"The Red Badge of Courage"

When I read over the list of stories that we would need to read for this project, "The Red Badge of Courage" by Stephen Crane was one that caught my eye and that I immediately recognized. He is very well known for "The Red Badge of Courage" and is a very recognizable Realism author. The excerpt of the story focuses on the main character and his feelings of overall inadequacy as he begins to feel overburdened and overwhelmed (Crane). Reading the full story would be a lot of help in trying to understand what is going on in this small excerpt, but unfortunately it has been four years since I have read "The Red Badge of Courage" and I can honestly tell you that I do not remember what happens, not in the slightest. However, thanks to a little summary of the story, it is a lot easier to put the story into terms of Realism and the two other branches that we are focusing on.

This work fits in the Realism period, because it is accurate and historical, and shows how the main character is actually handling what is happening around him and how he is feeling in the very stressful situation (Campbell "Realism"). There is also a tone of Naturalism in the excerpt because the main character compares to parts of scientific studies and displays some analytical thinking (Crane). There are not really many parts of Regionalism in the story, because there is not a lot of emphasis on the setting and certain places in the story. It also does not promote any places or regions because there is not a lot of that involved in the story. Society does not seem to be a large part of the story either, except for society's interest in science and the workings of the human brain (Crane). Still, there is no mention of government, current events of the time period, political or social issues, or other issues of society (Crane). There is also nothing to do with religion or God, and does not show how people felt or thought, but rather how frustrated they were with the way they lived and with their imperfections.

The American Dream is present, but I do not think that it plays a very large part at all because the main character is not really achieving many goals or getting where he wants to be. There is also no real hero in the story, which is actually a welcome change from some of the stories we have read in class that have that stereotypical Realism leader that is flawed yet still looks flawless at times.

Campbell, Donna M. "Realism in American Literature." Washington State University - Pullman, Washington. 21 Mar. 2010. Web. 14 Feb. 2011. .

Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage. Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 493. Print.