Red Badge Of Courage

As The Red Badge of Courage opens, members of a newly recruited regiment are debating a fresh rumor‹they are finally going to move out on the next day and engage the enemy. One young soldier, named Henry Fleming, does not engage in the debate and instead reflects on what will become of him when he get to battle. Will he run or will he stand and fight bravely. He enlisted because he wanted to be ahero, thinking of Greek epics. His own mother, however, was not interested in such ideas, and discouraged him from enlisting. When he finally did, she did not have an impassioned speech for him. She merely says that if he is ever in a situation where he will be killed or do something wrong, he should go with his feelings. With these words, Henry left his home and entered his army duty.

He hadnot seen his foes yet, save a conversation with one across a riverbank late one night. The veterans tell them of gray, mad, rampaging hordes; but he does not trust their tales very much. However, he does not care who he fights, just that he will not run away. He is panicked at the proposition. He talks with other soldiers‹the tall one (named Jim Conklin) and the loud one (named Wilson). Bothbelieve in themselves enough to say that they will fight as hard as they can, but neither goes as far to say that they definitely will not run.
The regiment does not move out on the rumored day, but soon thereafter. They march through other Union armies, dressed in blue. Their youth shows, as their uniforms still seem so new they gleam. Soon after, though, the tall soldier kicks Henry awake. Theregiment is gathered and the men run down wood roads. During this time, Henry's thoughts are mixed and various. He feels that he should have never enlisted and misses his home. The next moment, he feels the overwhelming need to see a battle taking place. After he does so, upon cresting a hill and looking at a skirmish down below, he watches in quiet fascination, but does not desire to participate.Then, after the men march more and he sees his first dead body, he begins to suspect that they are being led to their slaughter, to be sacrificed to a red war god. He wants to tell his mates, but is afraid of their jibes and scoffing in return.
Soon, the regiment is facing an actual conflict. Wilson, the loud soldier, is so certain he will die that he gives Henry a packet of letters to send to hisfamily. As they line up to fight, rumors fly again about the state of their army. Smoke and noise from guns rise around them. Bullets and shells whistle towards them. A regiment in front, already engaging the enemy, is beaten and flees the battleground. The youth imagines that they were beaten by a monster. He resolves to get a view of this monster, even if he very well may flee himself. Theregiment is soon engaged. They work feverishly, firing and reloading. The smoke chokes them and makes their eyes red. Henry feels full of rage. Men fall occasionally around him. Soon, the enemy retreats. The men relax. Henry feels satisfied that he has overcome the trials of war.
However, the men have not rested for long when the Rebels attack again. They fight fiercely once more. Henry feels differentthis time. He feels that the monster of war, a red and green dragon, will come through the gray smoke and swallow him. After a few men around him flee, the youth's own fear gets the better of him. He drops his weapon and runs from the battle. As he goes through the forest and past cannons, he is sure that the dragon is pursuing him and that these others fighting against it are fools, going likelemmings to their death. However, as he finally stops by an officer, he finds that his regiment won the battle. He is thunderstruck. He realizes that he has done something very wrong, though he tries to justify it to himself that it was through superior powers of observation. He imagines the insults he will have to bear when returning to camp and attempts to get as far away from them and the...