Gregory M. Huff
Objectives
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1. To improve student’s understanding of both the romantic and realistic nature of war.
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2. To improve student’s understanding of the issues of aggression, stereotyping, courage, heroism, perception, and conflict.
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3. To improve student’s understanding of an author’s use of irony.
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4. To improve student’s vocabulary skills and writing ability.
Introduction to Story
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“The Red Badge of Courage” is a story of a young man who joins the army to fight in the Civil War. His reasons for joining are based on his dreams of adventure, glory, heroism and romantic images of himself in battle. Through the course of the story, the young boy comes to experience war as it really is, brutal and very unromantic. Crane’s story is often referred to as the first anti-war novel ever written.
Vocabulary Development
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The following words will be used in definition exercises, sentence writing and in writing essays.
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courage
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doom
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ideal
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hero
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command
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romantic
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panic
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awe
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Homeric
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glory
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virtue
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bravery irony
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realism
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impression
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wisdom
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illusion realistic coward
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instinct
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symbol
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Discussion questions
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1. What are some of the central themes of this story?
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2. How are the issues of aggression, conflict, perception and displacement depicted in this story?
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3. How does Crane portray the issues of cowardice, courage, heroism and bravery in his characters?
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4. How does Crane depict Henry’s romantic ideas of war? Contrast his ideas in the beginning and at the end of the story.
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5. How does Crane’s use of romantic language and image enter into the pattern of irony throughout the story?
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6. What is the role of stereotyping in this story? Discuss this issue particularly in relation to the story’s initial lack of detail and description concerning the enemy confederate soldiers, then the detailed description of the four captured confederate soldiers.
Writing activities
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1. Write an essay comparing and contrasting the issues of perception, scapegoating, rationalization and morality in “The Red Badge of Courage” to those issues in “The Ox-Bow Incident” or “The Lord of the Flies”.
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2. Write an essay comparing and contrasting the issues of courage, heroism and aggression in “The Red Badge of Courage” to those issues in “The Bedford Incident”.
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3. Write a three-to-four paragraph essay examining and critiquing Henry Fleming’s behavior.
Activity
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1. Conduct a group discussion. Discuss the nature of heroism generally and in relation to the characters in “The Red Badge of Courage” and the three films. Draft a position paper outlining and defining what constitutes a hero.
