How Is Henry Presented In The Red Badge Of Courage

Henry Fleming is a Union soldier, who is described as “The Youth” throughout the book by Stephen Crane. At the very beginning of The Red Badge of Courage, Henry is actually excited to enlist into the war as it’ll make him into a local hero/celebrity in his town, eventually Henry is terrified of the idea of any battles in the war as he even thinks about running away from them, but nearing the end of The Red Badge of Courage Henry appears to be no longer afraid of war and isn’t afraid of dying in it anymore.

At the very beginning, Henry actually likes the idea of enlisting into the war as it’ll turn Henry into a hero/celebrity in his town, but moments after Henry begins to hear rumors going around in his regiment about them finally going into

Henry even thinks that getting shot/killed would even be a better alternative option than fighting in the war as it’ll get rid of all his worries/troubles about the war. In two scenes, one of them shows how Henry was prepared for battle and was even excited to participate in the war despite his mother telling him not to because fighting in the war will turn Henry into a hero, “On the way to Washington his spirit had soared. The regiment was fed and caressed at station after station until the youth had believed that he must be a hero” In the second scene, it shows how Henry was now afraid and terrified of even going into his first battle, he even contemplates on what he’ll do when he encounters his first battle of the war and his mind immediately thinks of running away from it into a forest as far as he could, “But here he was now confronted with a thing of moment. It had suddenly appeared to him

And because of this attitude Henry is respected by many and he was even named the war devil too by his comrades. There are even many instances of Henry being this way and it shows us how far Henry has really come in The Red Badge of Courage. To someone who would be terrified of the idea of war to now someone who’s ready to fight in the frontlines in war. Even though there are many scenes/events that show this new Henry, there’s one that in my opinion shows it the best and that scene is when Henry assumes the role of the flag bearer and takes the flag, “The youth and his friend had a small scuffle over the flag. ‘Give it t’ me!’ ‘No, let me keep it!’ Each felt satisfied with the other’s possession of it, but each felt bound to declare, by an offer to carry the emblem, his willingness to further risk himself. The youth roughly pushed his friend away.” Usually the flag bearer’s role is given to someone with great courage and bravery in many wars, and since Henry was even fighting over the role with his friend, for Henry to be a flag bearer instead of him. This shows us how far Henry has really grown in a short period of time, to him even willingly to become the new flag bearer as soon as he’d gotten the chance to, which would mean risking his life if he does become