Poetry in Eb

Predator

Crane depicts death as an animal-like part of life, natural, primal.  It is almost as if man is above everything else but his death levels him to that of the animals.  In chapters 9-10 of Stephen Crane’s Red Badge of Courage Henry’s friend Jim Conklin dies.  His death is a wake up call to Henry, significant to only him as a turning point in the war.  Jim Conklin was injured in the battle that Henry fled from.  Conklin is seen crawling away form Henry and the tattered soldier as they tried to help him.  He repeatedly said “Leave me be—don’t tech me—leave me be—”   He wanted to die a valiant soldiers death, die on the battlefield, rather than face the pains of battlefront medicine.  His death rips at the heart of the reader and Henry.  One can see that Henry is going to blame himself for the death, and the audience feels sad because now not only has the war taken the lives of friends but is potentially going to take the lives of those left behind, vengeance.

Another scene of death is when Henry stumbles upon a decomposing dead soldier in the woods.  This death is symbolic of the death that would happen inside of Henry had he not returned to the war.  Bugs would have eaten him from the inside out much like the ants on the other soldier.  One can infer that that soldier died after he ran away from the battle, just like what could happen to Henry.  It was a sign telling the reader and Henry that one must face their troubles or fears to truly live. 

Crane uses death as a common ground to link the events in the story to the reader.  Everyone has seen death, either through animals or unfortunately through loved ones.  It is sometimes sad and sometimes happy.  There is both a melancholy atmosphere and an anger/upset atmosphere that can arise after such an event.  Crane signifies that death is a part of life.  The war goes on, the battle goes on, even the soldiers walk right past those who have fallen.  In one scene the cavalry is plowing down the road and threatening, through its presence, to steam roll Jim Conklin, the dying soldier, if he does not get of the road.  Life goes on after death.  That is reality, death is natural.  Crane is portraying the fact that those who die are men, and those who survive are men.  It is man’s own thoughts that build individuals up to the level of heroic, and courageous; all based on merit, skill, and accomplishments.  Not only is death a sad event but a common one too.  People die every day, and still only few become heroes.  It believe Crane is attempting to show the injustice of death and war, in that the good soldiers die, and the crappy, Henryesque ones are left to take their place.  Fortunately this event is powerful enough to change men (Wilson and Henry).  

 Let's Get Ready to Rummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmble!!!!!!!!

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Comrades

 Comrade- A person who shares one’s interests or activities; a friend or companion Word History: A comrade can be socially or politically close, a closeness that is found at the etymological heart of the word comrade. In Spanish the Latin word camara, with its Late Latin meaning “chamber, room,” was retained, and the derivative camarada, with the sense “roommates, especially barrack mates,” was formed. Camarada then came to have the general sense “companion.” English borrowed the word from Spanish and French, English comrade being first recorded in the 16th century. The political sense of comrade, now associated with Communism, had its origin in the late-19th-century use of the word as a title by socialists and communists in order to avoid such forms of address as mister. This usage, which originated during the French Revolution, is first recorded in English in 1884. 

Henry has two types of comrades in the army.  First there are his fellow deserters and secondly there are his fellow members of the red badge of courage club.  At his first battle Henry wimps out and follows his fellow comrades who decide to save themselves from the beast that was devouring the insane, foolish men who continued on their ridiculous “heroic” fight.  It is a race between him and his other deserters to escape the clutch of the fowl beast of war.   

            Henry realizes his mistake in following the true and only fools on the battlefield, those that ran, and returned dissatisfied with himself to his regiment.  It is then that he assimilates back into his regiment, that he reconnects with his fellow comrades.  He was injured by a fellow soldier and created a lie about fighting on the right field  to fit in with his fellow soldiers.  He now has a red badge of courage and can now begin to overlook his past, which occurred in the dark, in order to present himself in the light.

