Red Badge

Stephen Crane's Red Badge of Courage offers remarkable psychological insight into the experience of war. With vivid detail sparing nothing, Crane shows the reader the brutality of war. More importantly Crane shows how one soldier confronts his own mortality and fear. Although Red Badge of Courage takes place during the Civil War and the setting is striking, the novel centers on psychological conflict far more than social or political conflict.

What is most remarkable about Red Badge of Courage is that the author omits mentioning the political issues behind the war. The novel is not about the Civil War; it is about one man's character development. Although Henry fights for the Union, the author almost completely avoids any discussion about the political, economic, and social conditions that led up to the war and which surrounded it. The author keeps the political tone neutral, to allow all readers to...
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