Henry
Essay Preview: Henry
Report this essay
People do not plan wars; something has to occur in order for one to start. They are unexpected events. Someone once said that “An unexpected event can change a persons life.” Stephen Crane proved this quote in the story A Red Badge of Courage.
Henry Fleming was the youthful soldier in this story. At the beginning he was very naпve. He believed that war was just something to do to create heroes and also that soldiers in the war, as long as they came out alive, deserved all of the prestige and special treatment available. Henry believed that every man was important in the war. However, once Henry enlisted and was about to fight his first battle he realized that “He became not a man but a member.” He was then a member for the New York 304th.
Throughout the course of the events that took place Henry sees things in which he has never seen before. He saw men “dropping like bundles” and was forced to make some tough decisions. Such as when he ran away, what he should do. The youth had wanted a “red badge of courage,” and he believed that he received one when he was hit in the head with the butt of a rifle, after running. Once Henry had returned to his regiment, he realized that he was a coward for running, and something snapped inside of him, “and now they looked upon him as a war devil.”
Henry had gone through an unexpected event of the American civil war which had changed not only his life, but who he was. He was no longer the youthful soldier, but Henry Fleming “had been to touch the great death, and found that, after all, it was but the great death.” And Henry finally “was a man.”