Name:_____________________________Period:___________
DUE:MONDAY, AUGUST 24
Red Badge of Courage
Stephen Crane
Introduction:
In The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane presents war through the eyes—and
thoughts—of one soldier. The narrative's altered point of view and stylistic
innovations enable a heightened sense of realism while setting the work apart
from war stories written essentially as tributes or propaganda. One early reviewer
declared that reading the novel "impels the feeling that the actual truth about a
battle has never been guessed before." But the conservative General Alexander C.
McClurg, in the magazine "The Dial," attacked the work as a "vicious satire upon
American soldiers and American armies," with a central character motivated
neither by "thrill of patriotic devotion to cause or country" nor "an emotion of
manly courage." Though Crane is critical of abstract sloganeering about the
manly virtues prized by McClurg, he is far from dismissive of or uninterested in
those virtues.
Please read the novel and extra texts to complete these assignments.
1. "Keenan's Charge" vs. Chapter 23
The Red Badge of Courage took a non-traditional approach to the war story. In
addition to stylistic differences, Crane eschews the didacticism readers were
accustomed to finding in pieces about war. In the course of the novel, Henry
Fleming is, in turn, cowardly, selfish, loyal, and courageous.
Read the poem below, “Keenan’s Charge” by George Parsons Lathrop.
Part II of "Keenan's Charge" describes an assault that took place during the Battle
of Chancellorsville. Chapter 23 of The Red Badge of Courage also describes a
battle charge, probably based on events at Chancellorsville.
Please look through "Keenan's Charge" and Chapter 23 carefully to find
evidence from each to complete the chart and answer the questions.
Does one or the other make the participants seem more or less realistic? Brave?
Patriotic?
Keenan’s Charge
(Chancellorsville, May, 1863)
I.
The sun had set;
The leaves with dew were wet;
Down fell a bloody dusk
On the woods, that second of May,
Where Stonewall’s corps, like a beast of prey,
Tore through, with angry tusk.
You die to save the rest!”
“They’ve trapped us, boys!”Rose from our flank a voice.
With a rush of steel and smoke
On came the Rebels straight,
Eager as love and wild as hate:
And our line reeled and broke;
“Calvary, charge!” Not a man of them shrank.
Their sharp, full cheer, from rank to rank,
Rose joyously, with a willing breathRose like a greeting hail to death.
Then forward they sprang, and spurred and clashed;
Shouted the officers, crimson-sash’d;
Rode well the men, each brave as his fellow,
In their faded coats of the blue and yellow;
And above in the air, with an instinct true,
Like a bird of war their pennon flew.
Broke and fled.
No one staid- but the dead!
With curses, shrieks, and cries,
Horses and wagons and men
Tumbled back through the shuddering glen,
And above us the fading skies.
There’s one hope, stillThose batteries parked on the hill!
“Battery, wheel!” (‘mid the roar)
“Pass pieces; fix prolonge to fire
Retiring. Trot!” In the panic dire
A bugle rings “Trot”- and no more:
The horses plunged,
The cannon lurched and lunged,
To join the hopeless rout.
But suddenly rose a form
Calmly in front of the human storm,
With a stern, commanding shout:
“Align those guns!”
(We knew it was Pleasonton’s.)
The cannoneers bent to obey,
And worked with a will, at his word:
And the black guns moved as if they had heard.
But ah, the dread delay!
“To wait is crime;
O God, for ten minutes’ time!”
The general looked around.
There Keenan sat, like a stone,
With his three hundred horse aloneLess shaken than the ground.
“Major, your men?”“Are soldiers, General.” “Then,
Charge, Major! Do your best
Hold the enemy back, at all cost,
Till my guns are placed; -else the army is lost.
II.
By the shrouded gleam of the western skies,
Brave Keenan looked in Pleasonton’s eyes
For an instant –clear, and cool, and still;
Then, with a smile, he said: “I will.”
With clank of scabbards and thunder of steeds,
And blades that shine like sunlit reeds,
And strong brown faces bravely pale
For fear their proud attempt shall fail,
Three hundred Pennsylvanians close
On twice ten thousand gallant foes.
