It did not take long for the protagonist, Henry Fleming, to change from a weak-spirited and immature adolescent to an experienced and brave veteran. Despite of his frail beginning, he starts to remove the fear, and in a sudden, the fear transforms to bravery. Henry becomes mature by undergoing several circumstances, and finds enlightenment from those circumstances with his eclectic reactions: distorting the reality, listening to the words from his companions, and realizing the societal group.
Henry has focused getting a glory and reputation from the beginning of this novel. He enlists into the regiment with immense dream, becoming a hero in the battle as the ancient Greek soldier did. He desires far from noble; Henry hopes that an impressive performance on the battlefield will immortalize him as a hero among men based on his dramatically belief. Ironically, Henry runs from his own intelligence in order to justify his cowardice by condemning the soldiers who escape from the battle are “wise enough to save themselves from the flurry of death." Henry's lack of a true moral sense aids Henry to restore his fragile self-pride If others call him a hero, he believes he is the one. His first focused desire to get good reputation makes him to distort the reality and his moral acknowledgement. Although
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Also he discovers that Jim Conklin is the earthy epitome of what a man should live like. Jim is a person who can examine himself, and can able to own up to his own culpabilities and debilities. Wilson, who begins the novel as “the Loud Soldier,” later reveals his own vulnerable points when he asks Henry to deliver the packet of letters to his family. Henry gradually realizes what a real man looks and acts like, and he comes to the conclusion that a big part of manhood is acknowledging to one’s own mistakes and flaws. By listening to the words from his companions, Henry comes to