疯狂英语教师版2012年第3期（8月号）
An Analysis of Stephen Crane’s
The Red Badge of Courage
李
楠
（黄淮学院，河南 驻马店 463000）
Abstract: The Red Badge of Courage, the masterpiece of Stephen Crane, was “an episode of the
American Civil War”. It is written in a naturalistic style which indicates the trend of naturalistic writings in the 20th century in America. As a naturalist novel, it takes survival,
determinism, violence, and taboo as key themes, and shows indifference of the natural
world.
Key words: Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage, naturalism, indifference of the nature
［中图分类号］I06
［文献标识码］A
［文章编号］1006-2831(2012)08-0198-3 doi:10.3969/j.issn.1006-2831.2012.03.054
The Red Badge of Courage is a war
fascinated with issues of Century Magazine
novel by American author Stephen Crane
that were largely devoted to famous battles and
(1871~1900). Taking place during the American
military leaders from the Civil War (Davis, 1998:
Civil War, the story is about a young private of
63). Frustrated with the dryly written stories,
the Union Army, Henry Fleming, who flees from
Crane stated, “I wonder that some of those
the field of battle. Overcome with shame, he
fellows don’t tell how they felt in those scraps.
longs for a wound—a “red badge of courage”—
They spout enough of what they did, but they’re
to counteract his cowardice. When his regiment
as emotionless as rocks.” Returning to these
once again faces the enemy, Henry acts as a
magazines during subsequent visits to the
standard-bearer. It is a great work which is both
studio, he decided to write a war novel. He later
readable and worthy studying, and it has been
stated that he “had been unconsciously working
called “the first modern war novel”.
the detail of the story out through most of his
boyhood” and had imagined “war stories ever
1. Introduction of the Author
since he was out of knickerbockers” (Davis,
Stephen Crane published his first novel-
1998: 64).
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets in March 1893
At the time, Crane was intermittently
at the age of 21. Maggie was not a success,
employed as a free-lance writer, contributing
either financially or critically. Most critics
articles to various New York City newspapers.
thought the unsentimental Bowery tale crude
He began writing what would become The
or vulgar, and Crane chose to publish the work
Red Badge of Courage in June 1893, while
privately after it was repeatedly rejected for
living with his older brother Edmund in Lake
publication (Stallman, 1968: 70-71). Crane
View, New Jersey. Crane conceived the story
found inspiration for his next novel while
from the point of view of a young private who
spending hours lounging in a friend’s studio in
is at first filled with boyish dreams of the glory
the early summer of 1893. There, he became
of war, only to become disillusioned by war’s
收稿日期：2012-4-12；修改稿：2012-5-8
198 Crazy English Teachers
文学
研 究
reality. He took the private’s surname, “Fleming”,
all his literary heroes are depicted with strong
from his sister-in-law’s maiden name. He would
naturalistic features. He always explored in his
later relate that the first paragraphs came to
works for unique writing techniques and his
him with “every word in place, every comma,
work influenced later writers greatly, so he was
every period fixed”. Working mostly nights, he
called “the forerunner of American naturalism”.
wrote from around midnight until four or five
The words and expressions in his work are just
in the morning. Because he could not afford a
simple but vivid. His writings were reflection of
typewriter, he carefully wrote in ink on legal-
the environment and social reality of the new
sized paper, occasionally crossing through or
continent during or after the Civil War.
overlying a word. If he did change something,
2.1 Naturalistic Feature of Characteristics
he would rewrite the whole page. He later
The characters in naturalistic novels
moved to New York City, where he completed
are more or less similar to each other. Their
the novel in April 1894.
attempts at exercising free will or choice are
hamstrung by forces beyond their control.
2. Naturalistic Writing Style of
the Novel
In this novel, Henry Fleming is just a typical
character of this kind. Coming from the country,
The Red Badge of Courage, the
his life was governed by the Army. No glorified
masterpiece of Crane, was “an episode of the
patriots, brave soldiers and heroes can be
American Civil War”. It has a distinctive style
easily found in this naturalistic work, instead,
which is often described as naturalistic, realistic,
we can see only real human-beings with their
impressionistic or a mixture of the three (Crane,
true feelings and fear. So the young boy—also
1917: 1), in which the naturalistic style is the
a soldier fight and flee in the battle field without
most important one. It is written in a naturalistic
a clear aim, but only instinct and passion that
style which indicates the trend of naturalistic
dominated Henry’s each actions.
writings in the 20th century in America. We can
identify this novel as a typical naturalistic one.
