The Changing Role of the Hero in The Red Badge of Courage Essay

The Changing Role of the Hero inThe sanguine label of Courage With Stephen Cranes The Red Badge of Courage, the concept of the epic infix begins to huckster farther away from clearly defined sheathistics. The idea of a integrity individual rising up to scrapperically conquer in whatever situation lost favor with the changing dioramas of the nineteenth century leading(p) Crane to address as a theme the quandary of heroism in an unheroic age (Beaver 67) by creating in Henry Fleming a figure both heroic and non-heroic all in one. His exploration of the concepts of courage and cowardice shows them to be opposite sides of the same coin as evidenced in the heroic figure. Through Henrys progression in thoughts, Crane explores this changing view of the hero. As the book opens, the youth Henry had believed that he must be a hero (Crane 50), as he set out as a newly enlisted man. Awaiting the call of his first battle, Henry reflected that sometimes he inclined to accept them a ll heroes (Crane 75) based simply on their role as soldiers. However, when confronted with the public of battle, Henry soon noticed that there was a singular absence of heroic poses (Crane 86). Trying to cope with his own inadequacy, Henry take ons himself always lacking in comparison with those around him. As they marched along he thought that heroes could find excuses . . . They could retire with perfect self-respect and make excuses to the stars (Crane 123). Marching among those heroes wounded in battle, they rendered it almost impossible for him to see himself in a heroic dizzy (Crane 125). Henry began to despair that he should ever become a hero (Crane 126). However, through a new confrontation in battle, Henry assemble himself funct... ...a of his red badge of cowardice known only to him, he bring in his red badge of courage. However, the necessity of a turn in character to create the final hero is still evidenced. By showing the fold relationship between the negative a nd positive aspects of a single characteristic--in this causa confronting battle with either courage or cowardice--Crane opens the door for an infinite disposition of what makes a hero by demonstrating that perfection is not a needful characteristic. Works Cited Beaver, Harold. Stephen Crane The Hero as Victim. Modern Critical Interpretations Stephen Cranes The Red Badge of Courage. Ed. Harold Bloom. NY Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. 65-74. Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage. Intro. Pascal Covici, Jr. NY Penguin Books, 1985. Credy, Edwin H. Stephen Crane. Rev. Ed. capital of Massachusetts Twayne Publishers, 1980.