Heroism in Stephen Cranes The Red Badge of Courage Essays -- Red Badg

Heroism in Stephen Cranes The Red tag of Courage The world of Stephen Cranes fiction is a cruel, lonely place. Mans environment shows no sympathy or concern for serviceman in the midst of a battle in The Red badge of Courage Nature had at peace(p) tranquilly on with her golden process in the midst of so much devilment (89). Crane frequently anthropomorphizes the natural world and turns it into an ingredient actively working against the survival of man. From the beginning of The Open Boat the waves be seen as wrongfully and barbarously abrupt and tall (225) as if the waves themselves had bloody intent. During battle in The Red Badge of Courage the trees of the forest stretched expose before Henry and forbade him to pass. After its previous hostility this new enemy of the forest filled him with a fine bitterness (104). More ubiquitous than the mortal hotshot of opposition to nature, however, is the mortal sense of opposition to former(a) men. Crane portrays the D arwinian struggle of men as forcing one man against another, not only for the preservation of ones life, but also the preservation of ones sense of self-worth. Henry finds hope for escape from this condition in the traditional fancy that man becomes another thing in a battle more selfless and connected to his comrades (73). But the few moments in Cranes stories where individuals rise to a higher place self-preservation are not the typically heroicized moments of battle. Crane revises the sense of the heroic by allowing selfishness to persist through battle. Only when his characters are faced with the absolute impuissance of another human do they rise above themselves. In these dreary situations the characters are reminded of their more fundamental opp... ...erryman, John, Stephen Crane A Critical Biography. 1950. Rpt. In Discovering Authors. Vers. 1.0. CD-ROM. Detriot Gale, 1992. Bloom, Harold, ed. Modern Critical Interpretations Stephan Cranes The Red Badge of Cour age. New Yourk Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. Cody, Edwin H. Stephen Crane. revise Edition. Boston Twayne Publishers, 1980. Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage. Logan, IA Perfection Learning Corporation, 1979. Gibson, Donald B. The Red Badge of Courage Redefining the Hero. Boston Twayne Publishers, 1988. Magill, Frank N., Magills Survey American Literature realness to 1945. California Salem Press, Inc., 1963. Wolford, Chester L. Stephen Crane. Critical Survey of Long Fiction. Ed. Frank N. Magill. side Language Series. Vol. 2. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Salem Press, 1991