ipl-logo

Is Henry A Coward In The Red Badge Of Courage

915 Words4 Pages

What makes someone a coward? Lacking Courage, Runs away from their problems, and leaving other people to defend for themselves? Overall most people share these similar traits, such as lacking courage, running away from their problems, and leaving other people to defend for themselves. In the Red Badge of Courage Henry is asking himself if he should stay in his regiment to help fight or leave and make them defend for themselves. Henry's actions throughout the novel may cause the readers to ask, “Is Henry a coward”. Henry Fleming is a coward because he ran away, he faked an injury just to get attention, and he just joined the army just to get known.
First reason Henry Fleming is a coward is because he ran away from war. Henry ran away because he was scared to die and he didn’t come back for a while to his regiment. He was so excited to join the war but when …show more content…

When he ran away he came back and lied to everyone that he got shot in the head. He also told everyone the reason he was missing is because he got lost and couldn’t find his way back. “ I got shot”. Yes it hurts-hurts- a good deal.” he repeated. “ There was a fluttering in his voice,(Crane 79).”He didn't get separated from his regiment, he ran away because he was scared and didn’t have the courage to fight and to help fight with his regiment. He made Winston and his commander believe that he got shot in the head even though he didn't. “ You have been grazed by a ball.” “ It's as if some feller had slammed yeh on the head with a club, (Crane 81).”The doctor knew he was lying but moved on and made everyone think he got shot because he didn’t want to deal with Henry's lies. He lied to everyone and then he left to go “heal”. Lying doesn't get you out of things. When you lie to someone who has been doing something for years they will know you are lying and it ain't true. It's not right to lie either because that also makes you a coward

Show More
Related
606 Words | 3 Pages

(Crane 7.) This quote shows Henry’s fear about the battle and it also shows his questions about whether he has the courage to fight in the battles. Unlike some other soldiers, Henry isn’t motivated by heroism, but by fear and self-absorption. This passage leaves

Read More
666 Words | 3 Pages

Other may view what he did as cowardly. Henry reacted this way for several reason. You have to assume after repelling the first assault fatigue must have set in, making Henry extremely tired physically and mentally. Also Henry did not run straight away from the battle, he only ran once he saw some of his fellow soldiers fleeing. Some of the soldiers he saw fleeing were veterans of the army.

Read More
1062 Words | 5 Pages

At the beginning of the story, Henry is a naive young soldier who finds his worth in how others treat him. As he entered the army he “...basked in the smiles of the girls and was patted and complimented by old men, [and] he had felt growing within him the strength to do mighty deeds of arms” (6). Henry’s definition of bravery is strictly based on the praise he gets from others for his own actions. He has no sense of true courage or integrity that comes from within. After his first few battles,one in which he was forced to fight and the other in which he ran, Henry battles with his own internal demons.

Read More
880 Words | 4 Pages

In the beginning of the story Henrys doubt and struggle to find courage seriously affects his faith in himself. He joined the army because he was drawn to the glory of military conflict; considering war a sort of accessory. In the book it states, “He had read of marches, sieges, conflicts, and he had longed to see it all.

Read More
469 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More
339 Words | 2 Pages

The reason Henry reacts that way becasue he didn't want to look bad in front of his regiment. He also felt like he was a cog in a machine when he was fighting in the first battle. He flees in the second battle since he thought that they were going to lose the battle. He also didn't feel like he was ready for a second battle. He decided to flee when he saw his men running out of their lines and fleeing away from the battle.

Read More
338 Words | 2 Pages

Henry was a novice fighter coming into his first battle, Battles can be scary especially being new to it and not having experience. The first battle made Henry nervous. Henry didn't want to be a whimp and run again so he fought. He had to show he was not a weak soldier. Henry wasn't expected to be a great soldier at first.

Read More
921 Words | 4 Pages

This is a clear sign that Henry was not prepared to enlist in the war and was. A true hero would have stayed through it all and would have never given up. At the beginning of the story when only wanted to go against what his mother said, he was immature and misunderstanding. Henry’s mother told him, “Henry, don’t be a fool” (Crane 4). Even though his mother attempted change his mind, the next morning he set out to enlist.

Read More
394 Words | 2 Pages

This makes us realize how close the soldiers are and how much they mean to each other. Reading this proves to us that Henry uses emotion to persuade the soldiers. Not only is there ethos and pathos in the text, but there are also

Read More
470 Words | 2 Pages

“We would not die in that man’s company that fears his fellowship to die with us (Shakespeare). This evidence shows that Henry calls his troops cowards so that they will be mad when they go into battle. Furthermore, Henry tells his men that if they don’t have any guts to fight, then leave. Henry didn’t want anybody that was scared to go into battle. He wanted the best chance against the French.

Read More
831 Words | 4 Pages

In Henry’s case, he was scared of being sent to war because he feared disappointing his mother and not showing courage on the battlefield. Henry's goal in the film was to prove he wasn't scared and would fight courageously. Later in the film, it is discovered that he runs away, midbattle, driven by terror. As a means of feeling respect and glory, he wanted to fight. As a result of his participation, Henry thought

Read More
1302 Words | 6 Pages

Henry has both triumphs and defeats which serves to add layers to his complex character. Conflict plagues him throughout every moment in the story, and it follows him through his progression as a soldier in the Civil War and as a person. Quite possibly the most glaring demonstration of conflict from the very beginning of the novel is Man versus Man conflict. It’s difficult to place a story in one of the most famous wars fought in American history without the violence and brutality that comes along with it. The type of conflict used in this novel to add depth and complexity to the story as well as the character of Henry Fleming is Man versus Self.

Read More
1598 Words | 7 Pages

The type of psychological badge that Henry wears throughout the story demonstrates his feelings towards his own actions. Henry begins to wish “he, too, had a wound, a red badge of courage”(47) and by doing so he is demonstrating his faulty conception of courage. Eventually, Henry does gain a ‘red badge of courage’ but he has obtained it through false means and a string of lies told to his friends, thus, instead of creating a wound of courage he began to wear the “sore badge of his dishonor” (58). Crane uses the conception of these badges of courage and dishonor to demonstrate the need for courage to be obtained in a way that is noble and that oneself can be proud to have achieved. Courage can be a virtue others see

Read More
802 Words | 4 Pages

He had thought of a fine revenge upon the officer who had referred to him and his fellows as mule drivers” (192). Henry’s intense desire for revenge is a moral flaw, but Crane leaves hope for Henry as he does not act on his hatred for the officer (192). Henry Fleming finally finds inner peace, and courage wins the war in his heart. Crane writes, “Yet the youth smiled, for he saw that the world was a world for him, though many discovered it to be made of oaths and walking sticks. He had rid himself of the red sickness of , battle” (232).

Read More
541 Words | 3 Pages

Citing the Pinkard reading and Kant if you have it, explain the relationship between representation and the object of representation in Kant’s thinking. In Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason he expresses how empiricism and rationalism are both flawed, and establishes a new approach to metaphysics. Kant’s new claim expresses that metaphysics should exclusively be applied to the realm in which access is possible. Humans can only have knowledge of what they are capable of experiencing or through concepts that can be accessed through mathematics.

Read More

More about Is Henry A Coward In The Red Badge Of Courage

Related Topics

Open Document