Stephen Crane

This excerpt from The Red Badge of Courage shows predominantly Naturalism characteristics with a thin veil of Realism on top. Prior knowledge of the novel is extremely helpful when analyzing this excerpt. I know for a fact that I was not the only one of my classmates that was confused as to what this was about. We got a basic summary from our teacher, which helped a lot. Even ignoring the background information that I got, it was still evident that there were Naturalism characteristics. The main reason this is a Naturalistic work is the psychology at work here. The man appears to be in the middle of a battlefield during a battle. This setting in itself is a quality of Naturalism. Naturalism played on the survival instinct, and what better place to show that than on a battlefield? Wars also cause great emotional stress for those fighting in them. Soldiers come home all the time with various mental disorders, the most common being Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The man in this story was in a "red rage" (Crane 493). His emotions push him forward, but his cowardance and his inexperience pull him back. The detailed way in which these emotins are depicted hints at Realism. The situation itself is also Realistic because it depicts an event that could actually happen. I am sure that many veterans could confirm that they felt emotions similar to these during their first battle.

Religion and government are not at all present in this excerpt. It makes sense that they would not be considering the situation. There is hardly time for anything in a battle, let alone government. The soldiers really probably only had time to say a quick prayer before their attention shifted to survival, and this excerpt is apparently after that time. The American Dream is also not wholly represented in this. The part about gaining glory could be found if you looked hard enough. This man obviously wants to prove himself, and it is driving him crazy that he cannot because apparently he is a coward. Nature is not described in this portion of the novel. I am sure that it is later, but not in the three paragraphs in question. The Hero is a common Realism character. He seems to be an ordinary man who finds himself in a drastic situation where he must survive. Figurative language is sed very creatively here. "Buried in the smoke of many rifles his anger was directed not so much against the men whom he knew were rushing toward him as against the swirling battle phantoms which were choking him, stuffing their smoke robes down his parched throat." (Crane 493) is my favorite example. That imagery really stuck out to me. I love how he makes the battle into a real entity that is trying to make things as hard as possible for the soldiers on both sides. The regular language was also indicative of Realism. There is no dialogue though, so we cannot see whether there is a dialect or not to indicate Regionalism.

Crane, Stephen. "from The Red Badge of Courage." Glencoe Literature. Ed. Jeffrey Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Colombus: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 493. Print.