The Red Badge of Courage

Rating:
Summary: The Red Badge of Boredom
Review: A Review by Taylor

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane is about young Henry Flemming, who joins the Union Army during the Civil War. He thought he would join the army, prove his courage and manhood, and return home honorably. But from the start of his first battle, he is confronted with all of his fears and inner conflicts. This book is mainly about the transformation Henry goes through, his courage and cowardice, his pride and self-pity as he fights in this country's bloodiest conflict of all time.

In my opinion, this book is horrible and extremely overrated. Crane usually identifies the characters using characteristics such as the youth, the tall soldier, and the bearded officer, which makes it difficult to follow and understand at times. The dialogue was also very difficult to understand. Crane really failed at his attempt to write dialogue in the way people talk, often overdoing accents. One example is in the twelfth chapter where a soldier said, "Thunder, I wish we was sure 'a findin' our reg'ments t'night. It's goin' t' be long huntin'. But I guess we kin do it." Dialogue like this is very common in the book and it makes it difficult to comprehend and take in. I sometimes had to stop and read a paragraph over again to understand what the person was saying. The One thing that I liked about the book is Crane's descriptions and metaphors. A good example of this is when he wrote, "The ground was cluttered with vines and bushes, and the trees grew close and spread out like bouquets...The creepers, catching against his legs, cried out harshly as their sprays were torn from the barks of trees." I generally liked his writing style, though I recall numerous times when his descriptions were rather dull and difficult to understand.

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone really. Unless you really like Civil War books or you are looking for something written in an interesting and different way, don't waste your time and/or money on this book.

Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: I have to read this book for school! I hate it! It is soo boring!

Rating:
Summary: Great for more than an easy book report
Review: While in junior high I failed to jump on The Red Badge of Courage bandwagon when everyone chose it as a book report book because of its length. I am sorry I missed out. The length certainly makes this book easy and accessible to people of all ages, but it is so much more. Not only is it very fast paced, unpredictable, and the best character study I've ever read, but it is timeless. It is about war, specifically the Civil War, but there are no politics or specifics about that war, it is about the emotions of a youth at war and the world through his eyes. There is no difference between what he is thinking as his regiment is charging and what a 20 year old in a modern war would feel. Though Crane had never seen a war before writing this book, he paints an incredibly powerful, honest, and realistic portrayal. It is a fantastic book and one that deserves a very careful, detailed reading, but can also be enjoyed and finished in a couple hours.

Rating:
Summary: Not great
Review: When I began to read this novel, I had expected Stephen Crane to take me into the Civil War completely. While he does provide ample imagery and creates a good setting, I felt that he was unable to capture my imagination and place me in the midst of the action. Henry, the main character, is delineated as a young boy that undergoes a transformation throughout the novel, but I was unable to identify with him. His thoughts and actions seemed unrealistic, perhaps because I could not view him as a human being, but rather as a fictional character. The novel itself is short, and fell beneath my expectations, however, it did provide for a decent read, and not difficult in the least bit. If you're looking to read a short novel about the Civil War and do not wish to get into the details of the war, but are rather interested in a soldier's perspective, (which is not too extensive either), then The Red Badge of Courage is a good choice.

Rating:
Summary: Classic? Not in my book...
Review: The Red Badge of Courage, written by Stephen Crane, for me, was not entertaining. I found myself lost in most parts of the book. Crane is a very talented writer, he is very descriptive in his works, but I just do not prefer his writing style. If you prefer hemmingway-straight and to the point, you won't enjoy Crane's writing. Stephen Crane spends a lot more slower pace on his point making. Usualy taking a page to explain one thing. Another interested fact that I saw in Crane's writing was that he doesn't name specificly his characters. Instead he will use a characteristic that they will go by through the whole book. Again, I thought this book was very boring, and found my self drifting away from it. Hope this helps.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good Book.
Review: I found this book about the civil war and easy to read because it was very interesting. The book was based a drummer named Henry Flemming, a young man who at the beginning is scared for his life, finds himself commanding a division of infantry with new friend Wilson. The tite Red Badge of Courage comes from a badge symbolizing bravery and courage. When Henrys best friend Jim Conklin dies, the war represents the enviroment is still moving even though he has died. After his death, Henry is confused and angry at his recent choices of running from the battlefront. He strived to be a hero, and thats what he did. This book's moral to me is to always keep your head up and do your best at everything you do. Some of the things that I didn't enjoy very much were that it didn't really tell the awful details of war, if the author is going to release a book out about war, it usually should tell people that war is not a good thing and teach people it is not something to wish for. It also only covered a time span of a few days, Quite a short period. Thankyou for your time.
-Bret

Rating:
Summary: Not great
Review: Stephen Crane never actually fought in battle in the civil war (I don't think he even visited a battlefield), and this novel reflects his personal inexperience. The book lacks comprehensive descriptions and relies too much on personificatin and ambiguity. The prose itself is mediocre and only detracts from the novel's themes.

