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Literary analysis
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Literary analysis
The help literary analysis essay
The power of literary analysis
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In “Red Badge of Courage” young union soldier Henry, bravely fights alongside his fellow soldiers in his first battle. However once the second battle starts he flees. Through the first four chapters, leading up to the battle, you can see Henry’s apprehension slowly rise. The army is constantly moving, which makes him and his fellow soldiers uneasy. After his regiment is finally settled into one position, young Henry’s first battle begins.
In “the Red Badge of Courage” the Narrator only focuses on one main character “the youth,” Henry Fleming's is more of an outsider. Henry is just watching other soldiers fight while he’s doing his own. “The separation was as great to him as if they had marched with weapons of flame and banners of sunlight. He could never be like them.” It tells us how isolated he is.
The Evolution of the Mind of Henry Fleming The Red Badge of Courage is a historical fiction novel written by Stephen Crane. It takes place during the American Civil War and follows the journey of Henry Fleming, a young man who has enlisted in the war on the side of the Union. Over the course of the story, Henry changes tremendously, starting as a reasonably sane, rather prideful, but also fearful youth, and ending with considerable damage to his psyche, significant blows to his ego, but still having gained some courage. However, the most notable change throughout the book concerns Henry’s sanity, or lack thereof; this is the transformation that will be explored, and Henry’s evolution throughout the novel will be revealed.
In battle, there are many ways to be put in the wrong position. A few erratic decisions can cause lifelong problems. In “The Red Badge of Courage” Stephan Crane shows the many situations in battle during the Civil War in 1860. Henry Fleming, also known as “The Youth,” made many notable decisions that would consider him a coward rather than a hero. Henry demonstrates a coward because he ran during the battle, deserted the tattered soldier, and lied to the other soldiers.
In the slave narrative “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,” Douglass lacks a great deal of courage at the beginning of the story. Douglass runs away in fear after a brutal beating from Mr. Covey. Douglass was so afraid and worried as to what might happen to him if he stays with Mr. Covey. In the film, The Red Badge of Courage, Henry has a similar experience. As Henry heads to the battlefield, fear overcomes him, he only had the courage to stay for the first leg of the battle because he soon flees the sight.
“They carried the common secret of cowardice barely restrained, the instinct to run or freeze or hide, and in many respects this was the heaviest burden of all, for it could never be put down, it required perfect balance and perfect posture.” (O’Brien 77) Tim O’Brien clearly demonstrates to the reader that one of the most difficult burdens to bear is being a coward because even though carrying over fifty pounds of equipment is hard on the body physically cowardice is among the worst pain because you can never put that feeling down for even a second to relieve the pain. The novel The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, intends to show the reader how the platoons soldier’s cowardice and dread can effect them in the form of regret later in
In both stories, it’s very prevalent that both characters wish to gain their sense of redemption. Henry in “The Red Badge of Courage” started his experience in the war bright-eyed and with stead-fast conviction to achieve greatness in his military career. He wanted to be brave and take on the enemy with vigor. In time he grew to fear battle and he tormented himself with his own perceived cowardice.
In the novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien expresses to the reader why the men went to the war and continued to fight it. In the first chapter, “The Things They Carried,” O’Brien states “It was not courage, exactly; the object was not valor. Rather they were too frightened to be cowards.” The soldiers went to war not because they were courageous and ready to fight, but because they felt the need to go. They were afraid and coped with their lack of courage by telling stories (to themselves or aloud) and applied humor to the situations they encountered.
From the boogeyman to death, everyone has fears lying beneath the surface. No one knows the harsh reality of these fears until someone unearths them; throughout the course of the Vietnam War many of these secrets were revealed as people had to come face to face with their deepest fears whether they wanted to, or not. In the novel, The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, the soldiers of the Alpha Company begin fighting during the Vietnam War. All soldiers carry the essentials of fighting in war, and one of those things is the fear to keep them going. The interview of, My Lai.
A Red Convertible with Many Meanings Throughout the course of a given year, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder affects approximately 5.2 million people. Nearly 7.8% of the United States population will experience PTSD in their lifetime, in addition 3.6% of adults ages eighteen to fifty-four will experience PTSD (“What is PTSD?”). Henry is one of these people. Using symbolism as well as foreshadowing within the story, “The Red Convertible” by Louise Erdrich portrays a few motifs throughout the story and these include the bond of brotherhood, sacrifice, and the effects of war.
The True Weight of War “The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, brings to light the psychological impact of what soldiers go through during times of war. We learn that the effects of traumatic events weigh heavier on the minds of men than all of the provisions and equipment they shouldered. Wartime truly tests the human body and and mind, to the point where some men return home completely destroyed. Some soldiers have been driven to the point of mentally altering reality in order to survive day to day. An indefinite number of men became numb to the deaths of their comrades, and yet secretly desired to die and bring a conclusion to their misery.
Conflict is one of the most basic elements of natural human behavior. Conflict, from a literary standpoint, serves its purpose to create tension within a story, which as a result keeps readers interested and engaged. Whether the conflict is with another person, with nature, or within yourself, it is ubiquitous and unavoidable. In Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage, the struggles that Henry faces help to give depth and meaning to the story, as well as develop Henry as a character.
A Soldier’s Dilemma Like many others in his regiment, Henry Fleming, protagonist in The Red Badge of Courage, expects the Battle of Chancellorsville to be filled with heroism and legendary acts of dauntless heroism. Heroism, however, seems nowhere to be found, and Henry is left questioning his own valor. In The Red Badge of Courage, Crane writes Henry Fleming as a flawed yet good-hearted character by revealing his inner thoughts as he runs from the battle, his actions directed toward comrades, and by displaying Henry’s differences at the end of the story to emphasize the inner struggle between courage and cowardice.
The massacre of Jonestown was committed November 18, 1978, where a death toll of 918 people lied dead. The People Templed was founded in 1956, where Jim Jones was the main cooperate in the mass murder. Jim Jones was what some would call a “God” and what most would call a murder. This all started when Jones established The Peoples Temple in Indianapolis, Indiana, where people could go for sanctuary and help. He grew so vast he was soon able to move his practice to Redwood Valley California, where things would start to take a surprising turn for the better or worst?
In The Red Badge of Courage, the theme of courage is tied to masculinity. At first, Henry Fleming feels like he can’t prove himself without first proving his valor. In all, his courage is proven through his proven through his deep commitment and greater cause of the Union Army. We also see Warfare as a theme of The Red Badge of Courage. Crane does his best to embrace the thoughts and ideas of war from a single perspective contrary to a group view as well as the psychological battles faced by an individual, which can sometimes be seen as far more important than the battles actually fought on the field.