Book Review: The Red Badge of Courage

I often wonder at the arrogance of modern society in judging the past, but then I remember that we have absolutely no concept of what it was like "back then" because we do not self-study history or literature or language. We have allowed the whirlwind of media to filter through what we believe and to judge for us those people who came before. One classic novel that has helped me to realign some of my views of the past is The Red Badge of Courage.

I read this book in high school, and I had no idea what was going on with it. All I knew was that I liked it, and people were trashing it in the comments on Goodreads, and it was a classic. So, naturally, I defended it. I had some knowledge, but I don’t think I had enough to coherently defend it at the time.

I am now at the end of my third year at a university and I am studying literature. I am a tiny bit wiser about this book. I am also wise enough to know that *most* people who trash classics in general/ who despise The Red Badge of Courage hate these lovely books because they haven’t studied them and therefore don’t understand them. (Not barring, of course, those dedicated individuals who study the classics in their personal time.)

To begin at the beginning, let’s examine Realism and Naturalism, because if we don’t understand the Author’s philosophical bent, we won’t really understand the book. Full disclosure, the jury is still out on whether Red Badge is based in Realism or Naturalism. My suspicion is that it’s a little of both.

American Realism was a literary/artistic movement that began pretty much at the end of the civil war. This movement reacted negatively against the Romanticism that had come before it. The bloody struggle of brother against brother in that war had shown many that images of windswept fields and picturesque heroes were unrealistic. So Realistic writers used many things that were reactions or opposites to Romanticism. They wanted to show life as it really was.

Some major traits of Realism were scientific objectivity (instead of fantastical events), cool impersonality of the author (instead of author’s intrusion), contemporary life (instead of distant times), and the use of anti-heroes (instead of heroes who were perfect/very limited in their flaws). These traits can be found throughout Crane’s novel: Things happen that would only happen in real life, Crane never inserts himself to comment on the narrative, the book deals with very near events to the day of Crane, and Henry Fleming is obviously the classic example of an antihero (he’s a teenager with grand ambitions who’s actually a bit of a coward in war).

Second, Naturalism came about a bit later than Realism, but rather than being a reaction to it, this movement was an outgrowth of Realism. Naturalism really came about because of Darwinism. Its proponents looked at Darwinism and looked at nature and decided that nature defines reality. After all, if natural selection is natural, then Nature is cold and indifferent to our lives (this is where the idea of the Cosmic Chill came from). Additionally, these writers emphasized man as an animal and saw people as the victims of circumstance. In a world they saw as devoid of God and determined by chance, these ideas made a ton of sense.

Stephen Crane was born right after the end of the Civil War. This is pretty amazing since there were literal veterans of the war coming out after the publication of Red Badge and saying, “I fought alongside Crane.” Basically, these veterans were so astonished at the realistic portrayal of the war that they assumed Crane also must have been a veteran. Crane used a lot of the photos of Matthew Brady (the most famous of the American Civil War photographers) to learn about what it must have been like. He did his research.

So, why is The Red Badge of Courage an excellent work of literature?

Stephen Crane not only accurately portrayed a war he wasn’t alive for, but he also successfully wove the themes of Naturalism and Realism into the fabric of his story. Henry Fleming is the archetypal antihero and often we do not like him. But he is real. He does not embody all the good in humanity like Romantic heroes often do. In addition, the Cosmic Chill shows up again and again in the beauty of nature. Even in the midst of so much bloodshed, the sun indifferently keeps shining. Even when things turn out well, there is this underlying feeling of hopeless. Everything is predetermined. No one can escape. (Research Determinism if you want to get a fuller picture of Naturalism!)

Also, the soldiers reveal themselves to be mere cogs in a machine. They are the victims of circumstance and have become animals in the machine of war. Crane reveals their animal behavior in countless descriptions of men looking like or behaving like animals.

I want to address the annoyance many readers have with Crane’s reference to Henry as “the youth.” Crane made a conscious literary choice to depersonalize Henry Fleming. He did this to further his theme and it certainly is effective, and he does this with other characters as well (i.e., the loud soldier, the spectral soldier). Free advice: Just because you don’t like a certain literary device, that doesn’t make the book poorly written or intrinsically bad. It might mean you need to educate yourself before you judge.

All in all, Stephen Crane wrote an action-packed, philosophical journey when he wrote The Red Badge of Courage. Though I don’t agree with Crane’s worldview, I can say that he was a master craftsman. His characters challenge me to be better, and his portrayal of the war helps me to understand my American forbears. A little empathy for people of the past goes a long way in cultivating humility in ourselves.