March 24… 4000 Casualties
Crane and O’Brien are no different. Each dipicts death in his own way just as each soldier deals with death (impending or actual) in his own way. Chapters 9-10 in The Red Badge of Courage are an excellent example of Crane’s techniques. Explain his technique and what effect his has on the reader. Be sure to explain both the reader’s experiences and the experiences of the other characters.
Many of us before beginning The Red Badge of Courage we know baseline knowledge in that it takes place during the Civil War (or at least a war very similar). So when you go to read the novel you already have your ideas and perceptions of what happened and how it those things happened during actually combat. What Stephen Crane does though is brings a sense of reality to a topic we simply hear about in textbooks. As we have already talked about Stephen Crane was one of the people responsible for having a large contribution to realism and naturalism. In The Red Badge of Courage, one of the most predominate techniques he uses is the use of realism and naturalism. These techniques bring a sense of rawness and reality to the issue. One example is the emotion evoked from the reading, both for the character and the reader. “He was continually casting sidelong glances to see if the men were contemplating the letters of guilt he felt burned into his brow.” (Crane 51). As a reader you can really feel his fellow, yet wounded, soldiers walking right along beside him, who happens to be uninjured and unharmed. He may be physically uninjured, but emotionally he felt harm. He was guilty and as readers you can feel his tremendous amount of guilt and regret because people had died, yet he choose to flee. When the reader can feel what the character is feeling, you know there has been a sense of reality brought to a given situation. “His face had been twisted into an expression of every agony he had imagined for his friend.” (56) Again you can really gain a sense of understanding of what Henry felt when he was finally surrounding by death. His face became contorted and he reacted in the same manner I believe many people his age would have reacted.
