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The Red Badge of Courage Man and the Natural World Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #1

The youth kept from intercourse with his companions as much as circumstances would allow him. In the evening he wandered a few paces into the gloom. From this little distance the many fires, with the black forms of men passing to and fro before the crimson rays, made weird and satanic effects (2.32).

There appears something unnatural about these brave men preparing for battle. Henry will later conclude, after he watches a squirrel scampering away from him that fear and escape are natural instincts. Looking at it this way, there is indeed something "weird" about the black shapes round the campfires.

Quote #2

The sun spread disclosing rays, and, one by one, regiments burst into view like armed men just born of the earth. The youth perceived that the time had come. He was about to be measured. For a moment he felt in the face of his great trial like a babe, and the flesh over his heart seemed very thin. He seized time to look about him calculatingly (3.14).

The idea of birth is strongly contrasted with death; the men are rushing into battle, yet they are described as newborn infants.

Quote #3

Absurd ideas took hold upon him. He thought that he did not relish the landscape. It threatened him. A coldness swept over his back, and it is true that his trousers felt to him that they were no fit for his legs at all (3.27).

Henry attributes whatever emotions he’s feeling to the landscape around him. He’s trying to find some explanation for the roller coaster of emotions he experiences.

Quote #4

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 (5.19).

Look at the language Crane uses to describe Henry – "pestered animal," "well meaning-cow," "driven beast." Henry has tapped into something instinctive and animalistic by becoming part of the war machine.

Quote #5

The shells, which had ceased to trouble the regiment for a time, came swirling again, and exploded in the grass or among the leaves of the trees. They looked to be strange war flowers bursting into fierce bloom (6.10).

Look at the way Crane pairs the violence of warfare (exploding shells) with the beauty of nature (flowers bursting into bloom).

Quote #6

A man near him who up to this time had been working feverishly at his rifle suddenly stopped and ran with howls. A lad whose face had borne an expression of exalted courage, the majesty of he who dares give his life, was, at an instant, smitten abject. He blanched like one who has come to the edge of a cliff at midnight and is suddenly made aware. There was a revelation. He, too, threw down his gun and fled. There was no shame in his face. He ran like a rabbit (6.22).

Again we see the same sort of figurative language making Henry out to be an animal. Does this mean he’s lost his humanity, or does it argue that little separates man and beast to begin with?

Quote #7

The youth felt triumphant at this exhibition. There was the law, he said. Nature had given him a sign. The squirrel, immediately upon recognizing danger, had taken to his legs without ado. He did not stand stolidly baring his furry belly to the missile, and die with an upward glance at the sympathetic heavens. On the contrary, he had fled as fast as his legs could carry him; and he was but an ordinary squirrel, too – doubtless no philosopher of his race. The youth wended, feeling that Nature was of his mind. She re-enforced his argument (7.15).

Henry is right; it is natural to run away. His justification for fighting at the end of the novel, then, has to transcend this reasoning.

Quote #8

His fingers twined nervously about his rifle. He wished that it was an engine of annihilating power. He felt that he and his companions were being taunted and derided from sincere convictions that they were poor and puny. His knowledge of his inability to take vengeance for it made his rage into a dark and stormy specter, that possessed him and made him dream of abominable cruelties. The tormentors were flies sucking insolently at his blood, and he thought that he would have given his life for a revenge of seeing their faces in pitiful plights (17.6).

Henry takes issue with his insignificance in a large and fierce world. The realization that he is just one man, "poor and puny," is a horrifying thought for a guy facing death.

Quote #9

Over the river a golden ray of sun came through the hosts of leaden rain clouds (24.34).

We’ve talked about Henry’s discovery of the indifference of nature to the events of battle. It’s odd, then, that nature seems in tune with Henry’s revelation and transformation in the final line of the novel. What do you make of that?