Is Henry a coward for fleeing throughout multiple battles? In The novel The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, Henry is viewed as a young, inexperienced soldier, without the ability of making his own decisions. Many critics go back and forth discussing whether or not Henry is a coward, or just a young boy fearful for his life. In the critical evaluation from enotes, Henry is displayed as a coward for retreating during battle. As the evaluation progresses, the author begins to see Henry as a changing soldier, now more courageous and heroic, due to his ability to grow out of his childish actions, and take initiative as battles rage on. In the second article “ Realistic treatment of war in The Red Badge of Courage” Fleming is struck with the complete and utter realism he encounters throughout his experience in the war. Throughout the article, the reader sees Henry as boy hopeful for an unrealistic send-off. Fleming is described as “impatient” when his mother’s goodbye speech does not quite meet his expectations. Henry seems to irritated by the reality that hits him during his beginning months of deployment. In the third article “ The 100 best novels: No 30 - The Red Badge of Courage” by Stephen Crane, the author discusses Crane’s life before he wrote the novel. Crane was viewed as a struggling freelance writer until he came out of nowhere with his best novel The Red Badge of Courage. Many critics were shocked with Cranes ability to write with absolutely no experience in war