Rating: 
Summary: The Thin Line Between Fear and Courage
Review: The Red Badge of Courage is an interesting story in many ways. The tale follows a young Union soldier named Henry Fleming for a day or two as he cuts his teeth in Civil War battle. Simple enough. But the intrigue is how author Stephen Crane--born nearly two decades after the war--could have written such an accurate-sounding depiction of battle. We read the book in present day with the benefit of having viewed countless images of Civil War battles in movies, television, and real-life reenactments, and after reading many books on the subject (i.e., The Killer Angels, The Last Full Measure, The Civil War, etc.). It's easy to forget that he didn't witness the war, nor had he witnessed any war at that point in his life. And publishing it in 1895, Crane never had the luxury of movies. Yet, Crane's account still rings true. The battle scenes come from a vivid imagination and, no doubt, newspaper articles and old photos. It is a commendable accomplishment that has stood the test of time.Another interesting aspect is that the book is not plot-based in the mold of a Dickens novel. It is essentially a "slice of life" piece. Crane drops us into the action just before Fleming faces his first battle. We aren't told where or when this battle takes place. We don't know who the senior commanders involved are or whether the scene is fact-based or total fiction. And it doesn't matter. The particulars on who's fighting, why they're fighting, and whether they're winning is immaterial to Crane. His focus is not on the glory or spectacle of war, nor the ultimate goals. His book is a study in fear and courage. Henry Fleming is scared to die. But he's more afraid that he'll panic and run, exposing cowardice. Death is not something the living can comprehend. Shame in the face of comrades is. There is also an interesting contrast between the gore of battle and Crane's poetic prose. Not a book that will change your life, but worth the quick read it presents. --Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of Wake Up Dead.
Rating: 
Summary: Another over-rated antiquity
Review: I had heard the praises of this book sung so many times, perhaps it was doomed to disappoint me. After wading through this convoluted and disorganized "classic", I was left with little but disbelief and a feeling of being cheated. Don't be mistaken; I understand that war in general (and in all likelihood civil wars more than any other) ARE convoluted and disorienting by nature. Nevertheless, this book utilizes disorganized, repetitive, and hollow sentences to describe, almost as if Crane were using the intrinsic qualities of the war itself as a crutch. I would only recommend this novel as a quick (couple of hours)route to teach readers to keep an open mind; that antiquated "popular" opinions should not be subscribed to blindly.
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Summary: May be Important, but it's not Great Literature
Review: I remember reading The Red Badge of Courage during my freshman year in high school and detesting it. At that time I read books only for their story content, and The Red Badge of Courage wasn't that interesting to me. Now that I read books on a little higher level, looking for what the author is saying behind the story, I thought that I might like The Red Badge of Courage a little better. It seems my first assessment on the novel was right on. The Red Badge of Courage is the story of Henry Fleming, a youth who fights during the Civil War. This novel concerns the battle of Chancellorsville. The novel gained fame for being the first realistic story to come out of the Civil War. Also, it is one of the first naturalistic novels. I have mainly two problems with the novel. The first is that it isn't an amazingly interesting story. Henry has a very weak character. The dialogue seems unrealistic, and while I tend to like fairly simple prose, I thought Crane's prose style at times dulled the novel. My other problem with The Red Badge of Courage is its anti-Christian connotations. The character Jim Conklin seems to become kind of a Christ-like figure (notice his initials and his wounds). Crane uses Jim's interaction with Henry to present his idea that man isn't redeemed by Christ. That and other harsh allusions to Christianity only demean the already flawed novel.
