In both “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” by Fredrick Douglass and the movie of The Red Badge of Courage screen written by John Houston but based on the book by Stephen Crane, similarities are shown in the main character’s mental state, physical state, and more. To be more specific, both stories show a sense of mental and physical “war” going on. With Fredrick Douglass, he was in a mental war with himself about trying to get out of slavery and become a free man. His physical war is physically fighting with his owner in order to earn and receive the correct treatment and the equality that he deserves. For Henry, his mental war was with himself and wanting to leave and run from his fears but he also wanted to fight …show more content…
Henry from The Red Badge of Courage was also going through a mental war along with his physical war. His war was about wanting to be safe and leave the war to be with his family. He wanted to run away but at the same time be courageous and become known as that “war hero”. One example from the movie to show his mental war was when all of the soldiers were so happy and laughing and he could not help but be sad. He had walked away to just go think and another soldier had noticed. The other soldier came up to him and asked what was going on. Henry did not know what to say. This scene shows that even Henry was confused and upset at the fact that he could not be like everyone else and just be happy. He was struggling to be happy because he had more things going on. He wanted to be that courageous hero but he had other factors weighing on his heart. This scene shows the mental war he is having and just how much he misses his family and does not want to lose them. While going through these mental wars, both men were also going through physical wars which made their journey harder. Frederick was being beaten by his owner repeatedly …show more content…
One night, he got into a fight with his owner, the fight became physical and another slave had come into the barn looking for them. The master demanded help because he became scared of losing. The other slave refused to help. He knew that the punishment he would go through after not helping would be better than the mental punishment he would put on himself for going against one of his own kind. At the end of the fight, Frederick ends up winning and he is not beaten as regularly. He thanked the root he had carried in his pocket. On Henry’s side of the story, he is going through a literal war, the Civil War, and he is on the battlefields and feeling alone. For example, he was in one particular battle and the other side was making headway. They began to get closer and closer and Henry became scared. His commander was telling all of the soldiers to stay and fight. The commander told them to fire and hold their ground, one soldier even tried to run but was caught and told that he must stay. Henry became scared and decided to run. Nobody saw him but he felt so terrible for what he had done once he had time to