The Red Badge of Courage Themes

The Red Badge of Courage Themes

Courage

The Red Badge of Courage is the story of a young Civil War soldier’s desire to prove courageous in the face of his fear. The novel explores a variety of points of view on the matter, among th...

Warfare

The Red Badge of Courage takes place over the course of a four-day battle during the U.S. Civil War. The novel is famous for its portrayal of war from a single perspective, that of a young, inexper...

Men and Masculinity

The Red Badge of Courage revolves around an adolescent male seeking to prove his masculinity by showing his courage on a battlefield of the Civil War. Interestingly, his definition of manhood chang...

Transformation

The Red Badge of Courage follows the transformation of a young soldier fighting for the Union during the Civil War. The transformation here is a psychological one, from a scared, selfish, uncertain...

Isolation

In this novel, isolation has to do with the psychological distance between a young, uncertain soldier in the Civil War and the rest of his regiment. Because he doubts his abilities to fight and fee...

Man and the Natural World

The Red Badge of Courage argues that man is alone in a vast and indifferent universe. For the main character, a young Civil War soldier, this is at first a horrifying thought. It is also, however,...

Respect and Reputation

As a young Civil War soldier struggles internally with his desire to prove himself courageous and his fear of death or injury, one of his big concerns is the way he appears to those around him R...

Duty

In The Red Badge of Courage, duty is very much a source of conflict. A young Civil War soldier struggles between his duty to himself – the need to stay safe and alive – and the duty to...