Line after line the troops came
To the edge of the wood that was ringed with flame;
Rode in and sobered and shot –and fell;
Nor came one back his wounds to tell.
And full in the midst rose Keenan, tall
In the gloom, like as martyr awaiting his fall,
While the circle-stroke of his saber, swung
‘Round his head, like a halo there, luminous hung.
Line after line; ay, whole platoons,
Struck dead in their saddles, of brave dragoons
By the maddened horses were onward borne
And into the vortex flung, trampled and torn;
As Keenan fought with his men, side by side.
So they rode, till there were no more to ride.
But over them, lying there, shattered and mute,
What deep echo rolls? –‘Tis a death-salute
From cannon in place; for, heroes, you braved
Your fate not in vain: The army was saved!
Over them now –year following yearOver their graves, the pine-cones fall,
And the whip-poor-will chants his specter-call;
But they stir not again: They raise no cheer:
They have ceased. But their glory shall never cease,
Nor their light be quenched in the light of peace.
The rush of their charge is resounding still
That saved the army at Chancellorsville
“Keenan’s Charge”
vs.
The Red Badge of Courage
The subject of both Chapter 23 of The Red Badge of Courage and the poem “Keenan’s
Charge” is a battle charge. How does each author describe the event? How do these
descriptions reflect the intentions of each author?
How does the
author describe:
The enemy?
The
strategic
situation?
The tools of
battle?
The charge?
The officers?
The attitude of the
soldier or soldiers
to the charge?
The mindset of
the soldiers during
the charge?
How the soldiers
are commended
for the victory?
Evidence from the text of
“Keenan’s Charge”
Evidence from the text of
Chapter 23 of The Red
Badge of Courage
Please answer the following questions for each work with support from the text
whenever possible.
1. In “Keenan’s Charge,” why do the soldiers charge?
In Chapter 23, why do the men “scamper?”
2. In “Keenan’s Charge,” do the men discover courage or is it assumed to be inherent?
In Chapter 23, do the men “discover courage” or is it assumed to be inherent?
3. In “Keenan’s Charge,” are the specific actions of any man or men described? In what way?
In Chapter 23, are the specific actions of any man or men described? In what way?
4. For “Keenan’s Charge,” can you state unequivocally the author’s values? If yes, then what are
his values?
In Chapter 23, can you state unequivocally Crane’s values? If yes, then what are his values?
5. Is it fair to say that the purpose of the author of “Keenan’s Charge” is to demonstrate values he
probably held before he wrote the poem?
Is it fair to say that Crane’s purpose in The Red Badge of Courage was to demonstrate a
process? To muse on the nature of courage and its development in one individual?
2. Controversy: Cowardly and Unpatriotic?
General Alexander C. McClurg (1832-1901), soldier, publisher, book collector,
headed the publishing firm which owned "The Dial." His letter, written 11 April
1896, is in response to critics who took The Red Badge seriously, including the
reviewer for "The Dial." McClurg [attacked]… English reviewers and magazines,
cowards and deserters, and the lack of proper censorship of modern literature …
Read the following letter from General Alexander C. McClurg.
This letter lists many of McClurg's specific allegations against The Red Badge of
Courage. Complete the chart on based evidence from the text that corroborates or
contradicts McClurg's allegations.
General Alexander C. McClurg,
letter to the Dial
April 16, 1896, XX, 227-8
McClurg (1832-1901), soldier, publisher, book collector, headed the publishing firm which owned the Dial.
His letter, written 11 April 1896, is in response to critics who took The Red Badge seriously, including the
reviewer for the Dial. McClurg's attack on the novel, English reviewers and magazines, cowards and
deserters, and the lack of proper censorship of modern literature was answered immediately.
Must we come to judge of books only by what the newspapers have said of them, and
must we abandon all the old standards of criticism? Can a book and an author, utterly
without merit, be puffed into success by entirely undeserved praise, even if that praise
come from English periodicals?