            Jim Conklin was Henrys friend.  He was tall and very talkative.  He was injured during the Henry’s first battle.  This causes a conflict in Henry for leaving his buddy to eventually die on the battlefield.  He ran like a coward and his friend died a hero because he stayed and fought.  Conklin’s death causes Henry to feel guilt and corrects his mental folly.  Henry learns to be brave, for his comrade Jim Conklin. 

            Wilson is Henry’s comrade.  The two of them become friends due to their
“experiences,” both have survived their first battle, and changed as a result, and both have lost a close friend, Jim Conklin.  Wilson looks after Henry due to his “battle wound.”  These two are comrades. 

            It is ironic because I describe Henry’s relationships with soldiers as comradery but in reality they were nothing more than lies.  Henry can never really develop any true comrades after his “first battle”  because his friends and him do not share the same experiences.  On one side there is the warred, the battled, the experienced Wilson and Jim, and on the other side is the weak, cowardly, inexperienced Henry.  They do not share the same interests or activities.  They may have a friendship but until Henry commits an act of true courage and bravery he will be all alone in his regiment.  He needs to destroy the barrier that divides his self-image from his appearance.  Henry is neither a coward nor a hero in his own eyes.  He has no true comrades.  If he were to leave the army right this instant he would feel empty and sorrowful for being a coward and leaving his “comrades” to die.  He has comrades but he does not have “comrades” in the sense of true comradery.

Comrade- A person who shares one’s interests or activities; a friend or companion

Courage vs. Cowardice

            The youth in The Red Badge of Courage is portrayed to be a coward in the beginning in chapters 5-8.  He fees from his company’s battle at the very first sight of danger.  He buys into a cheap story of fear and natural instinct to fear danger.  He sites a squirrel’s response to him throwing an acorn at it as evidence that his and others response was legitimate.  The youth deems the others who stay behind to fight as “Methodical idiots!  Machine-like fools!”  The youth forgets all of the glory and respect and purpose of war both tangible and ideological and runs.  “There was a race”  It was a race against the creature of war pursuing the deserters as if only to attack those that fall behind.  The youth is guilty as he returns to his comrades who have in fact fought the beast while he retreated to his mental substitute for what is actually war.

        He has been deceived into believing that the enemy, who is only human, is more powerful than man.  In reality it was an equal battle that was won in the minds of those involved.  “He felt a great anger against his comrades.  He knew it could be proved that they had been fools.”  Courage and Heroism is not buying into the lies and wills of those around you.  It is a form of independence, independence from the physiological wants and desires as well as the mental and emotional desires of man.  It is those who are above themselves, or at least perceived as above themselves that are courageous and heroic.

The Scarlet Letter—-Hester Prynne’s independence form society and her success with it

Beowulf—fearless, crazy warrior.  This is who he is a fighter. 

Courage is those who stand and fight for their cause, or beliefs no matter what is going to happen, win or lose.

            Crane uses a natural approach to show who or how courage and cowardice can be approached.  His character flees form the battle but reaches a realization out in the woods.  He returns to the battle to see what this loud sound of gun fight and sword clashes truly is.  Ironically the coward is returning to the battle to ensure that the regiment is all right.  He knows that his side has won and yet there is still a sense of danger as he returns to the camp.  The youth experiences guilt.  This is the danger that he has charged into headlong.  He at first was a coward but overcame this fear and is now battling to secure his manhood, his right in the army.  Out in the woods the youth sees a dead man being decomposed by ants.  He is discolored and rotting.  “The dead man and the living man exchanged a long look” It is in this interaction that the youth realizes that this will be him.  His guilt from deserting his regiment will eat him up much like the black ants did to the dead, faded, soldier.  Courage is not given to individuals it is not inherited it is earned.  Crane shows this by contrasting those wounded with the youth.  The men with “the red badge of courage” have earned their honor and courage.  The youth has not.  The youth is lost and confused.  Crane twists the courageous into the cowards through the plot of the battles.  One contest is never a way to judge a winner.  It requires a series to see the true colors of a man.