Red Badge of Courage :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Red Badge of Courage takes place during the Civil war and begins with a soldier named Jim Conklin returning back to his regiment to inform them that they might go into battle any day now. The main character of the story Henry Fleming who was recently recruited in the 304th regiment begins to worry about how brave he really is since he has never really been in battle before. The main reason he joined the army was for the honor and glory that came after the battle but he never really analyzed what it took to gain all the glory and honor that he wanted to obtain.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The regiment marches for several days until they are finally faced with a real engagement by the enemy ( confederate soldiers). Henry is surrounded by his fellow union soldiers, so he begins to fire his gun as the other members of the regiments but ultimately he scared in the midst of battle. Eventually the union soldiers prevail over the confederate soldiers as the victors and begin to congratulate one another, shortly after Henry decides to take a nap. Henry is awaken by the sound of the confederate soldiers attacking his regiment and fear ceases him and causes him to run away from the battle. While walking across the fields Henry tries to reason with himself and convince himself that there was no way that his regiment could have won so he was right to run away and save himself, because staying would have been like committing suicide. After a while Henry encounters a commander talking to a general and overhears that his regiment was able to hold back the confed erate charge. This comment further depresses Henry but he still tries to console himself by holding on to the belief that all he did was preserve himself.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Shortly following that event Henry came across a group of wounded soldiers and decided to sneak into their line as an injured. He comes in contact with a proud soldier who talks about the courage of the soldiers in the army despite the injuries that he received which includes a bloody head and a broken arm. The wounded soldier goes on to ask Henry what kind of injuries has he acquired in battle; Henry frightened by the question hurries away toward the from of the line. Surprisingly Henry finds Jim Conklin in the line badly injured from the first battle that he endured.