One must ask these questions after he has been seduced into reading a book recently
reprinted in this country entitled The Red Badge of Courage, an Episode of the American
Civil War. The chorus of praise in the English papers has been very extravagant, but it is
noticeable that so far, at least, the American papers have said very little about the merits
or demerits of the book itself. They simply allude to the noise made over it abroad, and
therefore treat its author as a coming factor in our literature. Even The Dial's very acute
and usually very discerning critic of contemporary fiction (Mr. Payne) treats the book and
the author (in your issue of Feb. 1) in very much this way that is, as a book and an
author to be reckoned with, not because of any good which he himself finds in them, but
because they have been so much talked about.
The book has very recently been reprinted in America, and would seem to be an
American book, on an American theme, and by an American author, yet originally issued
in England. If it is really an American production one must suppose it to have been
promptly and properly rejected by any American publishers to whom it may have been
submitted, and afterward more naturally taken up by an English publisher.
It is only too well known that English writers have had a very low opinion of American
soldiers, and have always, as a rule, assumed to ridicule them. Blackwood's Magazine is
quoted by a recent writer as saying during the War: 'We cannot even pretend to keep our
countenance when the exploits of the Grand Army of the Potomac are filling all Europe
with inextinguishable laughter,' and adds 'we know not whether to pity most the officers
who lead such men, or the men who are led by such officers' (Vol. 90, p. 395-6). And
again, in January, 1862: 'Englishmen are unable to see anything peculiarly tragical in
the fact that half a million of men have been brought together in arms to hurl big words
at each other across a river' (Vol. 91, p. 118). Again, in April, 1862, 'Blackwood' tells us
that Americans 'do not demand our respect because of their achievements in art, or in
literature, or in science, or philosophy. They can make no presence to the no less real,
though less beneficent, reputation of having proved themselves a great military power'
(Vol. 91, p. 534). And in October, 1861, 'Blackwood' said exultantly: 'The venerable
Lincoln, the respectable Seward, the raving editors, the gibbering mob, and the swiftfooted warriors of Bull's Run, are no malicious tricks of fortune, played off on an unwary
nation, but are all of them the legitimate offspring of the Great Republic,' and is 'glad
that the end of the Union seems more likely to be ridiculous than terrible' (Vol. 90, p.
396).
We all know with what bitterness and spitefulness the Saturday Review always treats
Americans; and with what special vindictiveness it reviews any book upon our late
struggle written from the Northern standpoint. And so it is with all British periodicals
and all British writers. They are so puffed up with vain-glory over their own soldiers who
seldom meet men of their own strength, but are used in every part of the world for
attacking and butchering defenseless savages, who happen to possess some property
that Englishmen covet, that they cannot believe that there can be among any peoples
well-disciplined soldiers as gallant and courageous as their own.
Under such circumstances we cannot doubt that The Red Badge of Courage would be
just such a book as the English would grow enthusiastic over, and we cannot wonder
that the redoubtable Saturday Review greeted it with the highest encomiums, and
declared it the actual experiences of a veteran of our War, when it was really the vain
imaginings of a young man born long since that war, a piece of intended realism based
entirely on unreality. The book is a vicious satire upon American soldiers and American
armies. The hero of the book (if such he can be called 'the youth' the author styles him)
is an ignorant and stupid country lad, who, without a spark of patriotic feeling, or even of
soldierly ambition, has enlisted in the army from no definite motive that the reader can
discover, unless it be because other boys are doing so; and the whole book, in which
there is absolutely no story, is occupied with giving what are supposed to be his
emotions and his actions in the first two days of battle. His poor weak intellect, if indeed
he has any, seems to be at once and entirely overthrown by the din and movement of the
field, and he acts throughout like a madman. Under the influence of mere excitement, for
he does not even appear to be frightened, he first rushes madly to the rear in a crazy
panic, and afterwards plunges forward to the rescue of the colors under exactly the same
influences. In i either case has reason or any intelligent motive any influence on his
action. He is throughout an idiot or a maniac, and betrays no trace of the reasoning
being. No thrill of patriotic devotion to cause or country ever moves his breast, and not
even an emotion of manly courage. Even a wound which he finally gets comes from a
comrade who strikes him on the head with his musket to get rid of him; and this is the
only 'Red Badge of Courage' (!) which we discover in the book. A number of other
characters come in to fill out the two hundred and thirty-three pages of the book, such
as 'the loud soldier,' 'the tall soldier,' 'the tattered soldier,' etc., but not one of them
betrays any more sense, self-possession, or courage than does 'the youth.' On the field all
is chaos and confusion. 'The young lieutenant,' 'the mounted officer,' even 'the general,'
are all utterly demented beings, raving and talking alike in an unintelligible and hitherto
unheard-of jargon, rushing about in a very delirium of madness. No intelligent orders are
given; no intelligent movements are made. There is no evidence of drill, none of
discipline. There is a constant, senseless, and profane babbling going on, such as one
could hear nowhere but in a madhouse. Nowhere are seen the quiet, manly, selfrespecting, and patriotic men, influenced by the highest sense of duty, who in reality
fought our battles.
