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  • Essay / An incomplete hero in The Red Badge of Courage

    After reading The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, one wonders whether young Henry Fleming is indeed a hero or if he has in fact changed . throughout the novel. I believe that the young soldier has definitely changed at the end of the novel. He has a new sense of assurance and confidence. He is able to study his actions, his achievements and his failures until the end of the novel, and see them with a little more clarity. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay However, the fact that Fleming has changed as a character does not give him the great stature of a hero. By the end of the novel, it is quite clear to the reader that the protagonist of our novel has won a coward's victory. At no point during the war did he fight the enemy, but rather he was in a constant battle against his fear. Fleming did what any man is supposed to do: he handled the situation he found himself in in a typically human way. At the end of the novel, he realizes that in times of war he does not have complete control of his actions, but is a mere pawn acting in accordance with the laws of nature. Although I do not consider Fleming a hero in the traditional sense of the word, in Crane's novel, a novel in which he succeeds in demystifying the war of heroism, Fleming is in fact perhaps one of the heroes “ordinary” people who live among us. As we see at the end of the novel, Fleming truly earned his "red badge of courage," not because he fought a Greek battle of heroic proportions, but simply because he fought a battle and he has this experience to look back on. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized article from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Contemplating the dark themes of this novel, I would be willing to consider The Red Badge of Courage as part of the developing naturalist movement. in literature as well as in the already existing realist tradition. In my opinion, Crane incorporates elements of both genres into his novel. Although he described Henry Fleming as a character without any influence in life, a character who felt constantly "locked in" at the end of the novel, as the sun returns to its place in the sky and its rays illuminate the field of battle, it becomes clear, there is a feeling of optimism. There is a feeling that although man has no free will and has little or no choice in life, he has succeeded in what he was "pushed" into and has gained experience by doing it..