The Red Badge of Courage

The Red Badge of Courage follows Henry Fleming, a Union Army soldier who confronts questions about courage from the moment he enlists. During his first battle, he discovers that concepts like bravery and fear lose their meaning when he becomes part of the fighting machine, firing his rifle alongside his comrades with no opportunity to flee. When the enemy advances again, Henry is overwhelmed by terror and abandons his regiment and duty. Witnessing a corpse, he realizes his worst fear: he is a coward. He believes only a visible wound—a red badge of courage—can redeem him. Seizing his regiment's colors, Henry charges directly at the enemy. Stephen Crane wrote this novel six years after the Civil War ended, without having witnessed a battlefield himself. Despite this, the work is widely regarded as one of the most realistic depictions of war ever published and a masterpiece of American literature.