide a balanced view, I will also consider the positive interpretations of Haig as a leader, as many sources from the time and recently praise him as a good leader. At the time of the war and after, soldiers criticised Haig and the generals , Haig was criticised because he made commands without being in trenches. In source B2 a soldier who had watched his friends die around him due to Haigs incompetence and bad planning, wrote “it was pure bloody murder. Douglas Haig should have been hung, drawn and quartered for what he did on the Somme. The cream of British manhood was shattered in less than 6 hours.” This suggests that he wanted Haig to be punished due to his loss of so many of his own men, but also due to his own resentment towards him.
Wade Berrigan 5-26-07 The Moral Ambiguity of War In the novel Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Meyers, shows us many examples of soldiers struggling between making morale choices or staying alive. New soldiers look at other soldiers who have been in the war for a while as if they are sick soulless creatures killing everything in their way. Later we find these same characters that are doing the questioning doing the same thing. For example Perry wonders to himself how someone can die in front of them and no one remember it the following day. This shows his morals are still intact.
Getting over th ehump of a much more severe boot camp completed the tranistion from sloppy civilian to kempt soldier. Moving up the ranks on account of his common sense intelligence and the attrition of the MI he becomes squad leader where he proves himself during a combat drop by not only just leading his squad successfully but going back for a wounded soldier bringing to live the "no MI left behind" motto. Skipping the rank of platoon sergent to assistant section leader brought him some disobedience from the senior platoon sergent that should have gotten the higher billet. Taking him aside for a mutual ass whooping, the destruction of an equal match serves as a good example for all enlisted leaders. Rico accepts his role in the infintry and serves as a shining examples of a soldier so much that he is approached to commission.
At one point Junger mentions, “…behind every traverse lurked catastrophe, ready to pluck its next chance victim (51).” Later Ernst Junger gives a description of such a situation. While leading an entrenchment party one of the soldiers is shot. The fallen man’s fellow comrades decide to stay posted at their positions longer in attempt to exact revenge for a man who was married with four children. Once Junger provides these details, we understand how personal the war truly was. Soldiers were not just pawns, but actual men with actual lives off of the battle
In the heat of battle, he completely forgets about his previous anxiety, a “red rage” overtakes him and the regiment and they successfully force the enemies to fall back. The real test of Henry’s courage is yet to come though – when the enemies charge back a moment later, Henry is frightened by their confidence: “He began to exaggerate the endurance, the skill, and the valor of those who were coming. Himself reeling from exhaustion, he was astonished beyond measure at such persistency.”(31) He panics and flees from the battle. Afterwards, Henry finds out that his regiment defeated the enemy without him and becomes even more anxious. He tries to justify his deeds by claiming that escaping danger is completely natural, and proves it by tossing a pine cone at a squirrel, which then runs away with fear to a treetop.