Stephen Crane and the Red Badge of courage

Extract

[...] (MCI 98) “Because the focus of Naturalism is human nature, stories in this movement are character-driven rather than plot-driven.” (Lit. movements Vol.2 206) In addition to this, the characters are usually common people rather than people of higher social standing. “These characters lead simple lives, uncluttered by the good fortune and distractions of glamour, wealth, or adventure.” (Lit. movements Vol.2 210) With this in mind it is of no surprise that the main character in The Red Badge of Courage is a common man who realizes his courageous potential when put in an extraordinary environment. [...]

[...] Although America could boast over 4,000 millionaires, they were mostly “bankers and industrialists who touted the glories of “business and bustle,” business luminaries who revered the virtues of self-help.” (AoAL Due to the fact money and power were mostly in the hands of a few, cities were “swollen with growing numbers of the poor, the ignorant, and the unskilled.” (AoAL The new role model for the young men in society who aspired to “rise in the world through luck and pluck” would become business and financial tycoons. Mark Twain described this as age of extremes: of decline and progress, of poverty and dazzling wealth, of gloom and buoyant hope.” (AoAL “This new city of motion and machines was the New York Crane had lived in as he wrote The Red Badge of Courage.” (MCI 195) In this newly industrialized and capitalistic society, competition is the driving force to succeed. [...]

[...] 95) While this may be true, Crane owes his liberal comparison of man and nature to the revelation that Charles Darwin ushered in. Darwin believed that Genesis's portrayal of species as static was untrue, and that species evolve over time. However, for this theory to work the earth would have to be much older than the six thousand years the bible states. Due to this, Darwin concluded, after reading Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology, that the earth was millions of years old. [...]

[...] However, when finally subject to battle developed the acute exasperation of a pestered animal, a well-meaning cow worried by dogs He wished to rush forward and strangle with his fingers.” (AoAL Vol.2 801) Henry, whose previous concerns made him out to be a coward, was put into an extraordinary situation and came out a blood thirsty soldier. character such as Henry quickly learns how to behave in order to survive in the extreme circumstances of war.” (Lit. movements Vol.2 210) was surprising that Nature had gone tranquilly on with her golden process in the midst of so much devilment.”(AoAL Vol.2 803) Clearly this is an example of how Crane did not associate God with nature like other writers of the time. [...]

[...] After the amazing realism Crane soaked The Red Badge of Courage in, drawing from a war that took place before he even existed, one can only imagine what brilliant work Crane could have conjured up after the effects of WWI and WWII. Crane successfully heralded in naturalism in its most Darwinist form through his work on The Red Badge of Courage; broke down the newly competitive society in which he lived by his portrayal of the military; and brought realism to the forefront of literature by his intensely realistic description of the American Civil War. [...]