The Red Badge of Courage
what seems to be Crane's attitude towards war itself? support your answer with evidence from the novel.
based on the novel
based on the novel
When I finished "The Red Badge of Courage", I recall thinking that there were no heroes in it or at least the type of heroes that people like to celebrate. Initially the men are full of bravado. They are filled with thoughts of velour and glory. By the end, if left alive, they are much more realistic. Henry, in particular, sees war as a fight that excludes the soldiers. They are merely pawns in a fight they did not create. Henry knows there are no heroes rather than survivors with scars. He sees man's role and violence as impermanent and trivial in the face of perennial nature. War, in the end, is man's eternal folly that he seems doomed to repeat over and over.
Oh Evidence from the novel. Just pick a chapter with a battle in it. Remember the dead man decomposing into the ground? Scenes like these work into the themes mentioned above.