The Red Badge of Courage

Stephen Crane was well known as a Naturalist even during his own time. Many would even go so far as to say that his works are the definition of Naturalism, as they consistently meet all the criteria for such a genre. Not only did they meet this criteria, however, but many of them went on to become very famous pieces of literature, such as his novel The Red Badge of Courage. Here is an excerpt from it that is a choice piece of the Naturalism that Stephen Crane wove into his story of war and reality:

“Following this came a red rage. He developed the acute exasperation of a pestered animal, a well-meaning cow worried by dogs. He had a mad feeling against his rifle, which could only be used against one life at a time. He wished to rush forward and strangle with his fingers. He craved a power that would enable him to make a world-sweeping gesture and brush all back. His impotency appeared to him, and made his rage into that of a driven beast” (Crane 493).

There are many things in just this excerpt that align perfectly with the ideals of the subgenre, Naturalism. First of all, we know this character is a man, a soldier in the heat of battle, surrounded by all sorts of horrible, gruesome, and filthy things common to war, and there is no way for him to escape because he is a soldier. This is the first aspect of Naturalism fulfilled because often the protagonists of Naturalist pieces were characters whose lives were stuck in such places of utter vileness, and they often had no way of escaping these circumstances.

Secondly, we see this particular soldier’s reaction to the harsh reality and truth of war and the battlefield, and thus, probably many soldiers‘ feelings while caught in that ensuing and violent conflict.

(TBC)

Works Cited

Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage. GlencoeLiterature. Ed. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 493. Print.