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Comparing The Red Badge Of Courage And Maggie: A Girl Of The Streets

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Stephen Crane’s inspiration for writing was his family. He attended Syracuse University in New York, while he was there he discovered that humanity was more of a thought-provoking study. Crane first attended military school which inspired his interest in The Civil War. “The Red Badge of Courage” was his most famous book that caught the attention of many people. Stephen Crane shows realism in “The Red Badge of Courage” and “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets”. Realism is shown through the portrayal of young people, sentimentalism, and American society. (Stephen Crane revised edition) In the “The Red Badge of Courage”, Henry Fleming, the young protagonist, is cast into a literal “trial by fire” that will test his courage. War can change a young person’s frame of mind entirely. Fleming captured the real emotions Henry was going through. He had to decide whether to run away and escape death or to be an honorable soldier and risk his life on the Civil War front …show more content…

In the “Red Badge of Courage”, Henry Fleming is sentimental about the war because it means a lot to him to help others. Henry wants to fight for his country but is scared at the same time, so he joins the military because he wants to be a good person and to make a difference. In “Maggie a Girl of the Streets”, Crane shows sentimentalism by considering the dark underworld of poverty such as drunkards, prostitutes, fistfights, and death. We see a girl named Maggie, who was born into poverty and doomed from the get go. Crane uses Sentimentalism to portray his realistic style by having real life situations that people deal with every day. “From a Window of an apartment house that unprepared its form from amid squat, ignorant stables, there leaned a curious woman. Some laborers, unloading a scow at a dock at the river, paused for a moment and regarded the fight.” (In “Maggie: A Girl of the

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