Way Through The Book Crane example essay topic

Despite all the action of the novel, Crane's emphasis is on the youth's response to the battlefront. This is achieved in a "first person" narrative perspective. The story takes place during the civil war. The forest is where all of the fighting occurs and where Henry learns about fear and valor. The camp is the Union base where the army set up for a while.

Henry Fleming begins the novel as an untried youth with all the misconceptions of war that boys are raised to believe; as a result, he eagerly joins the Union army. At first he enjoys military life as his regiment marches in parades before cheering civilians. Soon, however, the Youth is disappointed to realize that army life is boring work. His regiment is marched, drilled, and halted repeatedly. He despairs that he will never see action. The build-up to the action magnifies his fears about being courageous in battle.

Because of his fears, he becomes a loner, who is unable to enjoy the talk of his comrades. He grows morose and depressed. When he is sent to the front, he sees men running in the confusion of battle, and he begins to run himself. He finds himself in a forest where he tries to recover from his fear and anxiety. He emerges and stumbles upon a procession of wounded soldiers. He joins them and sees one man from his regiment die on the road.

Another wounded man begins to show the signs of dying, and the youth runs from him too. He comes upon a regiment in retreat and tries to stop a soldier to ask him what is happening; the soldier hits him over the head with his rifle. The youth finds his way back to his own regiment, and his comrades assume he has been injured in battle. He feels an overwhelming sense of shame over having run. The next day in battle, Henry fights harder than any of his comrades and even acts as a leader for them.

Later in the day, he and his friend come upon a general holding a meeting with several officers. His commanding officer volunteers his regiment for a strategic mission to attack the enemy line. His commander calls his regiment "mule drivers". The general predicts that few of them will survive the operation.

The Youth and his friend fight bravely, encouraging their tired comrades in the heat of battle. The Youth comes to be the flag bearer. His regiment is partially successful. The men are insulted when a commander tells their lieutenant that they stopped short of success. Nevertheless, the men are proud of their fortitude in holding the enemy line. When his regiment fights another battle on the same day, they break the enemy's line and take four prisoners.

The Youth reflects on his experiences and begins to forgive himself for his desertion. He realizes he is only a man, not a hero, and finds peace in that. I have read The Red Badge of Courage and discovered it to be one of the best and most interesting novels written about the Civil War. Considering the fact that Stephen Crane, the author, never saw the war but merely heard about it and read about it, I find it fascinating that he was able to depict such a pictorial setting with his descriptions.

The protagonist Henry Fleming, a boy who recently had joined the Union Army, goes to war only to find he "was not made out to be a soldier". Fleming goes through many trials that make him doubt his vast understanding of his inner being. He is constantly putting himself down, but in the end finds out whom he really is. Henry, like any other soldier, wonders if, in the heat of battle, he will run or stay and fight. All the way through the book Crane uses metaphors, symbolism, personification, allusions, humor, and immense descriptions to help you get the full extent of the meaning in the book, which keeps you interested from the first page on. Crane was very elaborate in his descriptions, not only of places, but of ideas and thoughts that went through Henry's mind.

Throughout the book, because of the descriptions, you have a much better understanding of the actual story line, and also the message Crane was trying to get across. Henry (the youth), Jim (the tall soldier), Wilson (the loud soldier), the lieutenant, the captain, the corporal, and other soldiers make up the 304th New York regiment. This regiment is full of mostly newly recruited soldiers that come from peaceful backgrounds into a much different environment, the war. The regiment is thought of by the higher ranked officers as "mule drivers" and "mud diggers"; however, they acknowledge the fact that they fight better than some brigades and are given some of the worst tasks because of this.

Crane depicts the war very realistically; you really understand what the soldiers are going through, here again because of the vivid descriptions. The most reliable source of information throughout the book is Fleming, and he does an excellent job informing you to what exactly is going on, on the battlefield, in camp, and in his mind. This book really goes in-depth to show you the reality of a war, and a soldier's life. Personally I extremely enjoyed this book.

However, some things bothered me about the way Stephen Crane wrote. The vocabulary was a little bit over my head, but it wasn't bad like some other stories we " ve read. The dialogue bothered me a little bit; I know he was a region alist type writer and tried to replicate the way they sounded, but it was a little hard to comprehend when you had to sit for a minute or two just to figure out what one person was trying to say. By that time you " ve forgotten the story line and have to start the paragraph over; making the book take long to read. However, once you realized what a word was supposed to be you didn't have to worry about it so much. The descriptions made the story take long and it was a little boring.

I didn't really care to be able to picture the scene exactly with every little detail. Also at the beginning it was a little hard to follow when Crane jumped from one scene to the next without warning. The little humor every now and then made the book more interesting and kept you reading through all the detailed descriptions. I also enjoyed the way he wrote with sarcasm. You usually only find sarcasm in the dialogue part of the book, but Stephen Crane wrote with it. It was unusual and made the book all the more interesting.

The story plot was simple making the book less complicated and making room for you to have more interesting characters without overkill. I think Stephen Crane should be greatly celebrated for his real depictions and good, strong story line. At age twenty-three this is a wonderful accomplishment. I would recommend this book to anyone who wanted to read a good war story, or who just enjoys a good book.