2.2 The Combination of Impressionistic
and Naturalistic Style
The term “naturalism” describes a type
In this novel, Crane uses the techniques
of literature that attempts to apply scientific
of Impressionism to express his naturalistic
principles of objectivity and detachment to
attitude. Crane successfully conveys to the
its study of human beings. In many ways,
reader his pessimistic views of Naturalism
naturalism grew out of the foundations laid by
through the employment of words of colors, the
earlier realist writers, leading some to call it
panoramic rendition and the hero’s changing
an “emphasized realism”. But, unlike realism,
impressions of the American Civil War and the
which focuses on literary technique, naturalism
world in which he lives. The author used third
implies a philosophical position: for naturalistic
person narrating the story, but for us readers
writers, since human beings are, in Emile
it is quite easy to feel what the hero feels, and
Zola’s phrase, “human beasts”, characters can
to see what he sees. Stephen Crane is good
be studied through their relationships to their
at using colors in describing the surroundings.
surroundings.
For instance, he used the color “red” again
Naturalism played an important role in the
and again to describing the war, such as “red
development of the American literature, and
dragon”, “red face”, “red wings” and so on. He
Stephen Crane was a great master adopting
also used many words of colors—sometimes
naturalism in his writings. Crane’s works
more than five in one sentence which is not
contain novels, short stories and poetries, and
very long. Take the last sentence of this novel
(下转第204页)
Crazy English Teachers 199
疯狂英语教师版2012年第3期（8月号）
(上接第199页)
After his desertion, however, Henry finds some
for example: “Over the river a golden ray of sun
comfort in the laws of nature, which seem to
came through the hosts of leaden rain clouds.”
briefly affirm his previous cowardice.
This clearly showed the feelings of Henry, who
has already tired of the war.
The novel is known as distinctive, for the
content includes realistic battle sequences as
well as the repeated use of color imagery, and
3. Themes of the Novel
3.1 Key Themes of Naturalist Novels
Critics identify survival, determinism,
violence, and taboo as key themes of a
naturalist novel. The conflict in naturalistic
novels is often “man against nature” or “man
against himself” as characters struggle to
retain a “veneer of civilization” despite external
pressures that threaten to release the “brute
within”. What’s more, Nature tends to be an
indifferent force acting on the lives of human
beings. It is quite to the opposite of the romantic
vision, such as Wordsworth’s words “nature
never did betray the heart that loved her”. As
for this novel, from it, we can see different
forces working against modern man’s struggle
to realize his value as an individual. Born into
a time when industrialism prevailing, Henry
Fleming, the hero is to find himself entangled
in society, symbolized as the regiment in the
novel. The unfolding of Fleming’s story reveals
that his search is doomed to be a failure.
ironic tone. Separating itself from a traditional
war narrative, Crane’s story reflects the
inner experience of its protagonist—a soldier
fleeing from combat—rather than the external
world around him. Also notable for its use of
what Crane called a “psychological portrayal
of fear” (1990), the novel’s allegorical and
symbolic qualities are often debated by critics.
Several of the themes that the story explores
are maturation, heroism, cowardice, and the
indifference of nature.
4. Conclusion
Stephen Crane wrote The Red Badge of
Courage in 1894, and it was judged as “an
episode of the American Civil War”. It is written
in a naturalistic style which indicates the trend
of naturalistic writings in the 20th century in
America. As a naturalist novel, it takes survival,
determinism, violence, and taboo as key
themes, and shows indifference of the natural
world.
3.2 Themes in This Novel
The indifference of the natural world is a
reoccurring theme in Crane’s work (Horsford,
1986: 112). At the beginning of the novel, as
the regiments advance toward battle, the sky is
described as being an innocuous “fairy blue”.
In chapter seven, Henry notes the inexplicable
tranquility of nature, “a woman with a deep
aversion to tragedy”, even as the battle rages
on. Similarly, Heaven itself is indifferent to the
slaughter he encounters on the battlefield. The
dichotomy between nature’s sweetness and
war’s destructiveness is further described in
chapter eighteen: “A cloud of dark smoke as
from smoldering ruins went up toward the sun
now bright and gay in the blue, enameled sky”.
204 Crazy English Teachers
References
Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage[M]. New York: Dover Pubns, 1917: 1.
Davis, Linda H. Badge of Courage: The Life of Stephen Crane[M].
New York: Mifflin, 1988: 63-64.
Horsford, Howard C. He was a man. New Essays on The Red
Badge of Courage[C]. Ed. Lee Clark Mitchell. Cambridge:
Cambridge, 1986: 112.
Kent, Thomas. Interpretation and Genre: The Role of Generic
Perception in the Study of Narrative Texts[M]. PA: Bucknell
University Press, 1986: 130.
Stallman, Robert W. Stephen Crane: A Biography[M]. New York:
Braziller, Inc, 1968: 70-71.