A True Hero In Stephen Crane's Red Badge Of Courage

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A hero is characterized by the qualities that include: physicality, courage, and integrity. Contrastingly, in Stephen Crane’s Red Badge of Courage, Henry Fleming proves himself an anti-hero through his lack of physicality, cowardice, and dishonesty. An important aspect of fighting in a war is physicality. Physicality includes the ability to withstand tough environments and remain composed in rough situations. Although Fleming’s anger should have been against the “men [that] he knew were rushing towards him”, it wasn’t (33). Instead, his anger was directed towards the “battle phantoms” of the war (33). These phantoms included the thick patch of smoke that choked him and led him to anxiously gasp for air. A true hero would persevere over this