Personally, I wouldn't suggest reading this book unless it is a class requirement. The novel's few moments of excitment are not displayed well at all. It is disappointing to say that the "Wishbone" version of The Red Badge of Courage was more interesting than the actual book. Truthfully, the only reason why I think that the novel is critically acclaimed is because there was a lack of literature focused on the civil war written during the time period.

Rating:
Summary: CONFUSING
Review: Red Badge of Courage was a very confusing book.
When I was reading it, Stephen Crane used so much personification
that it made my head hurt.Red Badge of Courage is about
a boy who goes off into trhe Civil War because of the excitement
that he sees in his town about the war. But, when he gets there
it's nothing that he thought it would be.This book is good but it's not great. Sometimes it will have you on the edge of your seat, and other times you will feel like not even reading it.

Rating:
Summary: The Red Badge of Courage
Review: I have Read many books in my life and I have been reading my whole life but the one book that is the best I have ever read is The Red Badge of Courage. the book is about A boy named Henry Fleming.The setting is a Cival War Regiment's camp. "Henry Fleming and tom Wilson exit their tent to the protests of Jim Conklin" Jim swears that they are going to move the next day. No one belived Jim and all the men ridiculed him.Eventuly the company moved, right into the middle of a battle. Every soldier wanted a red badge of courage but what most of them didn't know is that they needed to be wounded in battle. A red badge in a simple flesh wound. The reason I like this book is because it tells a historic/fiction tale. Steven Crane is well Known for bieng a realist. Realists tell stoies in a way that is realistic.I have read many Steven Crane books but there are many other books by him I have to read io have read them all

Rating:
Summary: A Tale of Courage
Review: The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane is a magnificent novel that shows the depth of bravery and triumph. It has been one of my favorite's novels since it gives me hope about my life since it is an epic tale of a boy entering manhood and how he deals with his cowardice and then his turn point in life when he thinks of himself as a hero. But it is more than that it explains how life was back then and how America was torn apart by a Civil War and how they had to live with it.

Henry was a boy who always wanted to experience the glory of heroism of war. So he volunteered just like so many other men and boys since they thought it was the right thing to do or if they were bored or tired of a farmer's life. But really it explains to us about the patriotism and how America was torn apart by slavery and than brought it self together over a terrible war. But the battle Henry fought in would change his perspective on life forever.

He saw men dying all around him. They were screaming and running away and being blown to pieces by cannon fire. Henry thought he did the only sensible thing he could think of at the time he ran away, like a coward. He ran away from the gunfire until he couldn't hear it no more. He thought of himself as a coward and couldn't even think of facing his comrades knowing that he ran from the battle. So Henry thought that he could come up with an idea that he got shot in the head. But he was still a bit spectacle that his friends or troops might not believe him. I know that what Henry did was an act of cowardice, but he thought he would have been killed. He saw men all around him being killed and saw men running away from the battle. He thought it was the best thing to do at the time. Though he would be in regret for the rest of his life and also he would never forgive himself for abandoning his comrades in the heat of battle.

He would half to find his regiment before he fed them the story. He wandered all around until he met a wandering stranger who said he would help him find his regiment. Henry was so ashamed of what he did to his regiment he couldn't even look the man in the face. Until the stranger who led Henry through the night pointed him toward his regiment. Henry rushed quickly toward his regiment to meet his friends and allies. So Henry told them the story and on a chance of luck they believed him and then he heard that they would march into battle the next morning. He hoped that he could only get killed in the next engagement and maybe proves to his friends that he was not a coward, but maybe a hero.

I think this part of the story is the best part because this is a real importance in Henry's life since it is dealing with if he can live to his boyish hood dreams and prove to his regiment that he is not a coward but a hero. Also he will either die in the next battle or live through another day. That might be a good or bad for Henry it is just depending on his actions or bravery in it.

The regiment set up a line of defenses and was awaiting the rebel advance on them. In early morning they dug fox holes out along the line. Then all of the sudden the rebels charged! Henry didn't act like a coward. He fired his weapon so many times that the barrel was steaming hot and that one of the officers said that if he had an entire regiment of men like him he could end the whole war in a month. But that wasn't the end of Henry's heroism, the regiment was ordered to charge with Henry leading them all the way until he was face to face with the barrier of the enemy's confederate flag. Henry had the Union flag and then the barrier fell and the remaining soldiers surrendered to the Union. Then Henry's regiment marched onto fight another battle, but where would it stop?

This novel was a great story since it explained all the pressures of the civil war that a regular soldier experienced on a battlefield. Also that it would explain that bravery in a story is not always revealed at the beginning but it could be in any part of the story. That is why it is such a great story it is explaining The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane is a tale of heroism and should be considered to be one of the greatest books ever written. But where did Henry Flemming get his red badge of courage, he wasn't wounded.