Character transformation of Henry Fleming
Stephen Crane’s ‘The red badge of courage’ is a novel that revolves around the character
development of Henry Fleming who is the main character in the book. The novel documents his
maturity and growth as a union army soldier, through the changes in behavior and personality.
During the transition, his emotions run the complete range of his behavior and character from
glory towards fear towards depression, then to anger, then to exhilaration back to courage and
then lastly to honor (Crane, 202). This behavior and personality change from his innocence to his
experience and in essence from his moments of doubt to those of duty.
The maturing process of Henry takes place very fast. In a span of a couple of days, this
character experiences a worth of growth of lifetime. This starts from his enlisting for reasons of
the glory of self-centeredness, to his exhilaration in the first battle, towards his running away
during the second battle fearing he would get killed and finally towards his facing the enemies
and leading the other soldiers to charge against them (Crane, 164). He finally becomes one
among the bravest soldiers during the times. Some examples from the book illuminate these
changes which happen in his character and how they relate to the themes of duty and doubt.
Henry Fleming’s confidence, that which relates to his understanding of duty, but that is
also based on his curiosity of the youth is seen early in the book as the novel is introduced. He is
very confident that the war would bring untold glory in him. This confidence cannot be shaken
by anybody including the impregnable concerns of his mother (Crane, 4). He thus goes ahead to
enlist in the war as per his plans and against her wishes. Some short moment after enlisting, he
experiences long moments of waiting that were tedious and not the immediate glory as he saw it
initially. The more he had to wait, the more fear and doubt crept in his mind (Crane, 8). This is a
good show of realism in the novel in that soldiers have fear of death regardless of the idealistic
brave figure in a soldier. when instincts make Henry flee the battlefield, it is a show of
naturalism in literature.
Towards in-depth of chapter two of Stephen’s book, the focus in the character
development of Henry, however, moves much faster to his fears and doubts of the war as his
regiment nears the battlefield. Thoughts in his mind jump from his longing to go back home, to
monster images that are very conjuring, trying to describe occurrences that are very common
(Crane, 17). This fear and doubt almost consume him, and they haunt him as he continued
reacting to the battle environment that involved both the people and the environment. He gets to
some point when Henry that this intense fear develops so significantly, that he came to a
conclusion that it was a better option if he died directly to stop the troubles forever. He blindly
makes fire into the haze of the battle when he cannot see the enemy. However, as the next enemy
assault approaches him, he has the intense fear of dying that he has to flee the battlefield. This
aspect of fear supports crane’s use or realism in literature.
When he and the other comrade soldiers finally get engaged in the battle, he faces the
opponents by repeatedly firing, leading to the full repulsion of the enemy’s charge. Through this,
he can overcome some reasonable amount of the fears he had before as his confidence gets
charged when working with the other soldiers in the regiment holding the battle line. Through
the support of fellow soldiers, Fleming stands firm making some brave movements towards the
moment of maturity and confidence.
However, this newfound confidence in Henry does not last for long. The mere realities of
the battle intervene the in the war and make his doubt and fear to surface once again. He now
moves from a euphoric state after succeeding in the repulsion of the enemy’s charge before
during the first battle, to that of panic when the second battle began. As the enemy charged
towards them the fears in Henry took control of him such that when his fellow soldier near him
dropped his riffle and took to heels, Henry reasoning ability leaves him and finds himself also
running away (Crane, 118). He now abandons the brave thoughts of duty and honor and plunges
himself into a state of immaturity and self-concern. During this state of disgrace, he makes
attempts of rationalizing his retreat to have a better feeling. Henry flees the battle field out of fear
of death that he cannot know what the other soldiers experience in the front line. When he wants
to join it, he meets the wounded soldiers retreating due to the injuries they sustained at the
frontline. Henry has no wound since he has been away from the serious and tough sides of the
war.
This self-absorption state occupies Henry Fleming for quite some good time and critical
events in the book. Even when Jim Conklin dies, the death does not jar Henry out of the thoughts
of his well-being. Without any moment of second thought, Henry abandons the dead comrade in
the battlefield and the tattered soldier too as he had the fear that the soldier’s questions
concerning his head wound, as Henry finds it hard to explain why has no wound (Crane, 59).
Through this act, Henry committed an act that is despicably selfish rather than facing his lack of
courage within himself. As a matter of fact, he suffers from so great a self-absorption that he is
unable to join the fighting again even if he had the self-will to go back and continue the war.
Henry sustained a wound in the head when he was hit with a riffle by a retreating soldier when
he tries to ask him what was happening.
The accidental wound in his head does not make up the ‘red badge of courage’ as
Stephen tried to refer in his book or what Henry wishes to attain; rather, this becomes a shield
that he has to use to protect all the lies that he formulates around him. He only begins emerging
from this shell of fear and self-absorption after recognizing the weakness in Wilson in offering
him a letter bunch to hold (Crane, 88). Wilson had the same fear of dying in the battle and had
sent Henry with letters to offer to his family in case he was to die during the war. This fact
makes Henry see some new power of holding a weapon over the head of another person. This
thought has his confidence and courage restored. The fact that these characters have no control
over death shows the aspect of determinism in literature. For instance, Henry cannot help Jim
when he dies (Crane, 70). Death is also coming out as use of naturalism aspect in literature. The
fact that Henry cannot answer the questions where people go after they die is a good example.
During this strange foundation in him, Henry Fleming’s confidence in fighting battles
starts taking shape once again. This newfound confidence makes him ready to face a new reality
that is very tough: that being a soldier, two things are involved; he has to either get killed or kill
the enemy. He is ready to convert himself to a bold soldier. He becomes a fighting machine
beside his lieutenant and resolves the guilt of abandoning the dead soldier through his decision to
make use of the selfish and uncaring acts’ memories and make himself humble and able to
control any ego that might arise out of being a fighter with strong ability (Crane, 193).
The new confidence charges anger in him towards the enemy in the battle replacing the
fear and doubt that he has been forced to fight with all this while. At this moment, though not yet
a war hero becomes a completely courageous, brave and confident fighter. This confidence and
the will to fight again become so great that his fellow soldiers also feel encouraged. By the time
Henry assumes the new role as a flag-bearer in his battle regiment, he is such an admirable
symbol of courage and bravery (Crane, 123). This marks the peak of his character transformation
from being a child to an adult, from an enlistee who is coward to a brave veteran of war.
The transformation of Henry’s character from being a lost, fearful and doubting youth, to
a confident, brave and duty-bound soldier is the full essence of the book; ‘The red badge of
courage.’ It carries a story of a young man’s growth from his innocent being to that of being
mature and complete.
Work cited
Crane, Stephen. The red badge of courage. Penguin, (2005), p. 1-208.
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