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Summary: Says a lot, but it is dense reading
Review: The Red Badge of Courage was written by Stephen Crane in 1895 and brought him great fame, although, unfortunately, he didn't enjoy it for very long, as he died five years later. This book was assigned reading for my English class. Crane is obviously a talented writer, and his ample writing skills bring color to the environment of this book, and his clever use of setting to convey the Youth's emotions is excellent and well implemented. It is one of the things that stood out to me while reading the book. Another is the rare use of proper nouns. Soldiers will be referred to by some characteristic or their rank, but rarely their name, e.g. "the young lieutenant," "the tattered soldier," etc. While this can make the story a bit harder to follow at certain junctures, it conveys how individuals are unimportant in war. The story itself is good: Henry "the Youth" (in more ways than one) has enlisted in the Union Army, and is torn between anxiety and nervousness about fighting. Although his first engagement seems to show that he will be alright, he runs, facing certain annhilation, at least in his perception. But his side turns out victorious, and Henry is in trouble. He eventually concocts a wild story and falls in with his comrades, on to fight again, to its final conclusion. This book is very slow reading, though it is small. It is difficult to read and digest. Crane's use of slang is certainly an artistic choice, and adds to authenticity but detracts from enjoyment as you need to analyze the context of misunderstood words. Throughout most of the book, Henry's arrogance is at a high level, and this is rather annoying as well. In conclusion, this book has a lot to say, but it is not light or easy reading. But if you can just get through it, it is one of the most honest and true war stories ever told.
Rating: 
Summary: Stephen Crane: The Red Badge of Courage, Decent
Review: The Red Badge of Courage was overall a good book, but it had its problems. It starts out with a young boy named Henry Fleming who wants to join the army against his mother's whishes. After some persuading he heads off in to a frightening new world. The book shows the horrors of war, and what men go through when going to war. I did enjoy this book because of its anti-war message. I think it clearly states what war can do to a person and how it is overall wrong. The descriptions of the battle scenes were excellently done and kept my attention. The battles were always action packed but Crane points out how it deeply affects Henry. It really shows the horror of war, and that helped me get through it. Otherwise the book was slow and sometimes boring. I found it somewhat repetitive and I wasn't able to keep my full attention on it. But the message overall was one that I enjoyed. It helped me get a perspective from a teenager in war and how it changed him, the different attitudes of men in war, and what the Civil War might have been like. It's a good book but has its dry moments. If you like reading novels that deal with war and its consequences then this is right for you. But its a little tough to read and can be boring, so it's not for everyone. But I think that everyone should read this book one time or another. It's an American classic that shows the reality of war. That was one of the few wars that actually happened on our ground. I would definitely suggest it for its anti-war message.
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Summary: The Red Wafer
Review: " The red sun, pasted in the sky like a wafer" The Red Badge of Courage continues to generate criticism on what war is all about. The Red Badge of Courage displays a view on what its like to go to war as a young boy. Henry decides to go off to war. Against his own mother's words. Henry thinks he can help with the war and become a hero. Henry gets a reality check as soon as he gets to the army. He is not as tough as he thinks he is. He starts to become very scared and sad. He now fears going into battle instead of wanting to challwenge his fighting skills he thinks he has. When Henry finally goes into battle, he is scared and wishes he never joined the army. He is seeing all his friends around him being killed and blood being shed. Henry becomes furious and scared and does not have a clue as to what's going on. He sees the enemy and all he can do is just fire his gun and run away, and hope everything is OK. After some time Henry starts to realize the meaning of life , and he starts to apperciate things much more. He realizes he can't run from everything. It was his choice to join the army. Henry starts to mature a little bit I think. As the war goes on. He starts to believe in himself and not worry about what others think. I think that this book is a good example of what a young boy acted like during this time period. As I continued to read on and come closer to the end, Things started to come together for Henry, As well as his regiment. Henry was not just some farm boy anymore, He was starting to become a man. I think that this book shows what going to war can do to anyones mind and body. As well has how they control there actions and the outcome of there actions.