It can be said most confidently that no soldier who fought in our recent War ever saw any
approach to the battle scenes in this book but what wonder? We are told that it is the
work of a young man of twenty-three or twenty-four years of age, and so of course must
be a mere work of diseased imagination. And yet it constantly strains after so-called
realism. The result is a mere riot of words.
Although its burlesques and caricatures are quite enough to dismiss it from attention, it
is worth while to give some samples of its diction to show that there is in it an entire lack
of any literary quality. Notice the violent straining after effect in the mere unusual
association of words, in the forced and distorted use of adjectives. Notice, too, the absurd
similes, and even the bad grammar. Startling sentences are so frequent they might be
quoted indefinitely; but here are a few:
[Quotes eighteen separate passages from The Red Badge of Courage.]
It is extraordinary that even a prejudiced animus could have led English writers to lavish
extravagant praise on such a book; it is still more extraordinary that an attempt should
be made to foist it upon the long-suffering American public, and to push it into
popularity here. Respect for our own people should have prevented its issue in this
country.
There may have been a moderate number of men in our service who felt and acted in
battle like those in this book; but of such deserters were made. They did not stay when
they could get away: why should they? The army was no healthy place for them, and they
had no reason to stay; there was no moral motive. After they had deserted, however, they
remained 'loud soldiers,' energetic and blatant, and they are possibly now enjoying good
pensions. It must have been some of these fellows who got the ear of Mr. Crane and told
him how they felt and acted in battle.
Now refer to the following page for the activity for this reading.
Controversy:
Cowardly and Unpatriotic?
For this assignment, you will be deciding if a close reading of Crane’s text supports or contradicts
General McClurg’s accusations.
In the boxes below, there are the accusations that McClurg includes in his letter. Please decided
if his accusation is (S)upported or (C)ontradicted by evidence from the novel? In the box to the
left, put an S for supported or a C for contradicted, and then, in the right box, state your evidence
and explanation.
The hero of the book (if such he can be called ‘the youth’
the author styles him) is an ignorant and stupid country lad . . .
(Henry is) without a spark of patriotic feeling…
(Henry is) without soldierly ambition.
(Henry) has enlisted in the army from no
definite motive that the reader can discover.
Under the influence of mere excitement, for he does not even
appear to be frightened, he first rushes madly to the rear in a crazy panic.
Under the influence of mere excitement, for he does not even appear to be frightened . . .
(he) afterwards plunges forward to the rescue of the colors under exactly the same
influences.
(Neither) reason (n)or any intelligent motive (have) any influence on his action.
No thrill of patriotic devotion to cause or country ever moves his breast . . .
No . . . emotion of manly courage (ever moves his breast).
Even a wound which he finally gets comes from a comrade who strikes him on the head
with his musket to get rid of him; and this is the only ‘Red Badge of Courage’ which we
discover in the book.
Crane's consideration of values in The Red Badge of Courage is one that can't be
framed as simply as either cowardly and unpatriotic or courageous and patriotic.
How does Stephen Crane treat "the process by which a raw youth develops into a
tried and trustworthy soldier" in The Red Badge of Courage? What is the novel's
view of values such as courage?