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Summary: An Epic in a minute space
Review: I found the book "The Red Badge of Courage" quite impressive. I found it as a very interesting short novel. It was quite different from the long novels that i am used to reading. As many novels use many pages to convey its story and meaning, "The Red Badge of Courage" was able to do just that in such a small amount of space. The characters and dialogue were well thought out and vivid, creating an atmosphere in which you felt you were part of. The book conveyed the feeling of war and battle in a fashion i found very effective, as war is one of the things i am most interested in. The feeling of intense battle and warfare, with the bullets piercing the flesh of the soldiers whom destinies were carved by the guns of the enemies, was quite overwhelming at times, but created a brilliant atmosphere. I quite enjoyed the book as it was a nice read that didn't take too long, but was as effective as a full length novel.
Rating:
Summary: Not great
Review: This book has loads of potential, but it really did not capture the real feeling.What i found especially disapointing was that the main charachter just shoots a shot or two, cusses, shoots again, walks through the woods, sits down, thinks, sees some dead people,etc... Maybe I a exaggerating a bit, but thats how i felt. Not a great read with the small children book, but some good refrence material is present. Hope this is helpful
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Summary: the red bag of courage
Review: the book is very good i have read it the book is bast on hte
civle war of 1864 the regrmet is 304 (...)
Rating:
Summary: Not a Great Classic, but has thematic material.
Review: I found the slang speech of the characters to get annoying after a while and I found the author's narration to be dull, dry, and passive. The writing wasn't particularly good and neither was the plot. At first I thought the whole plot was pretty pointless, but that is partly the point of this book: to show the meaningless, as well as cruel nature of war. Henry initially enlists with the Union Army in the War Between the States with high hopes of glory only to find the life of a soldier boring and unrewarding. Neither Henry nor the other soldiers talk about why they want their side to win the war. Many of the soldiers in the War Between the States were comparatively ignorant of the politics and issues behind the war. When the Union soldiers encounter the Confederate soldiers, they find that the enemy has a lot in common with them- they are just ordinary men with a job to do. The soldiers in this book have a very limited scope of the battle as it is happening; they can only see how their own regiment is doing. Soldiers are given and follow orders, the reasons for which they don't understand. This book accurately and realistically portrays war. Henry realizes that "Nobody seems to know where we go or why we go." Another soldier stated, "There was shootin' here an' shootin' there an' hollerin' here an' hollerin' there in the damn darkness, until I couldn't tell t' save m' soul which side I was on." At the end of the novel, after two days of marching and bloodshed, Henry's regiment is ordered back to where it started, which conveys that all the previous struggles and deaths were for nothing. Specifically, this book makes a definite statement that war is pointless and chaotic. More generally, you could put an existential interpretation on it, extending the story to life, not just war. While part of a meaningless and cruel war that he doesn't understand, Henry manages to find his own meaning in it, from within himself. At the closing of the novel, Henry doesn't know whether the army has won the battle or if the battle is even over but he has been courageous and that's the best he can do. During grim battle, Henry is amazed to see a "blue pure sky and the sun gleaming on the trees and fields." This shows that the universe does not care about the desperation of the world. Henry is a small man trapped in a large army, which is in a even larger world. There's not much Henry can do, but he does what he can. That's his personal victory in the end- he copes as good as he can in a big, inhospitable world. Another theme is individualism -vs- conformity to the group. Crane has depersonalized the army and stressed that it is one coherent group, not a bunch of individuals. In the army, Henry and the other soldiers have been "welded into a common personality...dominated by a single desire." One effect of focus on the group is that the individual shrinks in importance. In joining the army, Henry became a small "part of a vast blue demonstration." Some critics have said the book promotes conformity to the group because Henry matures only when he does not run from battle and stays to fight with and for the army. But in being loyal to the group, Henry envies Jim, who because of his courage and loyalty dies in agony. In wanting to be in good standing in the army, Henry actually wants a wound, which he equates with courage. Being loyal to the army could get Henry killed at any time. The irony is that while Henry emerges from the story a victor, that battle (Chancellorsville) historically ended in a major defeat for the Union. There's definitely the issue of individualism versus conformity in this book, but I think it conveys the message that a certain degree of conformity is necessary in our society, but that it is detrimental to the individual.
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